Business rates are a tax on non-domestic properties — shops, offices, warehouses, pubs, salons, clinics, restaurants and more. Every business operating from a physical premises in England pays them.

The rateable value of each property is set by the Valuation Office Agency — an agency of HM Revenue and Customs — and represents an estimate of the annual rent the property could achieve on the open market on a fixed valuation date. Revaluations are carried out every three years. Your local council then multiplies that rateable value by a government-set multiplier to produce your annual bill. From April 2026 there are five new multipliers ranging from 38.2p in the pound for small retail, hospitality and leisure businesses up to 50.8p for the highest value properties.

The fundamental injustice:

Your rateable value is based on what your property could theoretically be rented for — not on what your business actually earns. Not on whether you are profitable. Not on whether your sector has been devastated by government legislation. Not on whether your footfall has collapsed, your sales have halved, or your entire customer base has been wiped out overnight by a government ban. The bill arrives regardless. Calculated on a theoretical property value. Completely disconnected from the reality of what is happening inside that building.

A shop paying £450 a month in rates that rises to £980 a month is not a shop that suddenly became twice as valuable. It is a shop being crushed by a system that bears no relation to what it earns.

A medical aesthetic clinic in Central London that has been trading since 2010, forced to relocate to a smaller premises and say goodbye to beloved staff members, is not a failing business. It is a thriving business being taxed out of existence.

A hairdressing salon in Knightsbridge — labour intensive, people-focused, built on skill and care — is being taxed and burdened like a high margin retail machine. The disconnect is the problem.

A business owner paying double digit thousands a month in business rates across multiple floors receives no waste collection, no parking, nothing in return. Just the bill.

A business in London facing £34,000 and £7,000 in rates across two sites — surrendering a lease just to survive. A pub whose staff watch prices sky rocket and wonder why no one can afford a pint anymore. Businesses told simply to become online stores — as if physical presence, local employment and community contribution count for nothing.

And then there are the businesses that never even opened. Entrepreneurs who had plans, leases ready to sign, business plans written — who looked at the numbers after a government budget and put those plans in the bin. Dreams that never became reality because the system made them impossible before they began.

The empty high streets and shopping centres tell this story better than any statistic.

Walk down any high street in England today. Count the empty units. Look at the shuttered shopfronts, the to let signs, the boarded windows where independent businesses used to trade. Visit a shopping centre built to serve a thriving community and count how many units now stand vacant — not because people stopped wanting to shop locally, but because the fixed cost of trading from a physical premises became incompatible with the reality of what those businesses earn.

Business rates, rising energy costs, increased National Insurance, rising wages and reduced relief schemes are stacking on top of each other simultaneously. Each one alone might be manageable. Together they are a perfect storm that is ending businesses that have traded for decades, employing local people, serving local communities, contributing to local economies.

The businesses that survive are increasingly those that do not need physical premises — the online retailers, the delivery platforms, the digital services with no high street presence and no rates bill proportionate to their revenue. The system does not tax success. It taxes presence. It taxes the decision to employ people locally, to occupy a building, to be visible and accessible to a community.

That is not a business rates system. That is a tax on the high street itself. And the high street is losing.

We are not alone. We are tens of thousands.

The comments, messages and responses from business owners across Britain tell one story — from Central London to Sheffield, from Derby to Knightsbridge, from pubs to clinics to salons to pet food shops to grooming businesses to crane operators. We are all telling the same story. We are all living the same reality. And we are all being ignored by a system that was designed for a property market that no longer reflects how business works in Britain in 2026.

One commenter said it plainly: we need to start a petition. So here it is.

We are demanding the government:

Reform the rateable value system so it reflects actual trading conditions and real business income — not theoretical property rental values set on a fixed date two years prior to taking effect
Introduce an automatic relief mechanism for businesses that suffer demonstrable and significant sales decline beyond their control — whether caused by government legislation, infrastructure disruption, economic downturn or national emergency.

Conduct an urgent independent review of the cumulative burden on small independent businesses — business rates, energy costs, National Insurance increases, reduced relief schemes and inflation are combining to make physical trading financially unviable for thousands of businesses across Britain
Make the Valuation Office Agency Check and Challenge process genuinely accessible and straightforward for small business owners — the current system is so complex and time-consuming that most businesses give up before completing it, leaving them paying rates on incorrect valuations indefinitely.

Move to annual rateable value assessments so that bills reflect current economic reality rather than market conditions from two years prior.

End backdated business rates recovery that stretches years into the past and destroys businesses that were trading in good faith — regardless of the circumstances that led to the liability
Level the playing field between physical retail and online retail so that those who employ people locally, occupy high streets and contribute to communities are not systematically disadvantaged against those who do not.

Guarantee that any business rates relief scheme announced by government is multi-year and permanent — not a cliff edge annual decision that creates uncertainty, prevents investment and leaves businesses unable to plan.

The British high street is not failing because small business owners are bad at business.

It is failing because the system taxes the building, not the business — and it refuses to acknowledge when the business inside that building is fighting for survival.

Every empty shopfront is a family that gave everything. Every shuttered unit is jobs that no longer exist. Every business that closes is a community that loses something it will not get back.

We have tried to absorb the costs. We have cut staff, reduced hours, stripped our businesses back to the bone and worked seven days a week trying to make the numbers add up. We cannot absorb any more.

Sign this petition. Share it with every business owner, every customer, every person who has ever walked down a high street and noticed it dying.

Because change only comes when the noise gets loud enough to be impossible to ignore.

And right now, across Britain, tens of thousands of us are finally making that noise together.