Reliefs and reductions

Who can apply for discretionary rate relief?

1. A charity or trustees for a charity and CASCs, where they are the ratepayer and the premises are wholly or mainly
   used for charitable purposes. They will also qualify for 80% mandatory relief under Sections 43 & 45 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988.

2. One or more organisations, occupying the premises, which are not established or conducted for profit.  Each of the organisation’s main objectives must be either:

• charitable
• recreational
• philanthropic
• religious
• concerned with education
• concerned with social welfare
• concerned with science, fine arts or literature.

      3. Clubs, societies, or other organisations not established or conducted for profit, which occupy premises used wholly or mainly for the purposes of recreation.

How much discretionary rate relief can be granted?

Up to 20% can be granted to charities and up to 100% to non-charities.

Who pays for the relief?

Central Government meets part of the cost of all discretionary rate relief. The local council tax payers meet the rest of the cost.

Time limits

The Non-Domestic Rating Act 2023
From Royal Assent, 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 has been removed effective from 1 April 2024.

If you already receive (or have received) relief for another property in the borough

As both discretionary and mandatory rate relief depends on the use of premises you need to complete a new application for each property you occupy.

You will not necessarily be granted discretionary rate relief just because you received it on a previous property.

If you share the property

Some properties are divided into a number of separate rating assessments. For example, separate rooms or floors in an office block may be individually assessed, alternatively the block may have just one assessment.

If you either share a rating assessment with another organisation, or another organisation uses your premises (for example if your clubhouse is regularly used by another group) then we need to know about them.

We need to know who they are, how often they use the premises and what they use the premises for.

Assess your claim within one calendar month

We aim to assess your claim within one calendar month of receipt, however if we are unable to do so we will advise you of how much longer it is likely to take.

Once your claim is assessed we will inform you of the decision in writing.

• Discretionary Rate Relief online application form

• Discretionary Rate Relief Policy