Business Rates Reductions

Charities & Community Amateur Sports Clubs can apply for a mandatory rate relief of 80%.

The charity must be registered with HM Revenues & Customs to qualify for this relief.

The sports club must be registered as a Community Amateur Sports Club with HM Revenue and Customs to qualify for this relief.

The property occupied by the charity or club must be wholly or mainly used by that charity or club.

The Government introduced primary legislation on the 13 November 2024 to amend the Local Government Finance Act 1988 to end charity rate relief eligibility for private schools.

As a result of this amendment, private schools run by charities are no longer eligible to 80% mandatory rate relief from 1 April 2025.

Billing authorities have discretion to remit all or part of the remaining 20% of a charity or Community Amateur Sports Clubs’s bill on such property as described above.

A billing authority also has the power to grant discretionary rate relief, to certain ratepayers, from all or part of the amount of non-domestic rate payable.

This allows billing authorities to grant additional relief to registered charities (to top up the 80% mandatory relief) and also to non-profit making bodies (i.e.. not established or conducted for profit) including sports clubs.

The level of rate relief is determined by the billing authority. This relief can be granted for a fixed period, and notice must be given if that relief is varied or revoked.

The following factors will be taken into account:

1. Is the applicant set up as a non-profit making organisation i.e. not established or conducted for profit?
2. Is membership open to all sections of the community? There may be reasonable restrictions placed on membership which relate, for example, to ability in a sport or to the achievement of a standard in the field covered by the organisation or where the capacity of the facility is limited, but in general membership should not be exclusive or restrictive
3. Membership rates should not be set at such a level as to exclude the general community
4. Does the organisation actively encourage membership from particular disadvantaged or underrepresented groups in the community?
5. Are the facilities made available to people other than members e.g. schools, casual public sessions etc?
6. Does the organisation provide training or education for its members?
7. Does the organisation’s facilities include a licensed bar? The mere existence of a bar would not in itself be a reason for not granting relief but helps to determine the main purpose of the organisation. In sports clubs for example the balance between playing and non-playing members might provide a useful guide as to whether the main purpose of the club is sporting or social activities
8. Does the organisation provide facilities that indirectly relieve the authority of the need to do so, or enhance and supplement those that it does provide?
9. Are members paid to participate?

If the applicant is a limited company, we would need to make a detailed inspection of the accounts to ascertain what profits, if any, are being made.

Then an investigation would need to be made as to how the income/profit is used.

For example, is any excess income/profit put back into the club to further it’s aims and to improve facilities for its members.

The constitution of the club and the objectives of the limited company would also have to be studied to ensure that these were not different.

You could get rural rate relief if your business is in a rural area with a population below 3,000.

You won’t pay business rates if your business is in an eligible area and either:

• the only village shop or post office, with a rateable value of up to £8,500
• the only public house or petrol station, with a rateable value of up to £12,500.

In exceptional circumstances, business premises that are only partly occupied for a temporary period may be entitled to some relief based on the unoccupied part, for example:

• If you are trying to let the empty part of a premises (but not keeping part empty by choice) or
• If you are undertaking structural repair to part of the property (but not redecoration)
• Relief can be granted on the unoccupied part of the property

In these circumstances a certificate will be requested from the valuation office to show the respective rateable values of the occupied and unoccupied parts of the property.

You can get small business rate relief if:

• your property’s rateable value is less than £15,000
• your business only uses one main property; however, you may still be able to get relief if you use more than one property.

As long as the qualifying criteria is met:

You will not pay business rates on a property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less.

For properties with a rateable value of £12,001 to £15,000, the rate of relief will reduce gradually from 100% to 0% on a tapered scale.

If you use more than one property

If you start using a second property, you’ll keep getting any existing relief on your main property for 12 months.

You can still get small business rate relief on your main property after this if both the following apply:

• none of your other properties have a rateable value above £2,899
• the total rateable value of all your properties is less than £20,000.

You’re a small business but do not qualify for small business rate relief

If your property in England has a rateable value below £51,000, your bill will be calculated using the small business multiplier, which is lower than the standard one. This is the case even if you do not get small business rate relief.

You could qualify for retail, hospitality & leisure relief 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.

2025/2026

The retail, hospitality & leisure relief for 2025/2026 is 40%. The relief will be capped at £110,000 per business. The relief will be included in your business rates bill for 2025/2026, if you received it in 2024/2025.

Relief will be provided to eligible occupied retail, hospitality and leisure properties in 2025/26.

In line with the conditions set by the government, a ratepayer may only claim up to £110,000 of support under the 2025/26 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme for all their eligible hereditaments. This cash cap applies at a Group company level (so holding companies and subsidiaries cannot claim up to the cash cap for each company) and to organisations which, although not a company, have such an interest in a company that they would, if they were a company, result in its being the holding company.

Furthermore, the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme is subject to the Minimal Financial Assistance limits under the Subsidy Control Act. This means no recipient can receive over £315,000 over a 3-year period (consisting of the current financial year and the 2 previous financial years). Covid business grants received from local government and any other subsidy claimed under the Minimal Financial Assistance or Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit over the 3-year period should be counted.

2023/2024 and 2024/2025

The retail, hospitality & leisure relief for 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 is 75%. The relief will be capped at £110,000 per business. The discount will be included in your business rates bill for 2024/2025, if you received it in 2023/2024.

