Retail, Hospitality and Leisure 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 to 2023 tax year
  • 75% off your business rates bills for the 2023 to 2024 tax year

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

 

 

 

Who will qualify

We consider shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues to mean:

  • Businesses that are being used for the sale of goods to visiting members of the public:
    • Shops (such as: florists, bakers, butchers, grocers, greengrocers, jewellers, stationers, off licences, chemists, newsagents, hardware stores, supermarkets, etc)
    • Charity shops
    • Opticians
    • Post offices
    • Furnishing shops/ display rooms (such as: carpet shops, double glazing, garage doors)
    • Car/ caravan show rooms
    • Second-hand car lots
    • Markets
    • Petrol stations
    • Garden centres
    • Art galleries (where art is for sale/hire)
  • Businesses that are being used for the provision of the following services to visiting members of the public:
    • Hair and beauty services (such as: hairdressers, nail bars, beauty salons, tanning shops, etc)
    • Shoe repairs/ key cutting
    • Travel agents
    • Ticket offices e.g. for theatre
    • Dry cleaners
    • Launderettes
    • PC/ TV/ domestic appliance repair
    • Funeral directors
    • Photo processing
    • Tool hire
    • Car hire
  • Businesses that are being used for the sale of food and/or drink to visiting members of the public:
    • Restaurants
    • Takeaways
    • Sandwich shops
    • Coffee shops
    • Pubs
    • Bars
  • Businesses which are being used as cinemas
  • Businesses that are being used as live music venues:
    • Live music venues are Businesses wholly or mainly used for the performance of live music for the purpose of entertaining an audience. Businesses cannot be considered a live music venue for the purpose of business rates relief where a venue is wholly or mainly used as a nightclub or a theatre, for the purposes of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended).
    • Businesses can be a live music venue even if used for other activities, but only if those other activities (i) are merely ancillary or incidental to the performance of live music (e.g. the sale/supply of alcohol to audience members) or (ii) do not affect the fact that the primary activity for the premises is the performance of live music (e.g. because those other activities are insufficiently regular or frequent, such as a polling station or a fortnightly community event).
  • Businesses that are being used for the provision of sport, leisure and facilities to visiting members of the public (including for the viewing of such activities):
    • Sports grounds and clubs
    • Museums and art galleries
    • Nightclubs
    • Sport and leisure facilities
    • Stately homes and historic houses
    • Theatres
    • Tourist attractions
    • Gyms
    • Wellness centres, spas, massage parlours
    • Casinos, gambling clubs and bingo halls
  • Businesses that are being used for the assembly of visiting members of the public:
    • Public halls
    • Clubhouses, clubs and institutions
  • Businesses where the non-domestic part is being used for the provision of living accommodation as a business:
    • Hotels, guest and boarding houses
    • Holiday homes
    • Caravan parks and sites

Exclusions that apply

The list below sets out the types of uses that the government does not consider to be an eligible use for the purpose of this discount (or any business broadly similar in nature).

  • Businesses that are being used for the provision of the following services to visiting members of the public:
    • Financial services (e.g. banks, building societies, cash points, bureaux de change, short-term loan providers, betting shops)
    • Medical services (e.g. vets, dentists, doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors)
    • Professional services (e.g. solicitors, accountants, insurance agents/ financial advisers, employment agencies, estate agents, letting agents)
    • Post office sorting offices
  • Businesses that are not reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public
  • Businesses which are occupied but not wholly or mainly used for the qualifying purpose

  • Businesses that exceed the £110,000 cash cap across all of their premises in England
  • Businesses that have received more than the Small Amounts of Minimal Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over 3 years (including 2023/24). This includes and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief granted for 2022/23 and 2023/24 and any BEIS business grants issued in 2020/21 and 2021/22. 

For more information about Amounts of Minimal Financial Assistance and Subsidy Allowances visit Subsidy Allowances - Gedling Borough Council