This release provides data on the forecast of non-domestic rating income due to local authorities in 2025-26, including data relating to the amount of business rates reliefs forecast to be given to businesses. One authority has not yet returned the NNDR1 form, and is not included in the totals in this release. This release will be updated in due course to include their data.

1. In this release:

• Local authorities estimate the non-domestic rating income for 2025-26 will be £27.7 billion. This is what authorities estimate they will collect after all reliefs, accounting adjustments and sums retained outside the rates retention scheme are taken into consideration.
• Local authorities estimate that they will grant a total of £7.4 billion of relief from business rates in 2025-26. Of this, £5.7 billion is the cost of mandatory relief and £1.7 billion is the cost of discretionary relief.
• Within the mandatory relief, £2.3 billion in relief is given as charitable occupation relief, £2.1 billion is expected to be given in small business rate relief and £1.1 billion in empty property relief.
• Within discretionary relief, £1.4 billion is the cost of retail, hospitality and leisure relief.

2. Introduction

This release has been compiled by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and it provides information on national non-domestic rates and associated information for the financial year 2025-26. This information is derived from the national non-domestic rates (NNDR1) returns submitted by the 296 billing authorities in England that will be in existence from 1 April 2025. One authority, Bromley, has not yet returned the NNDR1 form, and is not included in the totals in this release. This release will be updated in due course to include their data. Last year, they contributed 0.7% to the total net ratings income, so the impact of the missing data is minimal.

Non-domestic rates, or business rates, are collected by billing authorities and are the way in which those that occupy a non-domestic property (or hereditament) contribute towards local services. Since 2013-14 local authorities are allowed to retain a proportion of the revenue that is generated in their area. The NNDR1 form collects data that estimates what authorities will collect and the outturn data (collected on the NNDR3) is what was collected.

Apart from properties that are exempt from business rates, such as agricultural land, parks and places of worship, each non-domestic property has a rateable value which is set by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). Billing authorities work out the business rates liability for every hereditament by multiplying the rateable value of the property by the appropriate multiplier.

The multipliers are set each financial year for England according to formula set by legislation, which, from 2018-19 have been determined by the increase in the previous September’s Consumer Price Index. Government can decide to cap the multiplier and compensate authorities for the loss of income through Section 31 grant. Until 1 April 2024, there were two multipliers, the non-domestic multiplier and the small business non-domestic rate multiplier. The former was higher because it included a supplement which is used to fund the Small Business Rate Relief scheme. Since 2024-25, the multipliers have been decoupled so that the standard and small multipliers can be set separately.

Rateable properties may be eligible for discounts or reliefs on their business rates bills. Some of these are mandatory (i.e. they are automatic entitlements in any billing authority area) and some reliefs are discretionary, which are granted at a billing authority’s discretion. As new reliefs have been introduced since the start of this series, and some of these reliefs were time limited, changes across years are not strictly comparable. Further information about the types of reliefs available are presented in Table 2.

Further details about the business rates retention scheme and an explanation of hereditaments can be found in the Definitions section of the accompanying technical document.

The data in this release should not be directly compared from year to year because of different changes to business rates arising from regular revaluations of businesses, changes to reliefs and, in 2024-25, the decoupling of the business rates multipliers and changes to how some reliefs can be given. Notes are provided to these changes under each table and explained in the special factors below.

2.1 Technical Information

Please see the accompanying technical notes document for further details.

Revaluation and transitional relief

Every few years, the government adjusts the rateable value of business properties to reflect changes in the property market. This is known as a revaluation. At revaluation, the government also revises the non-domestic and small business non-domestic multipliers to reflect the aggregate change in rateable values.

The latest revaluation came into effect on the 1 April 2023 and reflected the rental market as at 1 April 2021. The tables in this release therefore show a discontinuity between 2023-24 and 2024-25 because this affects gross business rates and the amount of relief granted.

At a revaluation, the government also puts in place a transitional scheme that protects small and medium business ratepayers from significant step-changes in bills, by phasing in increases over a number of years. The cost of the transitional scheme is shown in Table 1. Since 2024-25, this only reflects the revenue foregone due to phasing down the rates bills of ratepayers as a result of the transitional scheme. In previous years authorities reported a net cost, as previously the cost of revenue foregone by delaying increases to bills was offset by additional income raised by delaying reductions to bills.

