Local discretionary rate relief

The law allows us to give discounts on business rates where it's in the best interests of Council Tax payers. 

How much discretionary relief businesses can get

If we decide to give a discount, you could get up to 100% off your bill. 

How to apply for discretionary rate relief

To apply for local discretionary relief, contact the Business Rates team. You'll need to explain why you need the relief and include as much information as you can to support your application.

You must keep paying your rates as normal until you hear back from us, unless we've agreed you don't need to.

What happens next

We'll consider your application taking into account a variety of factors including:

• the long term prospects for the business
• jobs
• the impact on other businesses and the local community
• whether giving the relief will directly contribute to attracting investment, jobs or other businesses into the area
• fairness in relation to other local businesses

We might need to arrange to visit you.

Once we've made our decision, we'll let you know. We'll send you a new bill if we decide to give you a discount. We try to make decisions within 2 weeks of getting all the information.

Subsidy control

Discretionary rates relief is subject to the Minimal Financial Assistance limits under the Subsidy Control Act. This means no recipient can receive over £315,000 over a 3-year period (consisting of the current financial year and the 2 previous financial years). Extended Retail Discounts granted in 2021-22 do not count towards the limit. Covid business grants received from local government and any other subsidy claimed under the Minimal Financial Assistance or Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit over the 3-year period should be counted.   

Renewing discretionary rate relief

Local discretionary rate relief doesn't renew automatically, but you can reapply.  

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