What are business associations asking the Chancellor for?
Budget submissions and public statements from business bodies, and individual companies in one place. See which asks come up most often, look up any organisation, and go straight to the original source.
- asks recorded
- 385
- organisations and coalitions
- 66
- common asks
- 18
Last updated:
Sir William Beveridge named his five giant evils 84 years ago to build a better world after the war. If we want to continue to make progress, if we want to ensure that the younger generation has a fair chance, we need to cut down to size the new malevolent giants — neglect, gridlock, discouragement, myopia and powerlessness — which are holding us back.
The Five Giants holding back growth
Choose a Giant to filter the asks below
What business is asking for
The 10 biggest asks
Ranked by how many organisations make them.
Each ask shows how far Budget 2026 went to meet it. For the Alliance's full analysis, sign up here (opens in a new tab)
Cut or reform business rates
Lower multipliers, freeze increases or redesign the system so it stops penalising investment in premises, plant and infrastructure.
In Budget 2026Some progress
Small business rate relief threshold raised from £12,000 to £18,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure, with a real-terms rates freeze for the rest of those sectors for two years. No cut or wider reform for other sectors.
Budget 2026 document (opens in a new tab)Deliver a business rates system that supports high street businesses, and extend the targeted rates support currently available to parts of hospitality to other tourism-related businesses where appropriate.
·Source for Deliver a business rates system that supports high street travel businesses (opens in a new tab)·ACS asks for the retail, hospitality and leisure business rates multipliers to be set at the full 20p below the standard and small business multipliers.
·Source for Set the retail, hospitality and leisure multipliers at the full 20p discount (opens in a new tab)·The BBPA asks the government to deliver permanent business rates reform for the sector at the Budget.
·Source for Deliver permanent business rates reform (opens in a new tab)·Lower all business rates multipliers by at least 1 percentage point, and ideally by 2, at this Budget as a first step towards fuller reform. BCC says each point costs just under £820m in England.
·Source for Cut business rates multipliers now (opens in a new tab)·Bira asks for a return to the 75% business rates discount for retailers, capped at £110,000, and for no independent retailer to face a higher rates bill next year. It also wants more meaningful long-term reform of the system.
·Source for Return to the 75% business rates discount and protect retailers from higher bills (opens in a new tab)·The BRC asks the government to freeze the inflation-linked uprating of business rates at this Budget.
·Source for Freeze the CPI-linked increase in business rates (opens in a new tab)·The CBI asks the government to end piecemeal and sectoral changes to business rates and set out a clear path towards structural reform, based on the 2025 Business Rates and Investment Call for Evidence. It also wants the Budget to tackle the most damaging cliff edges and strengthen investment reliefs now.
·Source for Set a path to structural business rates reform (opens in a new tab)·Lower the multiplier to support store investment.
·Source for Permanently reduce retail rates (opens in a new tab)·FSB asks the Chancellor to raise the Small Business Rates Relief threshold to £25,000 at this month's Budget. It says this would take at least 250,000 more small businesses out of paying rates.
·Source for Raise the Small Business Rates Relief threshold to £25,000 (opens in a new tab)·Raise small-business relief thresholds; freeze inflation-linked retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier increases.
·Source for Ease retailers’ business rates (opens in a new tab)·Apply a one-year freeze in 2027/28 before wider structural reform.
·Source for Freeze the business-rates multiplier (opens in a new tab)·Reform business rates strategically rather than through repeated sector-specific reliefs and cliff edges.
·Source for Reform business rates strategically (opens in a new tab)·Lower the multiplier to 45p; adjust the higher-rate threshold for London.
·Source for Reform business rates (opens in a new tab)·Reform business rates to encourage investment in warehouses, freight infrastructure and supply-chain productivity.
·Source for Make rates support logistics investment (opens in a new tab)·Provide 100% transitional relief in 2026/27.
·Source for Increase manufacturers’ rates relief (opens in a new tab)·The Budget should deliver the root-and-branch business rates reform the government has promised, replacing a system the Chamber describes as complex and outdated.
