Charity and community amateur sports club relief
These are entitled to 80% relief where the property is occupied by the charity or the club, and is wholly or mainly used for charitable purposes. We have the discretion to give further relief on the remaining bill.
Flood or fire relief
There is a local scheme available for those businesses affected by severe weather or fire damage.
Hardship relief
We have discretion to give relief in special circumstances.
Giving rate relief to a business/organisation must be balanced against whether this creates unfair market conditions to the detriment of others.
It should also be recognised that one of the main overheads of any business is non-domestic rates and therefore it's reasonable to expect that businesses have made provision to pay this.
More information is available at GOV.UK
Local newspaper premises relief
Councils can provide a discount worth up to £1,500 a year for three years from 1 April 2017, to office space occupied by local newspaper businesses.
A maximum of one discount can be claimed per newspaper title and per property and up to state aid limits.
Mobile phone mast providers
Broadband providers are to get relief on their business rate.
Under a new scheme the council is adding the operators of mobile telecommunication masts to the list of businesses that can apply for rate relief.
The council has the power to offer discretionary relief to businesses that it feels would benefit from it – and that in turn would benefit the local community.
The council has agreed to grant a seven year holiday in business rates for all new (non 5G) rural mobile infrastructure, to a maximum of £6,000 per mast per year subject to:
- the new infrastructure serving a rural area where there is currently no mobile phone service
- the infrastructure is occupied for a minimum of seven years.
Rural businesses rate relief
Certain types of properties in a rural settlement with a population below 3,000 may be entitled to relief.
The property must be the only general store, only post office or a food shop and have a rateable value of less than £8,500, or the only public house, or the only petrol station and have a rateable value of less than £12,500.
The property has to be occupied. You're entitled to relief at 50% of the full charge, and we do have discretion to give further relief on the remaining bill.
Councils are expected to use their local discount powers to grant 100% rural rate relief to eligible ratepayers from 1 April 2017.
Transitional relief
Transitional relief limits the percentage your business rate bill can be increased or decreased each year following revaluation. The transitional relief will apply each year until the full amount is due and your bill reaches what your full bill should be.
The award is applied automatically and shown on the front of your bill.
More information is available on the GOV.UK website.