Business Rates
Small Business Rates Relief
The relief is available to ratepayers with either:
- 1 property; or
- 1 main property and other additional properties, providing the additional properties do not have individual rateable values of more than £2,200, and the combined rateable value of all the properties is under £15,000 (or £21,500 in London). The threshold for the combined rateable value is dependent on the location of the main property
Eligible businesses with rateable values of below £5,000 will have their liability calculated using the small business rate multiplier and will also get 50% rate relief on their liability. The amount of relief will decrease on a sliding scale of 1% for every £100 of rateable value over £5,000, up to £9,999.
Eligible businesses with rateable values of between £10,000 and £14,999 (or between £10,000 and £21,499 in London) will have their liability calculated using the small business multiplier but will not receive a percentage reduction.
The small business rate relief scheme will be funded by a supplement on the rate bill of those businesses not eligible for the relief. This supplement is built into the standard multiplier.
Application for small business rates relief 
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The intention behind the scheme is that the ratepayer should be able to obtain relief against 1 property only.
So for example, if you have several properties and none has a rateable value of more than £2,200 and the total value of all the properties is under £15,000 or £21,500 if the property for which you wish to have the relief is within London, you need to identify the property for which you wish to claim relief. The remaining properties would be charged using the higher multiplier.
The property must be in the rating list as at the 1st April of the year for which relief is sought. If it is not you cannot apply for rate relief until the following financial year.
From 1 April 2007, applications for small business rates relief will cover the whole period up to the date of the next general revaluation, which is April 2010.
Awards of relief can be backdated. For example, to apply for small business rates relief for the financial year April 2006 to March 2007, an application must be received by 30 September 2007.
