Cllr Richard Millard has written to John Healey asking him to pull 20% rates relief forward to 2026-27. It would cover 155 pubs and bars across the district.
The leader of East Hampshire District Council has written to the Chancellor asking him to double the business rates relief going to pubs next year. Councillor Richard Millard wants the 20% relief already announced for 2027-28 brought forward to 2026-27, on top of the 15% relief that starts this year.
The letter is dated Friday 7 August. The council published it, and a press release about it, on 17 August.
What the letter actually asks for
Cllr Millard’s letter to the Chancellor makes two asks of John Healey:
- Bring the 20% business rates relief forward from 2027-28 to 2026-27, so that pubs and live music venues get it alongside the 15% already announced. He describes the effect as “a business rate reduction of 35% over the next 3 years”.
- Cut hospitality VAT from 20% to 10%, which he says would tax the industry “fairly and in line with Europe”. He is backing an existing national campaign rather than starting one.
The trigger is the three-yearly business rates revaluation. Millard says retail, hospitality and leisure have been “disproportionately affected” by it, on top of rising costs. He wrote to Rachel Reeves earlier this year, when she was Chancellor, making the same argument about the revaluation.
He is explicit that this is not a complete fix. The measures “should be seen as a start”, he writes, and “much more needs to be done to reduce the financial burden on local businesses”.
How many local businesses this covers
The letter and the press release both talk about pubs and live music venues without saying how many there are here. The council’s own food hygiene register answers that. East Hampshire District Council currently has 155 premises registered as a pub, bar or nightclub, out of 1,094 food businesses in the district.
| Postal town | Premises |
|---|---|
| Alton | 48 |
| Petersfield | 34 |
| Bordon | 20 |
| Liss | 13 |
| Waterlooville | 11 |
| Hindhead | 8 |
| Liphook | 8 |
| Alresford | 5 |
| Rowlands Castle | 4 |
| Farnham | 4 |
Two notes on that table. Postal towns do not follow the district boundary, so the Waterlooville entries are premises in the Horndean and Clanfield end of East Hampshire, and the Hindhead ones are around Grayshott. And the register counts food premises, so a venue only appears once it is registered to serve food.
What the council can and cannot do
This distinction matters, because the press release does not draw it.
- The rate is set nationally. Multipliers and reliefs for pubs and live music venues are the Treasury’s decision, which is why the council is writing a letter rather than passing a policy.
- The council collects the money. East Hampshire bills and collects business rates, then keeps a share and passes the rest up. So it sees the local effect of a revaluation before almost anyone else.
- The revaluation itself is the Valuation Office Agency’s work. Rateable values are its assessment of annual rental value, not the council’s.
The letter carries no East Hampshire figures. There is no count of affected businesses, no local total for the rates increase and no example bill. That is the gap in it: the argument is made entirely in national terms, for a district where 155 premises are registered as a pub, bar or nightclub.
What it means for you
- If you run a pub or a bar here, nothing has changed yet. The 15% relief for 2026-27 stands. The extra 20% is a request, not a decision, and the Chancellor has not replied publicly.
- Check your rateable value rather than waiting. It drives the bill, and it is challengeable through the Valuation Office Agency.
- Small business rate relief is separate and already available, and is claimed from the district council rather than the Treasury.
- The next moment that matters is the Budget, because bringing relief forward a year is a Treasury decision that would be announced there.
- The pubs themselves are in our local business directory, and the planning applications behind changes of use are on our Petersfield planning page.
Sources
- East Hampshire District Council, “East Hampshire calls on Chancellor to help save local businesses from the brink”, published 17 August 2026, for the council’s summary of the asks and Cllr Millard’s quotes.
- Cllr Richard Millard’s letter to the Chancellor, dated Friday 7 August 2026, for the wording of both asks, the reference to the earlier letter to Rachel Reeves and the “35% over the next 3 years” figure.
- Food Standards Agency food hygiene register, East Hampshire District Council (authority 239), read 19 August 2026, for the 155 pub, bar and nightclub registrations, the 1,094 total and the breakdown by postal town.
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