Business Rates and the High Street: Why Independent Bookshops Want the Relief Pubs Got

Updated Oct 2026: this editorial has been rewritten and now cites its sources.

Independent bookshops in England spent much of 2026 arguing that the business rates system treats them unfairly. The government cut rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues, but not for bookshops. Booksellers, authors and the trade press campaigned for equal treatment in the run-up to the autumn budget, and the budget in late October 2026 left many of them disappointed. This editorial sets out what happened, what the documented figures show about the pressure on individual shops, and why the case for relief deserves a fuller hearing.

The decision that started the campaign

In July 2026 the government announced plans for a 20% reduction in business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues from April 2027. The Bookseller reported that the discount is expected to benefit nearly 32,000 pubs, clubs and live-music venues, which the government described as "at the heart of communities across the UK."

Bookshops were left out. Research commissioned by the Booksellers Association (BA) had already warned in February that independent bookshops in England faced business rates increases of up to 100% under the government's reforms. On 29 July The Bookseller reported that the BA had called on the government to cut business rates for bookshops.

Booksellers and authors respond

The campaign gathered support over the summer. The Guardian reported in August that 234 independent booksellers had signed an open letter organized by the BA, calling on the prime minister, Andy Burnham, and the chancellor to give bookshops the same consideration as other businesses that play a significant, positive role in their communities. Authors including Maggie O'Farrell, Philip Pullman, Katherine Rundell and Elif Shafak backed the campaign, and more than a dozen authors told the BA that they supported the letter, among them children's laureate Patrice Lawrence, Adam Kay, Lemn Sissay, Anthony Horowitz, Patrick Ness and Rachel Joyce.

In September the BA stepped up its campaign with new YouGov polling ahead of the budget. The Bookseller and its sister title The Stage then sent an open letter of their own to the prime minister, calling for urgent action on business rates to protect bookshops and theaters. Meryl Halls, managing director of the BA, has called on the government to recognize the value that bookshops add to the high street.

What the bills look like

The Bookseller's reporting offers a concrete picture of the pressure on individual shops. Chris Wright, co-owner of Pritchards Bookshop in Liverpool, said the changes and a revaluation had raised the shop's annual rates from £2,400 two years earlier to £7,200 in 2026, and that he expected the bill to exceed £9,000 by 2028-29, nearly four times its 2023 level. He said the shop would need to sell an additional £1,000 worth of books a month to keep pace, and that the increase meant it could no longer hire another member of staff and would have to scale back events, including reading events for children. He called that a "kick in the teeth" during the National Year of Reading.

The burden also shapes decisions about opening new shops. One online bookshop owner told The Bookseller that the viability of opening a bricks-and-mortar shop was "completely undermined" by business rates. Jack Campey, owner of the specialist bookshop Fourth Wall, told The Bookseller that he chose to open online first because a physical shop would have "potentially rinsed the company of much needed cash that could otherwise have been invested in advertising, staff, stock and growing the business." He added that independent bookshops "operate on very tight margins, which makes any additional or tax increase, extremely difficult to absorb."

The government's position

The government has defended its approach. According to The Bookseller, it said the new rates "provide nearly £1bn per year of support and benefit over 750,000 properties," alongside a support package worth £4.3bn "to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills because of the 2026 revaluation."

That is a substantial package, and bookshops do benefit from parts of it. As the Guardian reported, the Treasury has argued that "bookshops already receive support through permanently lower business rates multipliers and a £4.3bn package" intended to limit increases in bills. The disagreement is therefore narrower: whether bookshops, like pubs and music venues, should receive targeted relief because of the role they play on the high street.

The budget

For now, the answer is largely no. On 29 October The Bookseller reported that a number of bookshops across England had expressed disappointment with the business rates changes set out in the budget, while welcoming the limited relief it contained.

The case for relief

The argument for including bookshops rests on the same reasoning the government applied to pubs. Ministers described pubs and music venues as being at the heart of their communities. The Guardian's report conveyed booksellers' view of bookshops as the "beating hearts" of high streets, and the evidence gathered by the campaign shows that rate rises are already affecting events, staffing and decisions to open new shops.

There are reasonable counterarguments. Any targeted relief carries a cost, and every sector can make a case for special treatment. But the comparison the booksellers draw is a specific one: the government has already accepted that community value can justify a rates discount. The question is whether that principle should stop at pubs.

What comes next

The BA has assembled a coalition of more than 200 shops and a long list of prominent authors, and it has documented the effect of rising bills on individual businesses. The next step is for the government either to explain clearly why the community-value argument applies to pubs and music venues but not to bookshops, or to reconsider its position.