Reliefs
Charitable rate relief
Charities and registered community amateur sports clubs can get 80% relief. This is where the property is occupied by the charity, club or organisation.
The property must be wholly or mainly used for the charitable purposes of -
- the charity or of that and other charities
- the club or of that and other clubs or organisation
We can award -
- a further 20% in certain circumstances, giving up to 100% relief
- up to 100% relief for a non-domestic property. It must be occupied by an organisation not established or conducted for profit
Hardship relief
In exceptional circumstances, we can give hardship relief to a ratepayer in difficulty.
Hardship relief is a discount on the rates payable for a specific period. It is a discretionary relief, which means it is not guaranteed.
You might be able to get hardship relief if your business is suffering unexpected hardship, financial or otherwise, and all of the following apply -
- the circumstances leading to the hardship are both beyond the control of the business and outside the normal risks associated with running a business
- the difficulties are temporary, and the business has a good chance of being viable in the long term
- the business might fail if we do not give hardship relief
You must be able to show you are taking reasonable steps to help yourself. We would expect you, as a business owner, to do everything you can to tackle the problems you are facing. This might mean -
- getting business advice
- reducing overheads
- reviewing pricing
- offering discounts
- extending the range of stock or services or negotiating with creditors
You cannot get hardship relief to help establish a new business. This is unless the viability of the business is threatened by events you could not have reasonably foreseen.
Improvement Relief
If you make certain improvements to your property, you may get relief from higher business rates bills.
You do not need to apply for improvement relief or do anything differently. If you meet the requirements, your council will apply the relief to your bills.
You can find out more about which improvements are eligible on GOV.UK.
If you have questions about a certificate of qualifying works, contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) at the email address on your certificate. The VOA cannot answer queries about the occupation condition or your business rates bill.
Small business rates relief
You can get small business rate relief if you -
- only use one property, and its rateable value is less than £15,000
- use more than one property, and the rateable value of each of your other properties is £2,899 or less, with the rateable value of all these properties combined being £19,999 or less
You can only get small business rate relief on one property.
The rateable values of the properties are added together, and the relief is applied to the main property.
If you don’t qualify for relief, but your property has a rateable value of less than £51,000, you will still pay less. Your bill will be automatically calculated using the small business rate multiplier, even if you have more than one property.
Amount of relief for properties with a rateable value -
- of £12,000 or below, small business rate relief will be given at 100%
- between £12,001 and £14,999, small business rate relief will be given on a sliding scale - from 100% at the bottom of the range to 0% at the top
- of £50,999 or less, the small business rate multiplier is used only, even if you have more than one property
Businesses that take on an additional property, which would normally have meant the loss of small business rate relief, will be allowed to keep that relief for 12 months.
If you -
- believe you should be getting small business rate relief but have not received it, contact us.
- continue to satisfy the conditions for relief which apply at the relevant time, you will automatically continue to receive relief in each new valuation period.
- get small business rate relief, you need to tell us about the following changes in circumstances, we will pick up on all other changes if -
- the property becomes vacant
- you take up the occupation of an additional property
- there is an increase in the rateable value of a property you occupy outside our council area
Supporting Small Business Relief
This relief is available to ratepayers who have lost some or all of their small business rate relief, or rural rate relief from 1 April 2023, as a result of an increase in rateable value as a result of a revaluation.
The scheme limits any increase in business rates to £600 per year. Relief will automatically be applied each year that the business is eligible to receive it; this could be every year or could end sooner if the bill amount without the relief is reached.
This means that in the first year of the scheme, all ratepayers losing some or all of their small business rate or rural rate relief will have the increase in their bill capped at £600. For subsequent years of the valuation period, the bill will increase by no more than £600 per year.
You will no longer be eligible to receive supporting small businesses relief, and your bill will return to the full amount due without this relief, if -
- your property become empty during the period of the scheme
- you are entitled to mandatory relief for charities or community amateur sports clubs
We automatically identify those ratepayers who should receive this relief and apply it to their bills.
If you feel that you qualify for this relief, but it is not showing on your bill, contact the Business Rates Team.
Pubs and Live Music Venues Relief 2026
The Government has announced that from April, every pub and live music venue will get 15% off its new business rates bill on top of the support announced at Budget and that bills will be frozen for a further two years. This new relief applies to public house, and to live music venues in England.
If your property meets the criteria for a public house or a live music venue, we will automatically apply the relief to your account, and this will be shown on the bill for 2026-27.
Freeport relief
We can give ratepayers Freeport relief of up to 100%, up to a maximum of 5 years from the date they -
- started their business in the freeport or moved there after the freeport was set
- expanded their business in the freeport after the freeport was set up. For example, if you -
- built an extension
- took on new rooms
- bought a new property in the freeport
Public lavatory relief
In 2021, the Non-Domestic Rating Public Lavatories Bill came into force. It gives public lavatories 100% relief from business rates. It applies retrospectively from 1 April 2020.
The relief does not apply to toilets of a larger unit of rateable property. For example, toilets in public libraries. It amends Part 3 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988. It is to ensure that, in relation to a eligible property which consists wholly or mainly of a public lavatory, the chargeable amount will be zero. This provides 100% mandatory relief for eligible public lavatories in England and Wales.
Newspaper relief
Office space that is occupied by local newspapers can receive business rate relief. The relief is of £1,500 for the financial year.
This was due to run for 2 years from 1 April 2017. It has been further extended by the government until 31 March 2025.
Newspaper relief can be claimed up to a maximum of one discount per local newspaper title. It can also be claimed per property and up to Subsidy Allowance.
Partly occupied relief
We can give temporary relief to ratepayers who are only using a part of their property where the rest is completely unused.
This relief is only available where the unused part will remain so for a short time only. Partly occupied relief is stopped at the end of the rating year. If the part of your property that is unused is going to remain empty for the foreseeable future and it is capable of being split from the part that is being used, you can ask the Valuation Officer to split the assessment.
A Visiting Officer may visit your property to see if you are eligible for relief. If we decide that relief can be given, we will ask the Valuation Officer to issue a certificate to show the rateable values of the occupied and unoccupied parts. We will then send a revised bill.