Small business rates relief

Small business rates relief provides 100% relief to all businesses that have a rateable value of below £12,000, and a tapering relief for businesses with a rateable value between £12,000 and £15,000. The threshold at which a higher multiplier is applied is £51,000.

Multipliers

The Non-Domestic Rating (NDR) Act 2023 introduced a number of changes to the way business rates multipliers are calculated and applied. The Act de-coupled the small business rating and standard rating multipliers, allowing the government to treat the multipliers differently and the concept of a supplement to be removed.

Previously the standard multiplier was equal to the small business rating multiplier, plus a supplement figure (originally designed to recover the cost of small business rate relief), set at 1.3p above the small multiplier in recent years. The two multipliers therefore only changed when the small business rating multiplier changed. In recent years, the small business rates multiplier has either been frozen or capped below the CPI.

While both multipliers are independently linked to CPI as default, at Autumn Budget in October 2024, the Chancellor announced that the small business rates multiplier would remain frozen at 49.9p for 2025-26 while the standard business rates multiplier will be uprated in line with September CPI from 54.6p to 55.5p.

Further details of the standard multiplier and small business rate multiplier and the new reliefs can be found in the technical notes accompanying this release.

2.2 Comparisons between years

The data presented in the tables for 2021-22 to 2023-24 are based on out-turn data provided via the NNDR3 form. Data for 2024-25 and 2025-26 are based on forecast data. Some differences arise in the reporting of data between the two forms.

Changes arising from the Non-Domestic Rating Act

There were a number of changes introduced in the Non-Domestic Rating Act that mean that the data from 2024-25 onwards will be different to previous years. These changes are set out below.

(a) Decoupling of the multiplier

All authorities have provided 2025-26 data on gross rates and reliefs split between the small and standard business rating multipliers. These changes can be seen in the local authority level table. In 2024-25 this split was not possible for a small number of authorities, so data on reliefs was recorded in the small business rates columns. Therefore, comparisons at the local authority level may be affected by this.

The disaggregation of the data allows the compensation shown in Table 3 to be calculated more accurately for each relief. This means that a proportion of compensation that would previously have been calculated for the individual reliefs are now showing within the figure for the cost of compensation for the capping of the multiplier. See Table 3 for more details.

(b) From 1 April 2024, the small business multiplier’s eligibility was extended to properties below the threshold for the national multiplier at £51,000 which are vacant, on the central list or occupied by charities.

(c) From 1 April 2024, the rural rate relief became a mandatory 100% relief, rather than a mandatory 50% relief, with a further 50% relief to be given through discretionary relief (funded and unfunded). Authorities will continue to be compensated via section 31 grant for 50% of the relief that they award, reflecting government’s decision to change the percentage rate of relief.

(d) From 1 April 2024, the Low Carbon Heat Network relief became a mandatory relief, rather than the section 47 discretionary relief that has been in place since 1 April 2022.

(e) From 1 April 2024, Improvement relief became a mandatory relief. However, regulations were not finalised in time for the 2024-25 NNDR1 data collection exercise, so is being reported for the first time for 2025-26. For 2024-25 the value of any relief granted in 2024-25 will be collected on outturn.

(f) The restriction preventing billing authorities from making a decision to award discretionary relief more than 6 months after the end of the relevant financial year was removed. From 1 April 2024 there are no restrictions in respect of the financial year 2023-24 onwards. This does not apply to years before 2023-24.

(g) Investment zones that have met the requirements to be designated will be designated in regulations. Those that have received that designation have been included in this data collection.

Revaluation

The latest revaluation came into effect on the 1 April 2023 so there is a discontinuity between 2022-23 and 2023-24. Transitional arrangements are reduced in the years after the revaluation, so that transitional relief will be lower in 2025-26, having also seen a reduction in 2024-25.

Business rates multiplier

As well as the changes to the multiplier as described above, business rates multipliers were capped in each year from 2020-21. The compensation for this cap is included in Table 3, and is affected by both the cumulative effect of capping the multiplier for the last four consecutive years, and the level of inflation in September 2025.

2.3 Special factors affecting 2025-26

Additional reliefs

In the 2024 Spring Budget, the government announced a Film Studios relief that would provide a 40% relief on their gross business rates bills until 2034. This was backdated to the 1 April 2024. This therefore was not part of the 2024-25 forecast collection, but will be collected in 2024-25 outturn. Although guidance was not issued before the NNDR1 2025-26 data collection exercise, some authorities with existing film studios have included forecasts of this relief.

