Business rates relief

Skip contents

Enterprise zones

If you’re starting up or relocating a business to an enterprise zone you could qualify for business rates relief.

Eligibility

Whether you’re eligible for relief and how much you’ll get will depend on:

  • the local council’s rules for the enterprise zone

  • when the enterprise zone was started

  • when you started your business in or moved it to the enterprise zone

What you’ll get

The council works out how the relief is applied. You could get up to £55,000 in relief per year over 5 years.

How to get enterprise zone relief

Contact your local enterprise zone to:

  • check whether it offers business rates relief

  • find out how to get it

Contact your local council to check if you can get any other types of business rates relief on top of enterprise zone relief.

If your circumstances change

Report changes to make sure you’re paying the right amount and do not get a backdated increase in your bill or overpay.

Contact your local council if:

  • your property becomes empty

  • you get another property

  • you make any changes to your property that would increase its value - for example, extending or renovating it
  • the nature of your business changes or it moves to different premises

If the amount of enterprise zone relief you’re eligible for changes, you’ll usually need to pay your new rate starting from the day your circumstances changed.

Check which changes in circumstance you need to report to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

If you think you should be getting enterprise zone relief but are not

Contact your local council if you’re not getting enterprise zone relief and you think you’re eligible for it.

If you’re not eligible for enterprise zone relief

You may be eligible for another type of business rate relief. For example, if:

Check what other reliefs you may be eligible for.

View a printable version of the whole guide

Related content