UK Budget Sets Aside £15 Million for Children's Books and Widens Rates Relief for Small Shops

The UK government will put up to £5 million a year for three years toward giving books to pre-school children, Chancellor John Healey announced in the Autumn Budget on October 28. The same Budget raised business rates relief for small shops in England, a change that covers many independent bookshops but does not include relief aimed specifically at bookshops.

£15 million for early-years books

In the Commons, Healey said he was "announcing £15m for organisations like the Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and BookTrust who give books to children." The Budget 2026 document sets out the terms. It lists the money as "up to £5 million a year for three years from 2027-28" and ties it to the government's target that at least 75% of children reach a "good level of development" by 2028. In the Budget's policy costings table the measure is listed as funding "increased access to books for children aged 0 to 5."

The Treasury has not said how the money will be divided, whether it will go out by grant or contract, or which other organisations may qualify. No start date beyond the 2027-28 financial year has been given.

BookTrust said on Budget day that it welcomed the funding and the mention of its work in the speech. The charity runs the Bookstart programme and says it reaches 400,000 low-income families a year. It added that it was waiting for "the details of today's announcement."

Rates relief for small shops

The business rates package applies to retail, hospitality and leisure properties in England. From April 2027, the threshold for full Small Business Rates Relief rises from a rateable value of £12,000 to £18,000, and the tapered-relief threshold rises from £15,000 to £21,000. The Treasury estimates the change will take about 70,000 more high-street businesses out of business rates entirely.

Qualifying shops above those thresholds get a two-year real-terms freeze: rises in their bills will be capped at CPI inflation in 2027-28 and 2028-29. The freeze does not cover higher rateable values that result from improvements to a property. These details appear in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's October 28 letter to billing authorities, which also confirms an extra 20% relief for pubs and live music venues and removes some reliefs from vape shops and adult gaming centres.

Bookshops fall within the retail category, so a small shop with a rateable value under £18,000 would pay no business rates from April 2027. The Budget contains no relief aimed specifically at bookshops, a measure book-trade groups had campaigned for ahead of the statement. Larger shops above the new thresholds will see their bills held to inflation but not reduced.

What the Budget left out

The Budget document makes no mention of copyright or the use of creative works to train artificial intelligence. Authors' and publishers' groups have been pressing the government for decisions on that question.

Sources

• GOV.UK: Budget 2026 speech
• HM Treasury: Budget 2026 (PDF)
• MHCLG, October 28, 2026: Details of the Budget package and the multipliers for 2027/2028
• BookTrust, October 28, 2026: Budget 2026: BookTrust welcomes funding for early years reading

Photo: The HM Treasury building seen from Horse Guards Road, London. Photo by Robert Lamb, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.