In the 2024 Autumn Budget, the government announced the continuation of the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief Scheme into 2025-26. In 2025-26, eligible properties will receive a 40% relief on business rates, up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business. This is a decrease from 75% in both 2023-24 and 2024-25. In 2020-21, and the first three months of 2021-22, the relief was 100%, dropping to 66% in the remaining months of 2021-22 with a cash cap. It was reduced to 50% in 2022-23.

Other factors

In the 2024 Autumn Budget, the government also announced that private schools in England would no longer be eligible for charitable rates relief, unless they were private schools which are ‘wholly or mainly’ concerned with providing full time education to pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This is not specifically identified in this data collection, but some authorities have reported this as a reason for a decrease in their data for this relief.

3. National non-domestic rates to be collected by local authorities in England 2025-26

Table 1 gives details of the amount of national non-domestic rates local authorities estimate they will collect in 2025-26 and the reliefs they will grant. The multipliers used are also shown.

Until 2024-25, the national non-domestic multiplier for 2023-24 included a 1.3p supplement to fund the Small Business Rate Relief scheme, and that additional yield was deducted from the cost of the relief. As described in the introduction, the multipliers have been decoupled and the supplement is no longer used.

The cost of transitional arrangements shown in the table since 2023-24 reflects the revenue foregone because the rates bills of ratepayers are being phased down as a result of the transitional scheme. Previously this has been a net cost with the cost of revenue foregone by delaying increases to bills offset by additional income by delaying reductions to bills.

Chart 1 shows the flow from gross rates to net rates forecast in 2025-26. Chart 2 shows how gross and net rates have changed since 2016-17.

• Local authorities estimate the non-domestic rating income for 2025-26 will be £27.7 billion. This is what authorities estimate they will collect after all reliefs, accounting adjustments and sums retained outside the rates retention scheme are taken into consideration.

• Local authorities report they will grant a total of £7.4 billion of relief from business rates in 2025-26. Of this, £5.7 billion is the cost of mandatory relief and £1.7 billion is the cost of discretionary relief.

3.1 Appeals

As part of the NNDR1 process authorities are required to make an estimate of how much income they will forego as a result of changes to rating lists, including appeals by businesses against their valuations. This includes both income not collected in year and also refunds they have to make in respect of previous years.

• Local authorities estimate the appeals provision will be £957 million in 2025-26. The figure for 2025-26 represents authorities’ best estimate of the total future loss of non-domestic rates on the 2023 Rating list.

Table 1: National non-domestic rates to be collected by local authorities 2021-22 to 2025-26

Year	2021 to 2022 Outturn		2022 to 2023 Outturn		2023 to 2024 Outturn		2024 to 2025 Forecast		2025 to 2026 Forecast
Gross rates payable in year	30,801		30,731	||	32,332	||	36,356		36,937
Total cost of reliefs	10,275		7,685	||	7,021	||	8,277		7,360
Of which mandatory relief [Note 1]	5,005		4,891	||	4,539	||	5,543		5,654
Of which discretionary relief [Note 2]	5,270		2,794	||	2,482	||	2,733		1,705
Gross Rates Payable in year less total cost of reliefs	20,526		23,046	||	25,310	||	28,079		29,577
Net cost of transitional arrangement [Note 3]	182		121	||	[z]	||	[z]		[z]
Cost of transitional arrangement [Note 4]	[z]		[z]	||	-1,654	||	-684		-182
Net Rates Yield (Gross Rates Payable less reliefs plus net cost of Transition)	20,708		23,166	||	23,657	||	27,396		29,395
Total cost of accounting adjustments	-211		-190	||	-218	||	1,381		1,377
Of which losses in collection [Note 5]	136		176	||	163	||	394		419
Of which net addition to appeals provision [Note 6]	-348		-366	||	-398	||	986		957
Of which interest payable	0		0	||	17	||	[z]		[z]
Other deductions from collectable rates [Note 7]	278		217	||	-1,557	||	-586		-85
Of which transitional protection payments made to authorities	182		121	||	-1,654	||	-684		-182
Of which other deductions	96		96	||	97	||	98		97
Total Disregarded Amounts [Note 8]	199		220	||	304	||	334		401
Of which amounts retained in respect of Designated Areas	106		110	||	175	||	198		257
Of which amounts retained in respect of Renewable Energy schemes	93		109	||	129	||	136		145
Non-domestic rating income from rates retention scheme (Net Rates yield less Accounting adjustments, Other deductions & Disregarded amounts)	20,442		22,919	||	25,127	||	26,267		27,702

