Great British Summer Savings is live today: who is taking part and how much can you save?

From today, family days out, children's meals and cinema trips are officially cheaper. The Great British Summer Savings scheme goes live this morning, cutting VAT from 20% to 5% on a range of eligible activities and meals until 1 September 2026. The scheme begins today to coincide with the start of the Scottish school summer holidays and runs through the full UK school holiday period.

The question most families will have is not what the scheme is — it is which businesses are actually passing the saving on and how much difference it makes in practice. Here is everything confirmed so far.

Which businesses are taking part in Great British Summer Savings?

Businesses are not legally required to pass the VAT saving on to customers, which is why knowing which ones have committed to doing so matters. Here is the confirmed list of major names as of today:

Theme parks, holidays and attractions

• Merlin Entertainments, which runs Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Legoland and Chessington World of Adventure, has backed the scheme

• Butlin's: confirmed for both Day Visit tickets and children's meals across their dining venues

• Haven Holidays: expects to give up to £5 million back to families across its 39 parks during the scheme, whether they have already booked or book in the coming weeks

• Gulliver's Theme Park Resorts, Paultons Park (home of Peppa Pig World), Crealy Theme Park and Camel Creek Family Adventure Park have all confirmed their participation

Cinemas

• Picturehouse: confirmed

• Everyman Cinemas: confirmed

• Vue: confirmed

Restaurants and food

• McDonald's: confirmed

• KFC: confirmed

• Burger King: confirmed

• Wetherspoons: confirmed

• Shepherd Neame pubs: confirmed

This list is expected to grow as the day progresses. Checking your chosen venue's website or social media before booking is the most reliable way to confirm whether they are passing on the full saving.

How much does Great British Summer Savings save a family?

If a business passes on the full VAT saving, the government estimates a family of two adults and two children could save around £7 to £10 on a theme park or zoo visit, around £3 to £4 on a cinema trip, and around £2 to £3 on a children's meal in a restaurant.

Those are modest individual amounts, but they stack up across a summer. A family that visits a theme park, a cinema twice, eats out a handful of times and takes a few day trips between today and 1 September could realistically save £40 to £60, assuming businesses pass the saving on in full.

Haven is the standout example of a business going beyond the minimum. Families at Haven parks will benefit from the VAT cut and also receive a £7.50 voucher per child if they purchase a Play Pass, redeemable against activities on the park

What is included in Great British Summer Savings 2026?

The Great British Summer Savings 5% VAT rate applies from today to 1 September 2026 and covers children's meals served from a dedicated children's menu in restaurants for consumption on the premises, children's and family tickets for cinema, theatre, exhibitions, shows and concerts, and admission tickets for both children and adults to amusement parks, fairs, museums, zoos, soft play centres, circuses, adventure parks, nature reserves, wildlife parks and observation attractions.

A few things worth knowing before you book:

Activities where no VAT is currently charged are not in scope. This includes admission to not-for-profit museums, zoos and theatres, which already benefit from a cultural VAT exemption, meaning families visiting these venues will not see a price change today since there was no VAT to cut in the first place.

Season tickets and annual passes that allow entry outside the 25 June to 1 September window do not qualify for the relief unless they are priced the same as a single-entry ticket. Sports facilities are not included.

Takeaway meals do not qualify. The children's meal reduction applies only to meals served at the table from a dedicated children's menu.

Can you claim the Great British Summer Savings discount on pre-booked activities?

For sales made before the legislation came into force, businesses may choose to apply the reduced rate or refund the VAT saving to customers. If you pre-booked and pre-paid for a qualifying activity, a Butlin's day visit or a cinema ticket for example, it is worth contacting the venue to ask whether they are applying a refund or credit for the difference. Haven has confirmed it will honour the saving for customers who have already booked.

Free bus travel for children in August 2026: how does it work?

Free bus travel for children aged 5 to 15 on local bus services in England starts from 1 August 2026 and runs for the whole of August. This applies to all children in that age group on participating local bus services, with no registration required. It is a separate measure from the VAT cut but sits alongside it as part of the same summer support package. Combined, the two schemes make day trips more accessible than they have been in recent years for families on tighter budgets. We cover it in more detail here.

This is a genuinely useful scheme for families, and the fact that major names including McDonald's, Butlin's, Vue and Merlin have committed to passing on the saving means the benefit is real rather than theoretical for most families. The saving per trip is modest rather than transformative, but across a summer of days out it adds up to something meaningful.

The most important thing to know is that the saving only applies if the business has chosen to pass it on. Checking before you book takes thirty seconds and means you are making your plans around confirmed savings rather than hoping for the best.

A summer of cheaper cinema trips, theme park visits and family meals starts today. Make the most of it.

Double up your savings with PlusSave if you hold a Smart Plus account

If you are a thinkmoney Smart Plus account holder, today is a particularly good day to check what is available through PlusSave before you book anything.

PlusSave is thinkmoney's discounted gift card scheme, and it works alongside the Great British Summer Savings VAT cut rather than instead of it. You buy a digital gift card for a participating venue at a lower price and can spend it immediately at full face value, with no cashback to wait for, no points to build up and no minimum spend. The saving lands the moment you use the card, and you can get between 3% - 12% off.

With the VAT cut already reducing prices at qualifying venues from today, combining it with a PlusSave gift card means two layers of saving on the same day out. For a family spending £100 at a qualifying venue, the 12% PlusSave discount brings the cost to £88 before the VAT cut is even considered on top of that. That is a meaningful difference on a summer that is already adding up.

Right now, venues available through PlusSave include some of the biggest names in the Great British Summer Savings scheme itself, including Merlin attractions, Cineworld and Theatre Tokens, alongside All Bar One, Browns, O'Neills and Go Ape. The full list is updated regularly as new venues are added.

Great British Summer Savings 2026: key dates and details

• Scheme runs: 25 June to 1 September 2026

• VAT cut: from 20% to 5% on eligible activities

• Free children's bus travel in England: 1 to 31 August 2026, children aged 5 to 15

• Official scheme information: gov.uk/government/news/great-british-summer-savings-vat-slashed-to-save-families-money-on-days-out