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Business Rates

Spring 2017 Budget Changes

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On the 8 March 2017 the Chancellor announced proposals for additional schemes of relief that will be made available (subject to qualifying criteria) to help businesses and pubs to manage the impact of large increases in the 2017 revaluations.

What additional support is available?

£1,000 pub support relief

This is a new relief scheme for pubs that have a rateable value under £100,000. This scheme means that eligible pubs will receive a £1,000 discount on their bill. The scheme will start on the 1 April and will be in place for one year.

To see if you are eligible and apply online for public house rate relief.

Supporting small businesses relief

Because of the changes made to rateable values in the revaluation, some ratepayers are losing some or all of their Small Business or Rural Rate Relief. This has resulted in some businesses experiencing large increases in their bills. To support these businesses, the new Supporting Small Business Relief will ensure that the increase will be limited to £600 per year. This scheme will start on the 1 April 2017.

The following year (2018/2019), the bill will not increase by more than £1,200 and in 2019/2020 the bill will not increase by more than £1,800, and so on. The scheme will last for 5 years. The discount will end when the bill reaches the amount that would have been paid without the scheme. The relief will also end if the property falls vacant.

Discretionary relief scheme

The Government has set up a £300m discretionary fund to support those businesses facing the steepest increases in their business rates as a result of the revaluation. This will be available from the 1 April 2017 for four years. The idea is that every billing authority in England will be provided with a share of this fund which authorities will use in order to develop their own discretionary relief schemes so they can deliver targeted support.

What do you need to do?

You do not need to contact us regarding these changes.

We have identified those ratepayers who qualify for relief under this scheme and have issued revised bills. This relief was backdated to 1st April 2017.

The qualifying criteria for this relief can be found below: