Prime Minister Andy Burnham has signalled that the government wants to go further on business rates at the October Budget, while warning that limited fiscal room will constrain the scale of any additional support.
Burnham said the Budget, due on 28 October, would consider business rates more broadly after the government announced a 20% reduction for pubs, social clubs, and live music venues in England. That measure is due to take effect from April 2027, but his latest comments open the prospect of further changes beyond those sectors.
Speaking to BBC Radio’s Wake Up to Money programme, Burnham said: “I know the cost of doing business is too high, particularly for smaller businesses and I wouldn’t want to promise the earth and say all can be solved because I think people can see I’m facing a difficult financial outlook and I won’t bring forward things that I can’t fully fund.”
He added: “I’m signalling going further on business rates. So there are things that we can do, and we’ll do everything that is possible for us to do. But I think everyone knows that I’m in a position with limited room for manoeuvre.”
No further detail has been set out on eligibility, thresholds, timing, or the form that additional support could take. The government could extend sector-specific relief, alter parts of the wider rates system, or pursue other mechanisms, but those decisions will ultimately sit within the Treasury’s first full Budget under Burnham.
Business rates remain a particularly visible fixed cost for companies occupying commercial premises because liabilities do not move directly with short-term changes in sales or profitability. Retailers, hospitality operators, manufacturers, leisure businesses, and other premises-intensive companies can therefore continue to face sizeable property-related tax bills during weaker trading periods.
The exposure also varies sharply by sector, property type, location, and rateable value. A broader intervention would require ministers to decide whether support should be concentrated on businesses considered particularly vulnerable or spread across a larger commercial property base. The latter would increase the fiscal cost of any package.
The government’s earlier decision to cut bills for pubs, social clubs, and live music venues showed a preference for targeted support. Those sectors have faced pressure from property costs, energy bills, wages, consumer caution, and other operating expenses, while ministers have argued that they also contribute to the viability of high streets and local economies.
Smaller businesses are contending with a wider cost base that stretches well beyond property taxation. Payroll, energy, insurance, finance, rents, and supplier prices all influence margins, while demand remains uneven across consumer-facing sectors. Business rates relief can improve cash flow, but it does not remove those other pressures.
Burnham’s comments also come against a tighter fiscal backdrop. He and Chancellor John Healey have committed to maintaining the government’s fiscal rules, restricting the amount of additional borrowing available for new policies. The Prime Minister has repeatedly said that commitments will have to be funded rather than added without provision for their cost.
That constraint creates a direct trade-off between the breadth of business support and the revenue the Treasury must either find elsewhere or forgo. Targeted rates relief can concentrate the benefit and contain its cost, while structural changes affecting a larger group of ratepayers would require a materially larger fiscal allocation.
The government has used a series of relatively focused interventions during Burnham’s first weeks in office, including the rates reduction for hospitality and live venues, changes to electricity taxation, and a cap on bus fares. The October Budget will provide the first opportunity to set those measures within a broader economic and tax programme.
For companies, the next significant information will be the design rather than the political signal. Eligibility rules, the duration of relief, the treatment of different property values, and the interaction with existing rates arrangements will determine where any savings fall.
Until those details are published, Burnham’s intervention establishes that business rates remain under active consideration but does not quantify the support available. The Budget will determine whether the existing hospitality measure remains a targeted exception or becomes the first part of wider reform.
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