Year	2021 to 2022		2022 to 2023		2023 to 2024		2024 to 2025		2025 to 2026
Small business rate multiplier (pence)	49.9		49.9		49.9		49.9		49.9
Standard business rate multiplier (pence) [Note 9]	51.2		51.2		51.2		54.6		55.5
Number of hereditaments on rating list close to 30 Sept (`000s)	1,996		2,006		2,015		2,011		2,003
Total aggregate rateable value of all hereditaments on rating list close to 30 Sept (million pounds) [Note 10]	63,910		63,634	||	67,877		67,968		68,315

Source: Outturn data are taken from NNDR3 forms, forecast data are taken from NNDR1 forms.
[Note 1] Prior to 2024-25, the small business rates relief was partially funded through the small business rates supplement. This was set at 1.3p. In 2024-25, the small and standard multipliers were decoupled, and the concept of the supplement removed. Therefore the total mandatory relief will appear to be greater, because there is no additional yield from the small business rates supplement.
[Note 2] The discretionary section 31 funded reliefs include the retail, hospitality and leisure relief. In 2020-21 the previous relief scheme was expanded in response to the coronavirus pandemic to provide a 100% relief to all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. In 2021-22 the relief gave a 100% discount for the first three months and then a 66% discount for the remaining months with a cap on the relief for each business. In 2022-23 it was a 50% discount with a cap on the relief, increasing to 75% in 2023-24 and remaining unchanged in 2024-25. In 2025-26 it is a 40% discount with a cap on the relief.
[Note 3] The transitional relief scheme from the 2017 revaluation expired in 2021-22. In 2023-24, authorities could give the same support to businesses using the supporting small business relief (a discretionary relief), and so what would normally be the cost of the transitional scheme is included in the Discretionary Reliefs figure.
[Note 4] From 2023-24 onward, the transitional relief scheme changed so that it was fully funded by central government. In previous years authorities reported a net cost with the cost of revenue foregone by delaying increases to bills offset by additional income by delaying reductions to bills. This is now shown on a separate line. From 2023-24 the cost only reflects the revenue foregone by delaying increases to bills. Figures are shown as negative as they are deducted from Net Rates Yield.
[Note 5] Write offs to the allowance for non-collection are not included in the Total cost of Accounting Adjustments.
[Note 6] The outturn data for net addition to appeals is systematically lower than the forecast data as local authorities do not forecast reductions in the appeals provision.
[Note 7] Other deductions from collectable rates includes an allowance for cost of collection & legal costs, a special authority deduction for the City of London, and the cost of transitional protection payments made to authorities to reverse the effects of transitional arrangements.
[Note 8] The total disregarded amount also includes amounts retained in respect of shale gas. However, since 2022-23 there have been no shale gas relief reported.
[Note 9] Prior to 2024-25 this was known as the Non-Domestic Rating Multiplier.
[Note 10] 2021-22 VOA data is at 7 October 2020, 2023-24 VOA data is as at 15 October 2021, 2024-25 VOA data is the draft 2023 list published on 17 November 2022, 2024-25 VOA data is at 4 October 2023 and 2025-26 VOA data is at 3 October 2024.

3.2 Chart 1: Breakdown of gross rates payable

Chart 1 shows how reliefs and other adjustments are deducted from gross rates to arrive at the forecast net business rates income for 2025-26.

3.3 Chart 2: Business rates over time

Chart 2 shows gross rates collected increasing steadily until the pandemic in 2020-21. It then shows a period of little change, until a step change due to the 2023 revaluation. Gross rates increased in 2024-25 and 2025-26 due to the increase in the standard multiplier. Net income was increasing steadily prior to 2020-21, then fell sharply due to the retail, hospitality and leisure discount relief introduced in response to the pandemic but has increased steadily year on year since then as the relief and eligibility has changed.

3.4 Map 1: Net rates income in England

There are data for each local authority in England in the tables accompanying this release covering the amount of business rates income and reliefs granted. Map 1 provides an overview of how forecast net business rates income in 2025-26 differs across England, and has been split into 5 equal ranges.

3.5 Map 2: Net rates income in London

Map 2 provides an overview of how forecast net business rates income in 2025-26 differs between local authorities in London. Authorities have been split into the same 5 ranges as in Map 1.

