You may be eligible for the following business rates relief if you meet the criteria:

• COVID-19 retail discount
• exempted and empty buildings rate relief
• non-profits and charities rate relief
• Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR)
• Extension of Transitional Relief and Supporting Small Business Relief
• local newspapers relief
• nurseries discount
• public lavatories rate relief
• hardship relief.

 Read detailed information about business rate relief.

COVID-19 retail discount

The Chancellor confirmed that eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties will receive 100% business rates relief from 1 April 2021 to 30 June 2021, 66% business rates relief from 1 July 2021 to 31 March 2022 and 50% business rates relief from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

You could qualify for retail discount if your business is a:

• shop
• restaurant, café, bar or pub
• cinema or music venue
• hospitality or leisure business - for example, a gym, a spa, a casino or a hotel.

If you’re eligible, you could get:

• 100% off your business rates bills for the 2020 to 2021 tax year (1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021)
• 100% off your business rates bills for the first 3 months of the 2021 to 2022 tax year (1 April 2021 to 30 June 2021)
• 66% off your business rates bills for the rest of the 2021 to 2022 tax year (1 July 2021 to 31 March 2022) - up to a total value of £2 million (If your business was legally allowed to open during the national lockdown starting 5 January 2021, your discount for 1 July 2021 to 31 March 2022 will be capped at £105,000 rather than £2 million.) 
• 50% off your business rates bill for 2022 to 2023 tax year (1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023) – up to a total value of £110,000 per business
• 75% off your business rates bill for 2023 to 2024 tax year (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, up to a total of £110,000 per business.

You can get the retail discount on top of any other business rates relief you’re eligible for.

If you opt out of the retail discount for the 2021/22, 2022/23 or 2023/24 tax years you cannot change your mind later.

Exempted and empty buildings rate relief

This includes occupied, empty, unoccupied and partly occupied business premises.

See GOV.UK website for full details of exempted and empty buildings rate relief.

Part Occupation Relief

 We may use our powers to grant rate relief to properties in the following circumstances:

• the property is partly occupied
• the part occupation is due to a planned vacation or occupation.

Relief will not be considered without accurate plans showing the occupied and unoccupied part. Please contact us if you wish to apply.

Non-profit and charities rate relief

The law gives councils the discretion to award rates relief (up to a maximum of 20% in respect of registered charities/Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC) and up to 100% in respect of other not for profit organisations).

A registered charity/CASC meeting the legislative criteria will receive mandatory relief of 80%. We're allowed to top this relief up with a further 0-20% to give up to 100% rate relief.

A not-for-profit organisation that meets the legislative criteria does not receive mandatory relief, but we can award between 0-100% relief.

Please read the policy, and if you think that your organisation meets the criteria, please submit an application to us using the details on the contact us page.

Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR)

You may be eligible for business rate relief if you have a small business. You will need to apply to us for the relief, but the government provides details of the criteria. Please see GOV.UK for details.

Extension of Transitional Relief and Supporting Small Business Relief

You may be eligible for business rate relief if you had a large increase in the business property’s rateable value following the revaluation of 2017.

There are further details of the extension of Transitional Relief and Supporting Small Business Relief on GOV.UK.

Local newspapers rate relief

You may be eligible for business rate relief if you run a local newspaper.

See GOV.UK website for full details of Newspaper Rate Relief.

Public lavatories rate relief

100% business rates relief is provided to standalone public lavatories in England since April 2020.

Hardship relief

If you’re a ratepayer, you can apply for discretionary hardship relief if you can show that you would be in financial difficulties if you had to pay your business rates, and that if we granted the relief, it would be in the interests of local people. As this is discretionary, contact us if you think you are entitled to this relief.