Pubs and Live Music Venues relief
Eligible pubs and live music venues will benefit from a 15% business rates relief on top of the support announced at Budget 2025. The eligibility criteria are:
Pubs
a. is open to the general public
b. allows free entry other than when occasional entertainment is provided
c. allows drinking without requiring food to be consumed
d. permit drinks to be purchased at a bar
The meaning of pub does not include:
a. restaurants, cafes, nightclubs, snack bars
b. hotels, guesthouses, boarding houses
c. sporting venues
d. festival sites, theatres, cinemas
e. museums, exhibition halls
f. casinos
5. The exclusions in the list above is not exhaustive.
Live music venues
a. wholly or mainly used for the performance of live music for the purpose of entertaining an audience
b. can be used for other activities but only if those other activities are:
i. ancillary or incidental to the performance of live music (e.g. the sale of food or drink to audience members)
ii. Do not affect the primary use of the premises for the performance of live music (e.g. because the activities are infrequent such as use of the venue as a polling station or fortnightly community event)
- Properties are not a live music venue for the purpose of this relief if the property is wholly or mainly used as a nightclub or a theatre, for the purposes of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended).
- Where it is difficult to tell whether an activity is a performance of live music or, instead, the playing of recorded music, we will assess on a case by case basis with reference to Chapter 16 of the statutory guidance issued in April 2018 under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003.