4. Reliefs to be granted by local authorities in 2025-26

Table 2 shows figures for mandatory and discretionary reliefs which billing authorities expect they will grant in 2025-26. Mandatory reliefs are automatic entitlements in any billing authority area whereas discretionary reliefs are granted at a billing authority’s discretion. Chart 3 shows how the largest reliefs have changed since 2021-22.

• Of the estimated £7.4 billion relief to be granted from business rates in 2025-26, £5.7 billion is mandatory relief which consists primarily of small business, charity and empty premises relief.

• Authorities estimate the amount of relief to be granted to empty premises in 2025-26 will be £1.1 billion.

• Total relief provided to charitable occupations is expected to amount to £2.4 billion in respect of 2025-26, of which £2.3 billion is mandatory. These reliefs account for 32% of the total relief to be granted.

• Local authorities expect to grant a total of £1.7 billion discretionary relief in 2025-26, of which £1.4 billion is the cost of the retail, hospitality and leisure relief. The retail, hospitality and leisure relief accounts for 19% of the total relief to be granted.

Table 2: Cost of reliefs from national non-domestic rates: 2021-22 to 2025-26 [Note 1]

Year	2021 to 2022 Outturn		2022 to 2023 Outturn		2023 to 2024 Outturn		2024 to 2025 Forecast		2025 to 2026 Forecast
Total cost of mandatory relief [Note 2]	5,005		4,891	||	4,539	||	5,543		5,654
Of which total mandatory relief in respect of current year [Note 2]	4,811		4,806	||	4,695	||	5,467		5,594
Of which small business relief in respect of current year	2,161		2,211	||	1,947	||	2,026		2,121
And of which relief on existing properties where a 2nd property is occupied	5		5	||	4	||	2		3
Of which deduction due to additional yield generated from the small business supplement [Note 2]	-626		-626	||	-674	||	[z]		[z]
Of which charitable occupation	2,040		2,036	||	2,191	||	2,347		2,331
Of which community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs)	22		22	||	21	||	23		23
Of which rural rate relief [Note 4]	4		4	||	3	||	6		6
Of which telecoms relief	2		[z]	||	[z]	||	[z]		[z]
Of which Public Lavatories relief	5		5	||	4	||	4		4
Of which low carbon heat networks relief	[z]		[z]	||	[z]	||	3		3
Of which improvement relief	[z]		[z]	||	[z]	||	[z]		5
Of which partially occupied hereditaments	16		13	||	15	||	14		17
Of which empty premises	1,187		1,141	||	1,188	||	1,043		1,083
Of which mandatory relief in respect of previous years	195		85	||	-156	||	[z]		[z]
Of which changes as a result of local estimates of growth or decline in mandatory relief	[z]		[z]	||	[z]	||	77		60
Total cost of discretionary relief	5,270		2,794	||	2,482	||	2,733		1,706
Of which discretionary relief unfunded through section 31 grants in respect of current year	101		103	||	100	||	108		114
Of which charitable occupation	45		48	||	48	||	49		48
Of which Non-profit making bodies	33		36	||	37	||	37		38
Of which Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs)	1		1	||	2	||	1		2
Of which rural rate relief	0		0	||	0	||	[z]		[z]
Of which small rural businesses	1		1	||	1	||	1		1
Of which other ratepayers under s47	20		16	||	12	||	20		25
Of which hardship relief	1		0	||	1	||	[z]		[z]
Of which unfunded discretionary relief in respect of previous years	6		5	||	-1	||	[z]		[z]
Of which total cost of discretionary relief funded through S31 grant in respect of current year	5,188		1,726	||	2,558	||	2,624		1,590
Of which Flooding relief	0		0	||	1	||	[z]		[z]
Of which Rural Rate relief	4		4	||	3	||	[z]		[z]
Of which Local Newspaper Temporary relief	0		0	||	0	||	0		[z]
Of which Supporting Small Businesses relief [Note 3], [Note 5]	11		20	||	237	||	211		200
Of which retail, hospitality and leisure relief [Note 6]	4,940		1,701	||	2,314	||	2,413		1,377
Of which nursery relief	63		[z]	||	[z]	||	[z]		[z]
Of which COVID-19 additional relief	171		[z]	||	[z]	||	[z]		[z]
Of which low carbon heat networks relief	[z]		1	||	2	||	[z]		[z]
Of which film studio relief	[z]		[z]	||	[z]	||	[z]		13
Of which discretionary relief funded through S31 grants in respect of previous years	-25		960	||	-175	||	[z]		[z]
Of which changes as a result of local estimates of growth or decline in discretionary relief	[z]		[z]	||	[z]	||	2		2
TOTAL COST OF ALL RELIEFS	10,275		7,685	||	7,021	||	8,277		7,360

