Pubs get another rates cut. Salons get nothing. Here is what actually needs to change.

Published 3 August 2026  ·  About 5 minutes to read  ·  The Nail Business Association

What was announced

The Prime Minister announced the cut on 23 July. It applies to around 32,000 pubs, clubs and music venues in England, and the Government says a typical pub will save about £1,100 a year.

The reason given: these are “the businesses that people want to see in their communities.”

Why that reason should bother you

Walk down any high street and count.

Personal care businesses, that is salons, barbers and beauty, make up 36% of all leisure amenities on UK high streets. There are far more of us than there are pubs.

The wider UK beauty and personal care industry, of which nails is one part, contributes £28.3 billion a year to the UK economy and employs almost 600,000 people (British Beauty Council, Value of Beauty). Most of those businesses, 86%, are owned by women. Nearly half operate in the most deprived parts of the country.

If the test is “businesses people want to see in their communities,” salons pass it every day of the week. People do not visit a salon once a month. Regular clients come every two to three weeks, and while they are there they use the cafe, the chemist and the shop next door.

Nobody is saying pubs should not get help. The question is why the businesses either side of the pub do not.

Who is already fighting this

Credit where it is due. This has not gone unchallenged.

The National Hair and Beauty Federation has asked the Government to extend the relief to hair and beauty businesses. The British Beauty Council called the exclusion “a slap in the face to our high streets.” Carolyn Harris MP, who chairs the parliamentary group for beauty, hair and wellbeing, has written to the Chancellor asking him to explain why beauty keeps being left out.

TNBA supports all of that. The exclusion is unfair and the numbers above make the case on their own.

But here is what we think the industry is missing

A discount is not a fix. It is a plaster.

Even if salons won the 20% discount tomorrow, here is what would still be true:

You pay rates on space you cannot stretch. A salon’s income is capped by its chairs and its treatment rooms. A pub can add outdoor seating. A shop can sell online. A salon cannot do a manicure over the internet. The rates system taxes the one thing we cannot change: our physical space.

Growing gets punished. Small Business Rates Relief disappears as your rateable value rises. Open a second salon, or move to slightly bigger premises, and relief you relied on can vanish overnight. The system penalises exactly the growth the Government says it wants.

The relief threshold is quietly shrinking. The £12,000 threshold for full relief has not moved in years. But this year’s revaluation pushed rateable values up across the country. So salons that paid no rates last year now pay full rates, without their business changing at all. Nobody announced a tax rise. The threshold just stood still while values moved past it. There is a name for this: a stealth tax.

Online competitors barely pay. A warehouse retailer pays a fraction of the rates per pound of revenue that a high street salon pays. Every year that gap widens, and every year the high street is asked to be grateful for discounts off a bill its online competitors barely face.

Discounts come and go with politics. A 15% relief this year, 20% for someone else next year, all of it can vanish at any Budget. You cannot plan a business on reliefs that change with the political weather. Salons need a system that is fair by design, not one that needs correcting every year.

That is why chasing sector discounts, on its own, will not work. If the industry wins this discount, we will be back next year asking for the next one.

What TNBA will be asking for

The Government has said it will look at wider business rates reform, including Small Business Rates Relief, at the Autumn Budget in late October or early November.

That is the real opportunity, and TNBA will be making the case for nail salons specifically. Three things:

1. Reform Small Business Rates Relief so growth is not punished, and index the thresholds. Relief should taper gradually, not fall off a cliff the moment a salon grows or opens a second site. And the thresholds should rise with revaluations, so relief is not eroded by stealth every time values move.

2. Rebalance the burden between the high street and online. The Government has already said it will tax online marketplaces more heavily. That money should visibly reduce the burden on premises-based businesses, and the link should be permanent, not a one-off gesture.

3. Treat premises-capped businesses fairly. Businesses whose income is physically limited by their space, salons among them, should not carry the same burden per square metre as businesses that can scale beyond their walls.

We are also running the UK Nail Salon Cost Survey to put real numbers on what nail salons actually pay, in rates, rent, energy and everything else. Government listens to data. When we make this case in October, we want to make it with evidence no one else has.

Take the cost survey   Join TNBA

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What to do now

Check if you should be getting Small Business Rates Relief. If your salon’s rateable value is under £15,000, you may be entitled to relief right now, and some salons simply never claim it. Check your rateable value at gov.uk, search “find my business rates valuation.” If it is under £12,000 you should be paying no rates at all on that property.

Check your bill after any revaluation. Mistakes are common and appeals are free. If your rateable value looks wrong for your street, challenge it.

Add your voice. The more nail salons TNBA speaks for, the harder we are to ignore in October.

TNBA gives practical help to the UK nail industry. This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Rules can change. Check your own position at gov.uk or with your accountant. Last checked 3 August 2026. TNBA Limited, a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, England and Wales no. 17120618.