2022 to 2023

The retail, hospitality & leisure relief for 2022 to 2023 was 50%. The relief was capped at £110,000 per business. The discount was included in business rates bills for 2022 to 2023.

2021 to 2022

The rates of retail, hospitality & leisure relief for 2021 to 2022 were:

• 100% from 1 April 2021 to 30 June 2021
• 66% from 1 July to 31 March 2022

From 1 July 2021 to 31 March 2022, relief was capped at £105,000 per business, or £2 million per business where the business was in occupation of a property that was required, or would have been required, to close, based on the law and guidance applicable on 5 January 2021.

You don’t have to pay business rates on empty buildings for three months. After this time, most businesses must pay full business rates.

Some properties can get extended empty property relief:

• industrial premises (for example warehouses) are exempt for a further three months
• listed buildings – until they’re reoccupied
• buildings with a rateable value under £2,900 – until they’re reoccupied
• properties owned by charities – only if the property’s next use will be mostly for charitable purposes
• community amateur sports club buildings – only if the next use will be mostly as a sports club.

Mole Valley District Council may reduce or remit the whole or part of the rates payable by a ratepayer, provided that:

1. The ratepayer would sustain hardship if the authority did not do so, and
2. It is reasonable for the authority to do so having regard to the interests of persons liable to pay Council Tax set by it.

All requests for Hardship will be considered on an individual basis and decisions will be made in accordance with our policy and where the Council is satisfied that:

1. The ratepayer will suffer hardship if the relief is not granted
2. The ratepayer provides a Vital, Unique and Valued service to the community which cannot be provided from elsewhere and there is no alternative provision of the service of a similar nature within the local area. The applicant should explain why their business is important to the local community or economy and why the benefit to council taxpayers (local residents) of granting the relief outweighs the cost to local council taxpayers of doing so.
3. The application is of an exceptional nature and not merely due to normal market forces or general economic conditions affecting a number of local businesses
4. We are unlikely to give discretionary relief to a business that has been trading for less than three years.
5. We expect that such a business would have planned for payment of the business rates and allowed for some contingency in their business plans. Similarly, we are unlikely to help a business that faces difficulties so severe that it will fail even with rate relief. In this instance it would not be good use of public funds even if the business is important to the community.

The Public Lavatories Act 2021 provides 100% business rates relief for separately assessed public toilets. This relief applies retrospectively from 1 April 2020.

On 6 March 2024, the Chancellor announced that the government would continue to support the creative industries and set out that it would introduce a business rates relief for eligible film studios in England worth around £470 million over the next 10 years.

Eligible film studios in England will receive a 40% reduction on gross business rates bills until 2034, backdated to 1 April 2024. The 40% reduction is inclusive of transitional relief. The value of any transitional relief a studio receives will be deducted from the value of the film studio relief. This means that eligible film studios’ final bills will be no more than 60% of their gross bill

The relief will be available on properties valued by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) as film studios and the VOA will notify authorities of which studios are eligible for support. If the VOA have notified you that your property qualifies, please contact our office in order to have the relief awarded.

From 1 April 2024, improvement relief will support businesses wishing to invest in their property. It will ensure that no ratepayer will face higher business rates bills for 12 months as a result of qualifying improvements to a property they occupy.

You do not need to apply for improvement relief. The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) will automatically consider it when they are notified of property changes.

Qualifying works

• A physical extension
• A new building within a larger hereditament
• The removal of a structural wall in a shop which increases zoning
• The addition of lining to an old industrial unit
• The addition of a structural mezzanine floor in an industrial unit
• A reconstitution (split or merger) – where qualifying works are undertaken

Non-qualifying works

• A new hereditament
• A redevelopment scheme which has taken a property out of rating
• A change of use where no qualifying works have been undertaken
• Repair works
• The addition of land

There is no right of appeal for improvement relief, however the VOA will investigate if you think your assessment is wrong. Details on how to contact the VOA can be found on the GOV.UK website.

From 1 April 2023 the Government put into place a Supporting Small Business scheme which will cap bill increases at £600 per year for any business losing eligibility for some or all of their Small Business Rate Relief as a result of the 2023 revaluation.

To support these ratepayers, the Supporting Small Business scheme will ensure that the increase in the 2024/25 bills is limited to a cash value of £600 for the year. This maximum cash increase ensures that ratepayers do not face large bill increases in 2024/25 after transitional relief and small business rate relief (as applicable) have been applied.

This relief will be calculated and applied automatically to bills which will be issued to qualifying businesses. There is no need to apply for this relief.

You can get heat networks relief if your property is only used or mainly used as a ‘heat network’.

A heat network supplies heating or cooling to other properties from a central source. To be eligible, the heat network must:

• take its energy from a low carbon source
• supply heating and cooling to other properties – for example, homes, shops, public buildings, hospitals and offices

The heat network must not supply heat or cooling for industrial use – for example, to create products in factories.

What you’ll get

You will not pay business rates if your property is eligible for heat networks relief.

How to get heat networks relief

Contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to check if your property is eligible for heat networks relief.

If your circumstances change

Report changes to make sure you’re paying the right amount and do not get a backdated increase in your bill or overpay your bill.

Contact the VOA if the property is no longer only or mainly used as a heat network.