Business rates relief
You may be entitled to rate relief if you are:
- a charity
- a small business
- pay for an empty property
If eligible you can apply for relief from you business rates by using our online form below.
Charities are entitled to relief from rates on any non-domestic property which is wholly or mainly used for charitable purposes.
There is an 80% deduction of the full bill or of the transitional bill where transitional arrangements apply.
Billing authorities have the option to remit all or part of the remaining 20% of a charity's bill on this type of property. Authorities also have the option to remit all or part of any bill for a property occupied by certain organisations not established or conducted for profit (e.g. community groups or sports clubs).
A business is eligible for Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) if they only occupy one property, and that property has a Rateable Value (RV) of less than £15,000.
Please note that it is not possible to claim Small Business Rate Relief against empty properties.
100% relief is available for properties with an RV of £12,000 or less.
The rate of relief is awarded on a sliding scale, decreasing from 100% to 0% for properties with an RV of between £12,001 and £15,000.
Occupied properties which have an RV of less than £51,000 will be calculated using the lower multiplier. This has now been extended to include properties below that threshold which are vacant, on the Central List or occupied by charities.
If your circumstances change, for example you occupy another property anywhere else in England, then you must notify the Council immediately as this may affect your entitlement to the relief.
There are two ways that if a business has more than one property they may still qualify for SBRR.
- In addition to the main property, if the RV of each of all of the other properties does not exceed £2,899 and the total RV of all the properties (including the main one) does not exceed £19,999 SBRR will still apply. The relief is applied to the main property only.
- Where a business occupies Property A and occupies Property B after the date that they occupied Property A and the occupation of property B does not exceed 12 months. – i.e. A business occupies 1 High Street which has an RV of £11,000 – they qualify for 100% SBRR. - On 15/03/23 they occupy 5 High Street RV 8,500 – the
SBRR for 1 High Street will remain until 14/03/24.
If a property has an RV which does not exceed £19,999, they are considered a small business. If the RV is between £20,000 and £50,999 although they will not qualify for SBRR as above, the business rates will be calculated using the small business multiplier instead of the standard one. This is the case even if they have multiple properties.
The higher multiplier will apply if they are liable to pay rates on an empty property.
The Table below shows the rates payable after claiming SBBR and the percentage available for each RV.
These figures are based on the Small Business non-domestic multiplier for 2024/25 which has been set by central government at 49.9p in the pound.
N.B. These figures may vary by a few pence due to variation in decimal point calculation.
| RV | £ | % | RV | £ | % |
| 12,050 | 100.24 | 98.333 | 13,550 | 3,493.44 | 48.333 |
| 12,100 | 201.24 | 96.667 | 13,600 | 3,619.39 | 46.667 |
| 12,150 | 303.14 | 95.000 | 13,650 | 3,746.24 | 45.000 |
| 12,200 | 405.87 | 93.333 | 13,700 | 3,873.93 | 43.333 |
| 12,250 | 509.37 | 91.667 | 13,750 | 4,002.37 | 41.667 |
| 12,300 | 613.77 | 90.000 | 13,800 | 4,131.72 | 40.000 |
| 12,350 | 719.00 | 88.333 | 13,850 | 4,261.90 | 38.333 |
| 12,400 | 824.99 | 86.667 | 13,900 | 4,392.84 | 36.667 |
| 12,450 | 931.88 | 85.000 | 13,950 | 4,524.68 | 35.000 |
| 12,500 | 1,039.60 | 83.333 | 14,000 | 4,657.36 | 33.333 |
| 12,550 | 1,148.09 | 81.667 | 14,050 | 4,790.79 | 31.667 |
| 12,600 | 1,257.48 | 80.000 | 14,100 | 4,925.13 | 30.000 |
| 12,650 | 1,367.70 | 78.333 | 14,150 | 5,060.30 | 28.333 |
| 12,700 | 1,478.68 | 76.667 | 14,200 | 5,196.23 | 26.667 |
| 12,750 | 1,590.56 | 75.000 | 14,250 | 5,333.06 | 25.000 |
| 12,800 | 1,703.27 | 73.333 | 14,300 | 5,470.73 | 23.333 |
| 12,850 | 1,816.75 | 71.667 | 14,350 | 5,609.15 | 21.667 |
| 12,900 | 1,931.13 | 70.000 | 14,400 | 5,748.48 | 20.000 |
| 12,950 | 2,046.34 | 68.333 | 14,450 | 5,888.64 | 18.333 |
| 13,000 | 2,162.31 | 66.667 | 14,500 | 6,029.56 | 16.667 |
| 13,050 | 2,279.18 | 65.000 | 14,550 | 6,171.38 | 15.000 |
| 13,100 | 2,396.89 | 63.333 | 14,600 | 6,314.04 | 13.333 |
| 13,150 | 2,515.35 | 61.667 | 14,650 | 6,457.45 | 11.667 |
| 13,200 | 2,634.72 | 60.000 | 14,700 | 6,601.77 | 10.000 |
| 13,250 | 2,754.92 | 58.333 | 14,750 | 6,746.92 | 8.333 |
| 13,300 | 2,875.88 | 56.667 | 14,800 | 6,892.83 | 6.667 |
| 13,350 | 2,997.74 | 55.000 | 14,850 | 7,039.64 | 5.000 |
| 13,400 | 3,120.44 | 53.333 | 14,900 | 7,187.29 | 3.333 |
| 13,450 | 3,243.96 | 51.666 | 14,950 | 7,335.69 | 1.667 |
| 13,500 | 3,368.25 | 50.000 | 15,000 | 7,485.00 | 0.000 |
For the first 3 months that a business property is empty, we do not charge business rates for the property. For industrial and warehouse properties, the rate-free period is six months.
After this, a 100% business rate charge will apply to most properties that have been empty for 3 months to six months. This is to ensure vacant shops, offices, factories and warehouses come back into use.
Empty properties with a Rateable Value of less than 2900 will be exempt from business rates.