Business rates relief

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Small business rate relief

You can get small business rate relief if:

  • your property’s rateable value is less than £15,000

  • your business only uses one property - you may still be able to get relief if you use more

You cannot get small business rate relief and charitable rate relief at the same time. Your local council will decide which type of relief you’re eligible for.

What you’ll get

How much small business rate relief you get depends on your property’s rateable value.

You will not pay business rates on a property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less, if that’s the only property your business uses.

For properties with a rateable value of £12,001 to £15,000, the rate of relief will go down gradually from 100% to 0%.

Example

If your rateable value is £13,500, you’ll get 50% off your bill. If your rateable value is £14,000, you’ll get 33% off.

If you use more than one property

When you get a second property, you’ll keep getting any existing relief on your main property for 12 months.

You can still get small business rate relief on your main property after this if both the following apply:

  • none of your other properties have a rateable value above £2,899

  • the total rateable value of all your properties is less than £20,000 (£28,000 in London)

How to get small business rate relief

Contact your local council to:

  • check if you’re eligible

  • find out how to get small business rate relief

  • check if you can get any other types of business rates relief on top of small business rate 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

The amount of small business rate relief you’re eligible for may change. For example, it may decrease if the rateable value of your property has increased.

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 small business rate relief but are not

Contact your local council if you’re not getting small business rate relief and you think you’re eligible for it.

If you think your rateable value is wrong

You can challenge your property’s rateable value with the VOA. Use your business rates valuation account to do this.

If you’re getting less small business rate relief since 1 April 2023

You may be eligible for the supporting small business relief scheme if you’ve lost some or all of your small business rate relief because of the revaluation on 1 April 2023.

Find out more about the supporting small business relief scheme.

If you’re a small business but do not qualify for small business rate relief

Your business rates bill is calculated using a ‘multiplier’ - your rateable value is multiplied by this number to get your final bill.

If your property has a rateable value below £51,000, your bill will be calculated using the small business multiplier, which is lower than the standard one. This is the case even if you do not get small business rate relief.

The small business multiplier is 49.9p and the standard multiplier is 51.2p from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. The multipliers may be different in the City of London.

Find out how to estimate your business rates bill.

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

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