Business rates relief is a reduction in your bill, worked out and applied by your local council. Some reliefs apply automatically, but others you have to ask for. Tell your council when anything changes that could affect your bill, such as a second property, an empty property or an extension, so you do not face a backdated increase.
The text here sets out the English rules. The boxes below it give the rules for the other nations, which have their own schemes.
Small business rate relief
If you do not qualify for the relief, you may still pay less. A property with a rateable value below £51,000 is billed at the small business multiplier, which is lower than the standard one.
Shops, restaurants and leisure venues
Retail, hospitality and leisure relief ended after the 2025 to 2026 billing year, and you can no longer make a new claim. From 1 April 2026, eligible shops, restaurants, cafés, bars, pubs, cinemas, gyms and hotels are billed at lower multipliers instead. If you had the relief before, you will usually qualify for these, and your council applies them to your bill. Ask your council to confirm your property is eligible.
Empty property
If the property is only partly empty, your council may offer a short break on the empty part. If it cannot be used because it is being repaired or refurbished, tell the Valuation Office, which decides whether you pay rates until it can be used again.
Charities and community amateur sports clubs
Your council may ask for your charity registration number, or for proof that a sports club is registered with HMRC.
When a revaluation raises your bill
Transitional relief limits how much your bill can rise each year after a revaluation, and your council applies it automatically. If you lost small business rate relief, rural rate relief or retail, hospitality and leisure relief when values changed on 1 April 2026, supporting small business relief caps the rise in 2026 to 2027. It limits the increase to the larger of £800 or a percentage set by rateable value, and your council adjusts your bill.
If paying would put your business in financial difficulty, ask your council about hardship relief. It can reduce or cancel a bill where that is in the interests of local people. Rural rate relief, improvement relief and relief for pubs and live music venues also exist, and your council can tell you whether you qualify.
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Find your rateable value
Look it up on the Valuation Office service for England and Wales, with the local assessor in Scotland, or with Land and Property Services in Northern Ireland.
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Ask your council which reliefs apply
Contact the council that sends your bill, say what the property is used for, and ask whether it applies each relief automatically or needs an application.
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Report changes straight away
Tell the council when a property becomes empty, you take on another property or the use changes, and tell the Valuation Office about extensions or alterations.
Legal basis
Primary legislation and key regulations