Treasury written question – answered at on 31 March 2026.
Luke Evans
Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary (Health and Social Care)
To ask the Chancellor of the exchequer, what recent discussions she has had with the leisure centre and gym sector on the impact of business rates on the financial sustainability of that sector.
Luke Evans
Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary (Health and Social Care)
To ask the Chancellor of the exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of business rates on the sustainability of the leisure centre and gym sector.
Luke Evans
Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary (Health and Social Care)
To ask the Chancellor of the exchequer, if she will have discussions with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on the impact of business rate costs on the ability of the gym and leisure centre sector to provide services for the health and wellbeing of communities.
Luke Evans
Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary (Health and Social Care)
To ask the Chancellor of the exchequer, if she will introduce updated guidance for the inclusion of community and independent gym and leisure facilities within RHL relief categories.
Dan Tomlinson
The Exchequer Secretary
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.
To respond to those who are seeing large increases, Government has already acted to limit increases in Bills, announcing a support package worth £4.3 billion package at the Budget.
The Government is also introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties.
The Government published information on the effects of the changes to business rates made at Budget 2025 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier#multipliers
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