Government confirms business rate deal extends to stand-up venues

Comedy clubs will benefit from a new government business rates package, it has been confirmed, after an industry body queried their apparent exclusion.

Yesterday it was announced that pubs and music venues in England will be given a discount on bills after a backlash in hikes announced in November's Budget raised feats that thousands of hospitality businesses would go to the wall. 

Live comedy venues were not mentioned in the announcement – while theatre and festival sites were explicitly excluded – prompting the Live Comedy Association to contact officials to ask whether the sector would be included.

That led to a meeting with the Treasury today where confirmation was given that comedy clubs would benefit form the concession, which means a 15 per cent discount on business rates bills from April and no increases for two years

Jessica Toomey, co-chair of the LCA, said: ‘We are delighted to be able to pass this news onto our colleagues who own and run live comedy venues. We have been working enormously hard to get our sector included in government strategies and policies and think this is an enormous win for our sector.’

Mark Tughan, chief executive of the five Glee Clubs across the UK, said: ‘This is brilliant news and I’m hugely grateful to the LCA for quickly reacting to the news yesterday and getting clarification from government. It’s clear we need to work together as a sector and keep momentum building to get the recognition live comedy deserves.’

The association has spent the last 18 months lobbying to have live comedy recognised as a specific sector alongside other art forms. The campaign has included meetings in parliament with politicians and civil servants.

The business rates package is available to venues with ‘clubs and premises’ registration. Those which don’t have  that can  update their details with their local authority.

Announcing the package in the Commons, Treasury Minister Dan Tomlinson said the package would be worth £1,650 for the average pub in the next financial year. He added that said pubs are ‘the cornerstone of so many communities’ and the government wanted to ‘go further’ in supporting them after the number of venues fell by nearly 7,000 since 2010.

However, the relief has been criticised for not going far enough, with Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride describing  it as a ‘sticking plaster’  the measures would ‘only delay the pain for a while’.

Trade group UK Hospitality has warned that hotels, restaurants and other businesses in the sector are also at risk, calling for the support package to be widened. 

Published: 28 Jan 2026