Council Tax
The Government is aware that Council Tax falls disproportionately on those living in less expensive properties, and it was suggested that ‘a typical family home across England currently pays more per year than a £10million property in Mayfair’.
As a result of this, for the most expensive properties in England, a new High Value Council Tax Surcharge (HVCTS) is to be introduced from April 2028, where residential properties are worth more than £2million. These charges will be assessed on property owners rather than the occupiers and is expected to impact on less than 1% of residential properties.
The HVCTS will start at £2,500 per year for residential properties valued at over £2million, increasing to £7,500 for residential properties valued at over £5million.
Business Rates
The Government is committed to supporting the retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) industry and in order to do this, from April 2026, they are introducing two permanently lower business rates multipliers for RHL properties with rateable values of less than £500,000.
This measure is expected to benefit over 750,000 RHL properties, including shops and pubs and aims to support the high street. This is to be funded by increasing the business rates for properties with rateable values of over £500,000 (the top 1%).
The Government estimates that over 50% of ratepayers will see no increase in their business rates, with 23% seeing their bills going down. For ratepayers seeing an increase, there will be new support packages available, which include ‘Transitional Relief’ and the ‘Small Business’ schemes.
The Small Business Rates Relief grace period is to be extended from one year to three years, and is expected to support businesses expanding into a second property and will be eligible from today.
The Government is also introducing a 10-year 100% business rates relief for electric vehicle only forecourts.
Please click here to go back to our full Autumn Budget 2025 analysis.
