Are you overpaying business rates in 2026?

The April 2026 revaluation has reset rateable values for over two million commercial properties across England and Wales. For many occupiers, that means a significantly higher rates bill. But a higher bill does not automatically mean a correct one.

Rateable values are estimates. The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) has to assess millions of properties using market evidence from April 2024, and they get a proportion of them wrong - sometimes by a meaningful amount. If your property has been overvalued relative to what a tenant would genuinely have paid to rent it at that date, you may be paying more than you should.

How your 2026 bill is calculated

Your annual rates bill is your rateable value multiplied by the relevant 2026/27 multiplier. From April 2026, there are now five multipliers in England rather than the previous two:

So if your office has a rateable value of £20,000, your gross annual bill would be around £8,640. If that £20,000 is too high by even 20%, you are overpaying by £1,728 a year — every year until the next revaluation.

How to check if your rateable value looks right

Start at the VOA's online service: Find a business rates valuation. Enter your property address and you will see your current rateable value and the comparable evidence used to support it.

The key question to ask is whether your rateable value reflects what a tenant would reasonably have paid to rent your property at April 2024 on a fully repairing and insuring lease. Things that might suggest your value is too high include:

• Your property is in a worse location, condition or configuration than comparable properties used by the VOA
• Your actual rent at April 2024 was lower than the VOA's assessment suggests
• The VOA has used evidence from a different type of property or a different market
• Your property has physical characteristics that reduce its appeal - poor access, awkward layout, low eaves height, limited parking

You can also look at what neighbouring businesses with similar properties are paying, though rateable values are not always straightforward to compare directly.

What can actually be challenged

You can challenge your rateable value on the basis that it was incorrect at the effective date of the list (1 April 2026), or that there has been a material change of circumstance since then.

The most common grounds for challenge are that the VOA has simply valued the property too high relative to the market evidence, or has used flawed or unrepresentative comparisons.

You cannot challenge simply because your bill has gone up. The question is whether the rateable value itself is accurate.

Small businesses may have even more to gain

If your rateable value falls below £15,000 and you occupy only one property, you may be entitled to Small Business Rate Relief - up to 100% relief for properties valued at £12,000 or below, tapering to nothing at £15,000.

This means that a successful challenge which brings a rateable value down from £14,000 to £11,500, for example, could reduce your rates bill from around £3,200 to zero. The financial impact of a reduction near these thresholds can be disproportionately large.

Getting it checked

Reviewing a rateable value properly requires access to comparable rental evidence and an understanding of how the VOA approaches different property types and locations. Most occupiers do not have that knowledge in-house, which is where a specialist rating surveyor can make a significant difference.

At Rating Matters, we connect commercial occupiers with experienced rating specialists who assess whether a challenge is worth pursuing and handle the process on your behalf. There is no fee unless your bill is reduced.

Use our free savings calculator to get an estimate of what a successful challenge could mean for your business, or contact us to find out more.

Rating Matters connects commercial occupiers with specialist rating surveyors across the UK. This article is for general information only and does not constitute professional rating advice.