Small Business Rate Relief Scheme

Changes from October 2010 to 30 September 2012

The Government has introduced a temporary increase in the level of Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) available to eligible businesses. These changes came into effect on 1 October 2010, and were extended from 1 October 2011. The new levels of relief set out below will be effective from 1 October 2010 to 30 September 2012.

This relief is only available to ratepayers who apply to their local authority and who occupy either:
(a) one property, or

(b) one main property and other additional properties providing those additional properties each have a rateable value of less than £2,600.

The rateable value of the property mentioned in (a), or the aggregate rateable value of all the properties mentioned in (b), must be under £18,000 outside London or £25,500 in London on every 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.

Ratepayers who satisfy these conditions will have the bill for their single or main property calculated using the lower small business non-domestic rating multiplier rather than the ordinary non-domestic rating multiplier that is used to calculate the liability of other businesses.

In addition, if the single or main property is shown on the rating list with a rateable value of up to £12,000, 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 £6,000.

If an application for relief is granted, provided the ratepayer's circumstances do not change, they will not need to re-apply for relief in each new valuation period.

Certain changes in circumstances will need to be notified to us by the ratepayer (other changes will be picked up by the local authority). 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 us 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 fresh application for relief; notice of an increase in rateable value must be given in writing.

• Download an application to register for 2010 onwardsFile Type: Adobe PDF document, File Size:115.71 Kb (17 seconds @ 56K) Opens in a new window