Question 1: Minimum Wage
The UK’s minimum wage will rise from April 2026, with the National Living Wage for ages 21+ increasing from £12.21 to £12.71 an hour. Younger workers will see larger percentage increases: those aged 18–20 will rise from £10.00 to £10.85, and 16–17-year-olds (and many apprentices) will move up to £8.00.
While this is positive news for workers, it does mean higher wage costs and potentially more pressure on margins, pricing or staffing levels. We’re asking how you expect this change to influence your personnel planning for 2026.
Question 2: Business Rates
Under the previous system, Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) properties – including shops, pubs and leisure venues – received a 40% business-rates relief, subject to a cash cap per business for 2025–26. The government has chosen not to withdraw this support immediately; instead, it has extended the 40% discount for 2025–26 and frozen the small-business multiplier to prevent a sharp rise in bills.
From 1 April 2026, however, this temporary relief will be replaced with a new structure of permanently lower business-rates multipliers for RHL properties with rateable values below £500,000. This marks a shift away from short-term discounts toward structural tax reduction.
Under the new system, eligible RHL properties will benefit from reduced multipliers:
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the smallest premises will pay a small business RHL multiplier of 38.2p in the pound, and
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properties with rateable values up to £500,000 will pay a standard RHL multiplier of 43.0p.
The government describes this as a significant long-term tax cut expected to support more than 750,000 RHL properties across England. To help fund the reform, the highest-value properties – roughly the top 1% with rateable values of £500,000 or more – will face a higher “high-value” multiplier. In short, larger sites will contribute more, while small and mid-sized businesses benefit from lower ongoing rates.
In our survey, we ask whether, once you consider both the new multipliers and the updated rateable valuations, your business-rates bill is likely to increase, stay the same or decrease.
Question 3: December Trading
Finally, we’d like to get a sense of how trading has been over October and November. From the members we’ve spoken to so far, the response has generally been positive, but we’d like a clearer overall picture. Please take the survey to let us know how trading for your business compares with October/November last year.
