Business rates for shops, pubs and theatres have been slashed in half for one year, the Chancellor announced.
In his 2021 Budget statement, Rishi Sunak said the 50% cut with a cap of £110,000 will be available for businesses hardest hit by the pandemic.
So pubs, music venues, cinemas, restaurants, hotels, theatres, gyms can claim a discount on their bills, but only for the next year.
Measures also included relief for those adopting solar panels and a 12-month rate holiday on property improvements.
It comes as part of Mr Sunak's promised to create a “new economy” based on high skills and wages following the pandemic.
“First, we will make the business rates system fairer and timelier with more frequent revaluations every three years. The new revaluation cycle will be delivered from 2023," Mr Sunak said.
“We’re introducing a new investment relief to encourage businesses to adopt green technologies like solar panels.
"And I’m announcing today that we’ll accept the CBI and the British Retail Consortium’s recommendation to introduce a new ‘business rates improvement relief’.
“From 2023, every single business will be able to make property improvements – and, for 12 months, pay no extra business rates.”
He claimed the wider reform of business rates will make the system “fairer and timelier” with revaluations carried out more frequently, every three years.
Other reforms to corporate taxes included slashing the surcharge on bank profits from 8% to 3%.
In other measures the Chancellor announced reforms to alcohol taxes from February 2023 with a 5% reduction in duty on draught products to help support pubs.
“That’s the biggest cut to cider duty since 1923. The biggest cut to fruit ciders in a generation. The biggest cut to beer duty for 50 years,” he said.
“It’s a long-term investment in British pubs of £100 million a year. And a permanent cut in the cost of a pint by 3p.”
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and 41 other leading trade groups had pressured the Chancellor to make major changes to the system, which taxes companies based on the premises they occupy.
The groups told Mr Sunak ahead of the Budget that decisions made this autumn would dictate Britain’s economic recovery from the pandemic and whether businesses could meet net zero targets.
Issuing the warning in a joint statement, they said: “If we as a country are to truly level up and meet our net zero commitments, leading by example in the year we host Cop26, then unleashing a wave of business investment should be the focus.”
