Aug 27, 2026 · 49 min · 11 segments
**Business rates have long been blamed for the decline of Britain’s high streets. Shops and pubs face large bills, while online retailers can operate from cheaper out-of-town warehouses. So surely…
Stuart AdamGuestBen ZarankoGuestSo I think for most people, unless they're running a business, they'll have no direct experience with business rates, so we should probably start with a kind of a quick fire round on what they are and how they work.
Business rates are a tax on the value of business property, so it's a bit like council tax, but for businesses.
Um, it's levied as a percentage of what the government estimates the market rental value of the property will be, which it updates the estimate of that value every few years, and then the business pays a tax on that value every year.
And the tax rate in this context is called a multiplier, fun fact for you, um, gives a sense of the size of the tax.
Um, it's kind of actually just changed a bit recently, um, but more importantly, it varies.
Um, business rates is also a devolved tax, so it's different in Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland.
We'll come back to, as Stuart said, the fil- lots of businesses don't pay like that rate, but that's why it's, it's a big deal for businesses because some of them are really handy, have big chunks of money.
So I think for most people, unless they're running a business, they'll have no direct experience with business rates, so we should probably start with a kind of a quick fire round on what they are and how they work.
Business rates are a tax on the value of business property, so it's a bit like council tax, but for businesses.
Um, it's levied as a percentage of what the government estimates the market rental value of the property will be, which it updates the estimate of that value every few years, and then the business pays a tax on that value every year.
And the tax rate in this context is called a multiplier, fun fact for you, um, gives a sense of the size of the tax.
Um, it's kind of actually just changed a bit recently, um, but more importantly, it varies.
Um, business rates is also a devolved tax, so it's different in Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland.
We'll come back to, as Stuart said, the fil- lots of businesses don't pay like that rate, but that's why it's, it's a big deal for businesses because some of them are really handy, have big chunks of money.
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