A relief scheme designed to help occupiers of one small property

Who is relief available for?

  • You can only claim small business rate relief on one property.
  • The property must have a rateable value below £15,000
  • You cannot claim for unoccupied properties, or for properties entitled to a mandatory relief.

If you occupy more than one property, the additional properties cannot have an rateable value exceeding £2,899, and the combined rateable value of all the properties must be less than £19,999 outside London (or £27,999 in London). If the total rateable value increases above those levels, relief will cease from the day of the increase.

Relief can be backdated up to 6 years from the date the application is received. In cases where a claim arises from an alteration to the Rating List, this deadline may be extended, though the earliest it can be granted is 1 April 2012.

Relief available

From 1 April 2017

  • Rateable value £12,000 or less - 100% relief
  • Rateable value between £12,001 and £15,000 - the 100% awarded for rateable values below £12,000 will decrease on a sliding scale of 4% decrease in relief awarded for every £120 increase in rateable value until you reach 0% relief at rateable value £15,000
  • Occupied properties not entitled to mandatory relief with an rateable value of £50,999 or less will have their bills calculated using the lower small business rating multiplier, rather than the national non-domestic rating multiplier. From 1 April 2024 this includes those entitled to mandatory relief and empty properties.

Small Business Rate Relief Extension

Since April 2014 those businesses receiving small business rate relief that take on an additional property which would normally have meant the loss of relief, will have it extended for 12 months. After 12 months the small business rate relief extension will end.

From 1 April 2010 – 31 March 2017

From 1 April 2010, relief is available for eligible businesses who occupy either:

  • one property in England with a rateable value of less than £18,000
  • one main property in England together with one or more additional properties, where the additional properties each have a rateable value of less than £2,600, and the combined rateable value of all the properties is less than £18,000

How much relief is available?

Between 1 October 2010 to 31 March 2017

  • Rateable value £6,000 or less - 100% relief
  • Rateable value £6,001 - £12,000 - the 100% awarded for rateable values below £6,000 will decrease on a sliding scale which is approximately a 2% decrease in relief awarded for every £120 increase in rateable value
  • Rateable value £12,001 to £17,999 - liability is calculated using the small business rating multiplier

Between 1 April 2010 to 30 September 2010

  • Rateable value £6,000 or less - 50% relief
  • Rateable value £6,001 to £12,000 - the 50% awarded for rateable values below £6,000 will decrease on a sliding scale which is approximately a 1% decrease in relief awarded for every £120 increase in rateable value.
  • Rateable value £12,001 to £17,999 - liability is calculated using the small business rating multiplier

How to apply for Small Business Rate Relief

To apply for rate relief use our web form here.

Make a Small Business Rate Relief application

Changes in circumstances

It is a criminal offence to knowingly or recklessly make a false statement when making a claim for small business rate relief.

You must notify the council of any change in circumstances within 4 weeks of the day after the change occurred. These changes include:

  • an increase in the rateable value of another property occupied by the ratepayer outside the area of the Council granting the relief
  • taking occupation of another property
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