The relief is only available to ratepayers who either:

• occupy one property in England; or
• occupy one main property and other properties in England as long as the other properties have rateable values of no more than £2,899 and the total rateable value of all the occupied properties must be £19,999 or less.

Ratepayers who occupy a property with a rateable value which does not exceed £50,999 (and who are not entitled to other mandatory relief or are liable for unoccupied property rates) will have their bills calculated using the lower small business non-domestic rating multiplier, rather than the national non-domestic rating multiplier.

In addition, generally, if the sole or main property is shown on the rating list with a rateable value which does not exceed £15,000, the ratepayer will receive a percentage reduction in their rates bill for this property of up to a maximum of 100%. For a property with a rateable value of not more than £12,000, the ratepayer will receive a 100% reduction in their rates bill.

The property must be within the rateable value range quoted for each day that a claim for small business rate relief is being made. Empty properties will not qualify for the relief.

The Government has introduced additional support to small businesses. For those businesses that take on an additional property which would normally have meant the loss of small business rate relief, the Government has confirmed that they will be allowed to keep that relief for a period of 12 months.

From 1 April 2009, an otherwise eligible occupier of a property that comes onto the ratings list will be able to obtain small business rate relief from the date of first occupation rather than having to wait for 1st April in the following financial year.

There are two non-domestic rating multipliers.

For 2024/25 they are:

1. 49.9p for eligible properties with a rateable value of £50,999 or less; and
2. 54.6p for all other properties.

Small business rate relief will only be applied to one property, even if the ratepayer occupies more than one eligible property. The rate reduction will be based on the location of the eligible property, not the location of any additional properties.

An application for Small Business Rate Relief is not required.  If you meet the eligibility criteria and you do not receive the relief that you believe you should then contact us to make a claim.  If relief is granted the claim does not have to be renewed unless there is a change in circumstances.

Certain changes in circumstances will need to be notified to the local authority by the ratepayer. The changes which must be notified are:

(a) the ratepayer taking up occupation of a property they did not occupy at the time of making their application for relief, and
(b) an increase in the rateable value of a property occupied by the ratepayer in an area other than the area of the local authority which granted the relief.

Notification of these changes must be given to the local authority within 4 weeks of the day after the day the change happened. If this happens, there will be no interruption to the ratepayer's entitlement to the relief. A notification that the ratepayer has taken up occupation of an additional property must be by way of a new claim for relief; notice of an increase in rateable value must be given in writing.