·Source for Deliver the promised root-and-branch reform of business rates (opens in a new tab)·Do not further increase the higher multiplier for stores valued above £500,000.
·Source for Protect larger stores from rates hikes (opens in a new tab)·RE:UK asks the Government to meaningfully reduce the overall business rates burden, fix the tax rate to give predictability, extend Empty Property Relief to 12 months and halve the rate thereafter, and reverse the high-value property multiplier.
·Source for Reform business rates: cut the burden, fix the rate and extend Empty Property Relief (opens in a new tab)·The Tourism Alliance asks for a full overhaul of business rates rather than further sector-by-sector reviews, and for the retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier discount to move towards 20p and be extended across the wider visitor economy, including zoos, heritage railways, attractions and accommodation.
·Source for A root-and-branch overhaul of business rates, with a deeper RHL discount extended across the visitor economy (opens in a new tab)·Make rates on productive infrastructure more proportionate and predictable to support private investment.
·Source for Reform infrastructure business rates (opens in a new tab)·Move the retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier discount towards 20p, remove hospitality’s surcharge above £500,000 rateable value, and offer hotels and others hardest hit by revaluation a 20% discount.
·Source for Ease hospitality business rates (opens in a new tab)·Exempt food depots from higher warehouse rates; provide equivalent relief and multi-year certainty.
·Source for Protect essential wholesale depots (opens in a new tab)·Search all
Showing 385 asks
- · Budget submission
Cut business rates multipliers now
Lower all business rates multipliers by at least 1 percentage point, and ideally by 2, at this Budget as a first step towards fuller reform. BCC says each point costs just under £820m in England.
Business rates and premisesDiscouragementOrganisation and sourceBudget submissionGiantDiscouragement - · Budget submission
Reform business rates once and for all
Work towards a single 40p business rates multiplier for all businesses, which BCC estimates would cost £5.59bn a year, as part of fundamental reform of the system.
Business rates and premisesDiscouragementOrganisation and sourceBudget submissionGiantDiscouragement - · Budget submission
Reform business rates strategically
Reform business rates strategically rather than through repeated sector-specific reliefs and cliff edges.
Business rates and premisesDiscouragementOrganisation and sourceBudget submissionGiantDiscouragement - · Budget submission
Freeze the business-rates multiplier
Apply a one-year freeze in 2027/28 before wider structural reform.
Business rates and premisesDiscouragementOrganisation and sourceBudget submissionGiantDiscouragement - · Budget submission
Increase manufacturers’ rates relief
Provide 100% transitional relief in 2026/27.
Business rates and premisesDiscouragementOrganisation and sourceBudget submissionGiantDiscouragement - · Budget submission
Reform business rates
Reduce the system’s penalties on investment in buildings, plant and machinery.
Business rates and premisesDiscouragementNeglect (secondary)Organisation and sourceBudget submissionGiantDiscouragementNeglect (secondary) - · Budget submission
Ease hospitality business rates
Move the retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier discount towards 20p, remove hospitality’s surcharge above £500,000 rateable value, and offer hotels and others hardest hit by revaluation a 20% discount.
Business rates and premisesDiscouragementOrganisation and sourceBudget submissionGiantDiscouragement - · Budget submission
Make rates support logistics investment
Reform business rates to encourage investment in warehouses, freight infrastructure and supply-chain productivity.
Business rates and premisesDiscouragementNeglect (secondary)Organisation and sourceBudget submissionGiantDiscouragementNeglect (secondary) - · Budget submission
Reform business rates
Lower the multiplier to 45p; adjust the higher-rate threshold for London.
Business rates and premisesDiscouragementOrganisation and sourceBudget submissionGiantDiscouragement - · Budget submission
Ease retailers’ business rates
Raise small-business relief thresholds; freeze inflation-linked retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier increases.
Business rates and premisesDiscouragementOrganisation and sourceBudget submissionGiantDiscouragement