Source: Outturn data are taken from NNDR3 forms, forecast data are taken from NNDR1 forms.
[Note 1] 0 values are below £0.5 million.
[Note 2] Prior to 2024-25, the small business rates relief was partially funded through the small business rates supplement. This was set at 1.3p. In 2024-25, the small and standard multipliers were decoupled, and the concept of the supplement removed. Therefore the total mandatory relief will appear to be greater, because there is no additional yield from the small business rates supplement.
[Note 3] The transitional relief scheme from the 2017 revaluation expired in 2021-22. In 2022-23, authorities could give the same support to businesses using the supporting small business relief (a discretionary relief), and so what would normally be the cost of the transitional scheme is included in the Discretionary Reliefs figure.
[Note 4] From 2024-25, mandatory rural rate relief has increased from 50% to 100%, and discretionary rural rate relief (both funded and unfunded) has not been required.
[Note 5] From 2023-24, supporting small business relief capped bill increases at £600 per year for businesses that lost eligibility for, or saw reductions in, Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) or Rural Rate Relief (RRR) as a result of the 2023 business rates revaluation. This meant that there was a large increase in 2023-24 as the scheme applied to the new revaluation.
[Note 6] The discretionary section 31 funded reliefs include the retail, hospitality and leisure relief. In 2020-21 the previous relief was expanded in response to the coronavirus pandemic to provide a 100% relief to all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. In 2021-22 the relief gave a 100% discount for the first three months and then a 66% discount for the remaining months with a cap on the relief for each business. In 2022-23 it was a 50% discount with a cap on the relief, increasing to 75% in 2023-24 and remaining unchanged in 2024-25. In 2025-26 it is a 40% discount with a cap on the relief.

4.1 Chart 3: Business rates reliefs over time

Chart 3 shows that there is little change in the amount of the larger business rates reliefs granted since 2021-22, with the exception of the retail, hospitality and leisure relief which has changed due to changes in the amount of relief given and the eligibility criteria of the relief.

5. Reliefs to be funded by Section 31 grants

Since 2013-14, a number of measures have been announced by the Chancellor in Autumn Statements and Budgets which have made changes to the national non-domestic rates scheme. Central government compensates local authorities for these changes and this compensation is made outside of the rate retention scheme by means of a Section 31 (S31) grant. The grants are given to local authorities to fund activities which are not covered by existing payment schedules or methods. Details on the measures in Table 3 can be found in the technical notes published alongside this release.

The amounts shown in Table 3 are the Section 31 grant to be paid to local authorities to compensate them for the loss of income arising from the measures listed, depending on what share of the total they can retain. They differ from the amounts shown in Table 2 which show the total amount of relief to be granted to business ratepayers under each of the measures as they exclude the central government share of the reliefs.

As a result of the decoupling of the small and standard rating multiplier in 2024-25, authorities were asked to disaggregate the reliefs between those on the small and standard multiplier.

The disaggregation of the data allows the compensation to be calculated more accurately for each relief than prior to 2024-25. This means that a proportion of compensation that would previously have been calculated for the individual reliefs is now showing within the figure for the cost of compensation for the capping of the multiplier. This has resulted in decreases to the reported compensation for all other reliefs and a corresponding larger increase to the reported cost of capping the increase in the small business rates multiplier since 2024-25.

Table 3 shows the Section 31 grants paid to local authorities from 2021-22 to 2023-24 and what authorities expect to be paid in 2024-25 and 2025-26.

