England’s 296 billing authorities hold 2,013,470 rateable business properties. At the 2026 revaluation their combined rateable value rose 19.6%, from £68.44 billion on the 2023 list to £81.84 billion on the 2026 list, an increase of £13.4 billion. Every sector rose, but not evenly: the increase was concentrated in other commercial uses and industrial property, and no council’s total rateable value fell.
Other commercial uses and industrial property led
Other commercial uses rose most, up 28.5%, adding around £5.7 billion, 42.9% of the national increase. Industrial property rose 21.4%, adding around £4.0 billion. Offices rose 14.6%, adding around £2.3 billion, and retail rose 10.0%, adding around £1.4 billion, the smallest increase of the four.
The rise is close to universal. Industrial and office values rose in every one of the 296 councils and other commercial values in 294 of them. Retail values rose in 284 councils and fell in 12. The balance of the tax base shifted accordingly: retail’s share of England’s rateable value fell from 20.5% on the 2023 list to 18.9% on the 2026 list, while other commercial uses rose from 29.5% to 31.7%.
Winners and losers
No council’s total rateable value fell. 63 councils saw their total rise faster than the England average, and 6 by more than 30%. The largest increases were Hillingdon (up 101.9%), Crawley (up 85.8%) and Dover (up 75.9%). At the other end, the smallest were Three Rivers and Spelthorne (both up 4.9%) and Reading (up 9.6%).
By region, London rose most (up 22.5%) and the East Midlands least (up 16.4%). All nine regions rose by between 16.4% and 22.5%, a spread of 6.1 percentage points.
The regional picture
Average rateable value at March 2026 ranges from £64,921 per property in London to £23,944 in the South West. After London, the South East (£35,296) is the only region above the England average of £33,990. The sector mix differs just as sharply: industrial property makes up 44.2% of rateable value in the East Midlands, while offices make up 45.4% in London. At the revaluation, retail rose in every region, from 3.1% in the North East to 13.6% in London, and industrial rose in every region, from 18.7% in the South West to 24.7% in the North West. The largest sector rise in any region was other commercial uses in London, up 44.5%.
The London premium
London is in a category of its own. Its average rateable value per property, £64,921, is 2.30 times the average for the rest of England (£28,274). The capital holds 15.6% of England’s rateable properties but 29.8% of its total rateable value, and 59.0% of all office rateable value in the country.
The £500,000 club
The same concentration shows at the very top of the market. At March 2026, just 16,900 properties, 0.8% of the total, had a rateable value of £500,000 or more, and the 2026 list puts the figure at around 20,950, about 24% more. Of the March 2026 total, 6,160 (36.4%) are in London, and two councils alone, Westminster (1,700) and the City of London (1,080), account for 16.4%. Outside the capital, Birmingham has the most, with 250.
Where the value sits
Rateable value is concentrated geographically as well as by size of property. The ten councils with the highest total rateable value at March 2026, led by Westminster (£4.65 billion), the City of London (£2.67 billion) and Camden (£1.53 billion), hold 22.5% of England’s total from 11.4% of its properties. Westminster and the City of London together account for 10.7% of the national total from 2.6% of properties. By contrast, the 100 councils with the smallest totals hold 11.9% between them.
A note on averages
The averages in this report are means: total rateable value divided by the number of properties. A small number of very high-value locations pull them upwards. The City of London’s average (£151,053) is 17 times that of the Isles of Scilly (£8,791), the lowest in England. Excluding Westminster and the City of London alone lowers the England average from £33,990 to £31,178, and London’s from £64,921 to £50,100, though that is still 1.77 times the rest of England. Only 103 of the 296 councils have an average above the England figure.
What it means for ratepayers
The headline 19.6% rise tells any individual business very little. Other commercial property in London rose 44.5% in total rateable value; retail in the North East rose 3.1%. What matters is the specific property: its use, its location and the evidence behind its valuation. The regional pages break these figures down for each of England’s nine regions, and our free eligibility check shows whether an individual property may be worth reviewing.
Figures: counts and rateable values are from the stock of properties at March 2026, on the 2023 rating list. Changes are from the 2026 revaluation, comparing the 2023 rating list with the 2026 rating list. Changes in pounds are the difference between the two lists’ published totals.
Source: HM Revenue & Customs, using Valuation Office Agency data: ‘Non-domestic rating: stock of properties, March 2026’ and ‘Non-domestic rating: change in rateable value of rating lists, England and Wales, 2026 Revaluation (compiled list)’ — Open Government Licence v3.0