The government's 5% VAT rate on family days out ends on 1 September. Hever Castle rises £3.15 an adult, Riverhill £1.75, and Knole's discount at the till stops.
The temporary 5% rate of VAT on family days out ends on Tuesday 1 September, and the attractions around Sevenoaks that cut their published prices for the summer have already posted what they will charge from Wednesday 2 September. Hever Castle goes up £3.15 for an adult booked online. Riverhill Himalayan Gardens goes up £1.75. At Knole nothing on the National Trust’s page changes at all, because the reduction there was never in the advertised price.
The relief is the Great British Summer Savings scheme announced by the Chancellor in a ministerial statement on 21 May 2026. It cut VAT from 20% to 5% on children’s meals eaten in, on children’s and family tickets for cinema, theatre, exhibitions, shows and concerts, and on admission to attractions such as museums, zoos, farm attractions, nature reserves, adventure parks and soft play. HMRC’s guidance is precise about the window: “The reduced rate applies from 25 June 2026 to 1 September 2026 (inclusive)” (HMRC, Revenue and Customs Brief 5 (2026)).
Nothing obliged a business to hand the cut over. The government said only that it “expects qualifying businesses to pass these savings on to families by lowering the prices people pay” (HM Treasury, Great British Summer Savings 2026 fact sheet). Locally, three places have handled it three different ways.
What goes up, and by how much
| Ticket | To 1 September | From 2 September | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hever, Castle & Gardens, adult online | £22.35 | £25.50 | +£3.15 |
| Hever, Castle & Gardens, family online | £58.30 | £66.60 | +£8.30 |
| Hever, Gardens Only, adult online | £17.50 | £19.95 | +£2.45 |
| Riverhill, adult | £12.25 | £14.00 | +£1.75 |
| Riverhill, family (2 adults, 3 children) | £34.10 | £39.00 | +£4.90 |
| Knole, Showrooms, Outdoor & Tower, adult | £19.00 advertised, less at the till | £19.00 | Not published |
Riverhill: the last cheap day is the bank holiday
Riverhill has been the plainest about it. Its price page says the garden is “passing on the Government’s Vat reduction for Tourist destinations”, and lists both sets of figures side by side: £12.25 an adult, £6.55 a child of four and over and £34.10 for a family until 1 September, against a normal £14, £7.50 and £39 (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens).
The date to watch is not 1 September. Riverhill opens Wednesday to Sunday and on bank holidays, and closes on Mondays and Tuesdays. Since 1 September falls on a Tuesday, the last day anyone can actually walk in at £12.25 is Monday 31 August, the August bank holiday, which the garden opens for. There is no pre-booking, and the site is card only.
Season tickets are a separate matter. Riverhill lists one price for them and not two, at £39 an adult, £22 a child and £110 for a family. That fits the rule HMRC set out: a pass allowing visits beyond the relief window does not qualify where it is priced above a standard single-entry ticket.
Hever: two bands, already published
Hever Castle has run the whole summer on two published price bands, and names the scheme on its own page: “Great British Summer Savings. Applies to visits between 25 June and 1 September 2026, inclusive. This forms part of the Government’s Great British Summer Savings initiative” (Hever Castle).
The gap between booking online and paying at the gate does not close on 2 September, it widens in cash terms: an adult Castle and Gardens ticket is £25.50 online against £28.40 on the day, where until 1 September it is £22.35 against £24.85. A child aged 5 to 17 goes from £12.30 to £14.05 online. Under-fives stay free throughout.
Hever’s page also notes that Christmas tickets go on sale in September. Those are outside the window whenever you buy them.
Knole: nothing on the page changes
The National Trust took the third route. It never reduced its advertised prices at Knole, and instead put a notice on the property page: “To help families enjoy days out for less this summer, the Government has introduced a temporary reduction in VAT, running from 25 June to 1 September 2026. This means the admission price you pay at the till may be less than advertised” (National Trust, Knole).
The practical effect is that Knole’s published prices are identical on either side of the change: £19 an adult for Showrooms, Outdoor and Tower, £6 for Outdoor and Tower, £47.50 for a family. What stops on 2 September is the reduction applied when you pay. The Trust does not publish the amount, so the only way to see it is on the receipt, and only until Tuesday.
Walking into Knole Park on foot stays free, as it always has. The car park is the £6 per person Outdoor and Tower ticket, which our Knole Park guide sets out in full alongside the cheaper way to park in town.
What was never covered
Two exclusions catch people out.
Sport is out, soft play is in. HMRC’s policy paper “excludes admissions to sports events, sports facilities, and events or facilities for physical education or recreation”, while soft-play centres sit on the list of attractions that do qualify. At Sevenoaks Leisure Centre on Buckhurst Lane that line runs straight through one building: the hour in the soft play area falls on one side of it, the pools and the gym on the other.
Adult theatre and cinema tickets were never in. For cinema, theatre, exhibitions, shows and concerts the relief applied to child and family admissions only, not to a straight adult seat. The wider attractions list, which is where Hever, Riverhill and Knole sit, did cover adults.
You cannot buy ahead to beat it
The obvious move, booking an October half-term visit this week at the summer price, does not work. HMRC’s brief is explicit: “Any payments received for rights to admissions which take place once the relief ends on 1 September 2026 will be subject to the standard rate.” The rate follows the date of the visit, not the date of the payment.
That matters for the autumn diary. Riverhill’s Pumpkin Festival runs from 17 October to 1 November and is charged at normal garden admission, which by then means £14 an adult. Our pumpkin picking guide has the rest of the Kent patches and what they charged last year.
Before Tuesday
- Monday 31 August is the last day Riverhill is open at £12.25, because it shuts on Tuesdays.
- Tuesday 1 September is the last qualifying day at Hever and Knole. Hever’s online band closes with it.
- Book Hever online rather than at the gate either way. The saving is £2.50 to £2.90 a head.
- Do not pay now for an autumn visit expecting the summer rate. It is charged at 20% whatever the booking date.
- National Trust members walk into Knole free, so the change does not reach them either way.
For the year-round list of what to do locally and what it costs, see things to do in Sevenoaks.
Sources
- Relief dates, the rule on admissions after 1 September and the season-ticket test: HMRC, Revenue and Customs Brief 5 (2026)
- Scope of the reduced rate and the sports exclusion: HMRC policy paper, Temporary reduced rate of VAT for children’s meals and family attractions
- Scheme name, the 21 May announcement and the expectation on businesses: HM Treasury, Great British Summer Savings 2026 fact sheet
- Hever Castle’s two price bands, online and gate: Hever Castle
- Riverhill’s two price sets, opening days and season tickets: Riverhill Himalayan Gardens
- Knole’s till notice and unchanged advertised prices: National Trust, Knole
Every price above was read from the attraction’s own page on 25 August 2026.
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