A business rates cut announced by the government in July 2026 will trim bills for pubs, clubs and live-music venues from April 2027 — but bookshops were left off the list, alongside theatres, even as the trade reports some of the steepest rises on the high street since the 2026 revaluation. For a bookshop already watching every margin, that gap matters.
What has actually changed
The 2026 business rates revaluation hit bookshops particularly hard. At Laurence Oxley, a bookshop that has traded in Alresford, Hampshire, since 1950, annual rates have climbed from £2,175 in 2021-22 to £7,747 today, with a further rise expected in April. In Liverpool, Pritchards Bookshop has seen its bill jump from £2,400 two years ago to £7,200 now, and it is projected to pass £9,000 by 2028-29 — enough that the shop needs to sell an extra £1,000 of stock a month just to stand still.
The Booksellers Association has put a number on the trend across the sector: it estimates independent English bookshops will need to sell 1,141 more books a year by 2029-30 purely to cover the rates increase, on top of normal trading costs. Trade publication The Bookseller, together with theatre title The Stage, has written jointly to Prime Minister Andy Burnham asking for bookshops and theatres to be added to the relief given to pubs and music venues. A petition backing the call has been signed by 234 booksellers and by authors including Maggie O’Farrell and Philip Pullman.
Why bookshops feel this more than most retailers
Books themselves are zero-rated for VAT, which helps keep cover prices competitive against online sellers — but it also means a bookshop has less room than most shops to absorb a fixed cost like rates out of margin. Rent, staffing and energy are already tight in an independent bookshop; a rates bill that triples in five years lands directly on the bottom line, not on a line item that can be passed on through pricing in the way VAT-rated goods sometimes can.
What this means if you run a bookshop
Whether or not the relief is extended, three things are worth doing now rather than waiting for the next revaluation notice to land:
- Check your rateable value is correct. Revaluations are based on estimated rental value, and errors do happen, particularly for older or oddly shaped premises. A formal check (or a Valuation Office Agency challenge) costs nothing but time.
- Ask about transitional relief and small business rates relief. Many councils phase in large increases rather than applying them in one jump, and small shops below certain rateable value thresholds can qualify for additional relief that is not applied automatically everywhere.
- Keep an eye on the campaign. The Bookseller‘s coverage of the joint letter with The Stage is the clearest public record of where the government stands, and it is the first place a change of policy would be reported.
None of this changes the arithmetic overnight, but a bookshop that has checked its valuation and claimed every relief it is entitled to is in a much stronger position if the rates bill keeps climbing than one that has not.
Looking for a bookshop to support in person? Independents in Westminster, on the Isle of Mull and in Royston are exactly the kind of shops this rates gap affects most — buying local is a direct way to help.
Source: The Bookseller.