Table 3: Section 31 grants due to authorities for national non-domestic rates measures 2021-22 to 2025-26 [Note 1]

Year	2021 to 2022 Outturn		2022 to 2023 Outturn		2023 to 2024 Outturn		2024 to 2025 Forecast [Note 2]		2025 to 2026 Forecast
Capping the increase in the small business rates multiplier [Note 3]	668		1,466	||	2,692	||	3,547		3,709
Cost of doubling SBRR and threshold changes	1,030		1,102	||	1,032	||	895		933
Maintaining small business rates relief on “first” properties	4		4	||	3	||	1		2
Relief to newly built properties [Note 2]	0		0	||	0	||	[z]		[z]
Relief awarded on the occupation of “long-term empty” properties	0		0	||	0	||	[z]		[z]
Retail relief	4		-1	||	-6	||	[z]		[z]
Flooding relief	0		0	||	1	||	[z]		[z]
Rural Rate relief	2		2	||	2	||	1		2
Local Newspaper Temporary relief	0		0	||	0	||	0		[z]
In Lieu of Transitional relief [Note 4]	0		1	||	0	||	[z]		[z]
Supporting Small Businesses relief [Note 4], [Note 5]	7		13	||	167	||	129		121
Discretionary Scheme relief	-1		-1	||	-1	||	[z]		[z]
Pub relief	0		0	||	0	||	[z]		[z]
Enterprise Zone relief provided in 100% Pilot Areas	3		2	||	1	||	1		0
Telecoms relief	3		0	||	0	||	[z]		[z]
Retail, hospitality and leisure relief [Note 6]	3,212		1,091	||	1,563	||	1,485		850
Nursery Relief	42		1	||	0	||	[z]		[z]
Public Lavatories relief	5		3	||	3	||	2		3
COVID-19 Additional Relief	101		748	||	-16	||	[z]		[z]
Freeports relief	[z]		0	||	3	||	9		17
Low carbon heat networks relief	[z]		1	||	2	||	2		2
Investment zones relief [Note 7]	[z]		[z]	||	[z]	||	0		0
Improvement relief	[z]		[z]	||	[z]	||	[z]		3
Film studio relief	[z]		[z]	||	[z]	||	[z]		7
Total amount of reliefs funded by Section 31 grants	5,079		4,432	||	5,446	||	6,072		5,649

Source: Outturn data are taken from NNDR3 forms, forecast data are taken from NNDR1 forms.
Note: Since 2017-18 some authorities have been able to retain more than a 50% share of income. The amount of share and authorities involved have change from year to year, and so annual figures are not directly comparable.
[Note 1] 0 values are below £0.5 million.
[Note 2] As a result of the decoupling of the small and standard multiplier, a proportion of compensation that, prior to 2024-25, would have been calculated for the individual reliefs are now showing within the figure for the cost of compensation for the capping of the multiplier.
[Note 3] The relief in respect of capping the small business rates multiplier is particularly high in 2023-24 as inflation was higher than the levels seen in earlier years. The cap was at the same level of 49.9p throughout these years. This means the difference between the multiplier and what it would have been without the cap increased more than usual in those years.
[Note 4] The transitional relief scheme from the 2017 revaluation expired in 2021-22. In 2023-24, authorities could give the same support to businesses using the supporting small business relief (a discretionary relief), and so what would normally be the cost of the transitional scheme is included in the Discretionary Reliefs figure.
[Note 5] From 2023-24, supporting small business relief capped bill increases at £600 per year for businesses that lost eligibility for, or saw reductions in, Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) or Rural Rate Relief (RRR) as a result of the 2023 business rates revaluation. This meant that there was a large increase in 2023-24 as the scheme applied to the new revaluation.
[Note 6] The discretionary section 31 funded reliefs include the retail, hospitality and leisure relief. In 2020-21 the previous relief scheme was expanded in response to the coronavirus pandemic to provide a 100% relief to all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. In 2021-22 the relief gave a 100% discount for the first three months and then a 66% discount for the remaining months with a cap on the relief for each business. In 2022-23 it was a 50% discount with a cap on the relief, increasing to 75% in 2023-24 and remaining unchanged in 2024-25. In 2025-26 it is a 40% discount with a cap on the relief.
[Note 7] No local authority estimated relief for an investment zone in 2024-25 or 2025-26.

6. Accompanying tables and open data

6.1 Symbols used

0 = zero or negligible (usually less than 0.5 million)
[z] = not relevant
|| = a discontinuity in data between years

6.2 Rounding

Where figures have been rounded, there may be a slight discrepancy between the total and the sum of constituent parts.

7. Tables

Accompanying tables are available to download alongside this release. These include Tables 1 to 3 for England and local authority level data. Table 4 with the number of hereditaments in receipt of mandatory and discretionary rate relief and data for individual local authorities will be available in a later update.

8. Open data

These statistics are available in fully open and linkable data formats.

9. Technical notes

Please see the accompanying technical notes document for further details.

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