High street shops, pharmacies and music venues have asked Rachel Reeves to block a potential rise in business rates for them as well as pubs.
The government is expected to announce plans to ease the rise in business rates bills for pubs in England in the coming days.
Landlords and pub owners have been sharply critical of the impending rises, with more than 1,000 pubs banning Labor MPs from their premises.
But other lobby groups and backbench MPs have urged the Government to widen the scope of the relief, saying many other types of businesses will not be able to pay the higher bills.
In his November Budget, the Chancellor reduced the business rates discount that has been in place since the pandemic from 75% to 40%, and announced there will be no discount from April.
With major adjustments to the pricing of pub premises, landlords faced the prospect of much higher bills.
The BBC understands that this relaxation will only apply to pubs, not the entire hospitality sector.
The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) questioned why its members – which include high street shops, restaurants and cafes – would not be given the same relief.
Its chief executive Andrew Goodacre said independent retailers “face the same challenges as pubs, but have been left out of discussions about additional support”.
“Perhaps independent retailers need to follow the example of pubs and start banning MPs from their premises too,” he said.
Surinder Arora, who operates several hotels in the UK, said the potential exemption for pubs alone was “not right or fair”.
The chief executive of the Arora Group told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that the business rates bill for just one of their hotels had increased by £12.4m after the exemption was withdrawn.
“The new figures are eye-watering,” he said, warning that higher costs would be passed on to their customers and “belt-tightening” was inevitable.
While Arora said he supported the chancellor’s growth ambitions, higher taxes meant “instead of expansion, we could go the other way”.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said the current business rates system is “not fit for purpose”.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “This latest announcement looks like another sticking plaster on a broken system rather than the fundamental reform needed.”
John Collins, chief executive of music venues body Live, said: “If the government is preparing to do a U-turn on business rates for pubs, it should not leave live events and arenas behind.”
Henry Greig, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, said the sector could face a 140% rise in rates, while the lobby group for gyms, pools and leisure centers said those businesses could face a potential rate rise of 60%.
UKActive Chief Executive Hugh Edwards said, “A failure to provide a business rate support package to gyms, pools and leisure centers will lead to higher prices, reduced services, redundancies and in some cases the loss of gyms from our communities.”
MPs also echoed some of the lobby group’s concerns.
“Venues, clubs and cinemas across the country are already struggling to survive,” Conservative MP Dame Caroline Dinenage wrote to the chancellor on Thursday.
He said the planned rates reform risked “pushing many people over the edge”.
“The Treasury needs to be open about how it decided on the changes, while the sector desperately needs more details on the alternative support promised by the Prime Minister.”
Reeves said earlier this week that the government had reduced the tax rate on pubs and hospitality, but the Independent Valuation Office had increased the value of those properties.
“We are now working with the sector to look at the implications of a number of policies and on planning and licensing,” he said in an interview with Good Morning Britain.
“I want to support our pubs; I want to support our high streets. That’s why we’ve changed the rates. But I recognize that many high streets are still struggling and we’re working with them.”
