Business Rates Reliefs

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.

Generally, this percentage reduction (relief) is only available to ratepayers who occupy either -

(a) one property, or

(b) one main property and other additional properties providing those additional properties each have a rateable value which does not exceed £2,899.

The rateable value of the property mentioned in (a), or the aggregate rateable value of all the properties mentioned in (b), must not exceed £19,999 outside London or £27,999 in London on each day for which relief is being sought. If the rateable value, or aggregate rateable value, increases above those levels, relief will cease from the day of the increase.

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.

If you feel that you meet the eligibility criteria and you are not already in receipt of relief, click on the link below to apply for small business rates relief.

Provided you continue to satisfy the conditions for relief which apply at the relevant time as regards the property and the ratepayer, you will automatically continue to receive relief in each new valuation period.

Certain changes in circumstances will need to be notified to Gedling Borough Council by a ratepayer who is in receipt of relief (other changes will be picked up by Gedling Borough Council).

The changes which should be notified are -

• the ratepayer taking up occupation of an additional property, and
• an increase in the rateable value of a property occupied by the ratepayer in an area other than the area of Gedling Borough Council.

Apply for small business rates relief

You could qualify for retail, hospitality and leisure relief if your business is wholly or mainly being used as a:

• Shop
• Restaurant, café, bar or pub
• Cinema or music venue
• Hospitality or leisure business (for example, gym, spa or hotel)

If you’re eligible, you could get:

• 50% off your business rates bills for the 2022/24 tax year
• 75% off your business rates bills for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 tax year

The most you can get in each tax year is £110,000 per business over all properties that your business occupies.

This relief will end on 31^st March 2025

You should notify the Council immediately if your business has automatically been awarded this relief but:

• You believe that it will breach the £110,000 cash cap limit
• Your business will exceed the Subsidy Allowance - Small Amounts of Minimal Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over 3 years (including 2023/24)

Further information can be found by visiting out Subsidy Allowances page

If you opt out of retail, hospitality and leisure relief you cannot change your mind.

Find out more about the types of business that may qualify for this relief and exclusions on our Retail Leisure and Hospitality page

Apply Now

You can get supporting small business relief from 1^st April 2023 if both of the following apply:

• Your business property’s bill went up after the revaluation on 1^st April 2023
• You lost some of all of your small business rates reliefs or rural rate relief

Awards of this relief are made automatically to eligible ratepayers and will show on your annual bill for 2023/24.   If you are eligible, your bills will go up by no more than £600 for the 2023/24 tax year. 

Receipt of this relief amounts to Subsidy Allowance and if you are likely to breach the Minimal Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over 3 years (including 2023-24) then you must notify the Council immediately.

Further information on Subsidy Allowances

Transitional relief limits how much your bill can change each year as a result of business rates revaluation. The most recent revaluation came into effect on 1 April 2023.

This means changes to your bill are phased in gradually, if you’re eligible.

From the 2023 to 2024 tax year you’ll get transitional relief if your:

• property is in England
• rates go up by more than a certain amount

Awards of this relief will be made automatically to eligible ratepayers and will show on your annual bill.

How much your bill can change by

How much your bill can change by from one year to the next depends on both:

• your property’s rateable value
• whether your bill is increasing or decreasing as a result of revaluation

You stop getting transitional relief when your bill reaches the full amount set by a revaluation.

The business rates year is from 1 April to 31 March the following year.

The business rates year is from 1 April to 31 March the following year.

If your bill increased from 1 April 2023 due to revaluation

Charities are entitled to 80% relief where the property is occupied by the charity and is wholly or mainly used for the charitable purposes of the charity (or of that and other charities).

If you are a registered charity, simply inform the Council when you notify us that you are taking occupation of a property and your 80% relief will be automatically applied to your account.

Gedling Borough Council has discretion to give further relief on the remaining bill. If you wish to apply for discretionary charitable relief, please contact the Council.

Community Amateur Sports Clubs are entitled to 80% relief where the property is occupied by the club and is wholly or mainly used for the purposes of the club (or of that and other clubs).

If you are a registered community amateur sports club, simply inform the Council when you notify us that you are taking occupation of a property and your 80% relief will be automatically applied to your account.

Gedling Borough Council has discretion to give further relief on the remaining bill. If you wish to apply for discretionary relief, please contact the Council.

Gedling Borough Council has a discretionary power to give relief up to a maximum of 100% in respect of property occupied by certain bodies not established or conducted for profit.  Each individual case will be judged on its own merits.

To apply for this discretionary relief, please contact the Council.

You could get 100% Rural Rate Relief if your business is in an Rural Settlement area with a population below 3,000.

Your business must also be occupied and either:

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

If there’s more than one business in the area, both businesses can still apply if they are different types of business - for example, a public house and a food shop.

A rural settlement is a defined area with a population of less than three thousand. You can check whether your property is in a rural settlement area by viewing the

Gedling Borough Council Rural Settlement List

Following the Business Rates Review, the government announced that it would deliver a 100% relief for eligible low-carbon heat networks with individual rates bills. This relief has been provided in 2022/23 and 2023/24 through a discretionary relief scheme operated by billing authorities. The Act moves this onto a mandatory statutory footing.

These regulations set out the parameters and conditions for access to the heat network relief. These will remain unchanged from the previous discretionary scheme, except that, as a mandatory relief, local authorities will now be able to benefit from this relief from 1 April 2024.     

These regulations have effect for the year 2024/25 onwards.

You can find full details of the relief here: Business Rates Heat Network Relief

To receive the improvement relief, ratepayers will need to demonstrate that their property meets 2 conditions: 

1. the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) must be satisfied that the improvements meet the definition of qualifying works (the ‘qualifying works’ condition) and
2. the relevant local billing authority must be satisfied that in the period since the qualifying works commenced the property has remained occupied and that the ratepayer has not changed (the ‘occupation’ condition).

Once the VOA is satisfied that the qualifying works condition has been met then it will issue a certificate of the increase in rateable value which is attributable to any works falling within the meaning of qualifying works. The billing authority will then apply the relief using the certificate but only if the occupation condition has been met.

Further information on this relief can be found at Business Rates Improvement Relief: Draft regulations - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

You can find out about all reliefs available to businesses by visiting the Government's Business Rates Relief Overview pages which has details on all reliefs and reductions including;

• Hardship relief
• Exempted buildings and empty buildings relief
• Local newspaper relief
• COVID-19 additional relief

If you wish to apply for any reliefs not listed then please contact our offices on 0115 901 3946 or email businessrates@gedling.gov.uk