Property reliefs

You do not usually have to pay business rates on empty buildings for 3 months.  After this time, most businesses must pay full business rates.

This is to bring vacant shops, offices, factories and warehouses back into use. The intention is to encourage owners to re-let, redevelop or sell unused property; improving access to premises and reducing rents for businesses, as well as reducing the need for development on greenfield land.

Some properties can get extended empty property exemption.  These include:

• industrial premises (for example warehouses) are exempt for a further 3 months
• listed buildings – until they’re reoccupied
• buildings with a rateable value under £2,900 – until they’re reoccupied
• properties owned by charities – only if the property’s next use will be mostly for charitable purposes
• community amateur sports clubs buildings – only if the next use will be mostly as a sports club

Other circumstances can include insolvency or administration, the death of the owner or if there is a legal reason that the property can’t be occupied.  Please contact us for details.

To receive an exemption we will need to visit the property to confirm the property is empty.  Contact us to let us know when your property becomes vacant.  Please note retrospective empty exemptions will not be granted without supporting evidence.

Apply for Empty Property Rate Relief

The Council can award business rate relief on partly occupied properties on a short term basis. The granting of this relief is entirely under the discretion of HDC and each case will be considered on its merits and be referenced to the interests of Horsham Council taxpayers.

For full details, please see our Business Rates Discretionary Rate Relief Policy (PDF)

If you qualify and wish to apply, please contact us.

You'll usually get an 80% discount on your business rates bill if your business property is used as a charity or a Community Amateur Sports Club.

You can also apply for a discretionary top up to get 100% discount but we have limited funds and cannot award the help to everyone. For full details, please see our Business Rates Discretionary Rate Relief Policy (PDF)

Private Schools

The Government introduced primary legislation on the 13 November 2024 to amend the Local Government Finance Act 1988 to end charity rate relief eligibility for private schools.

As a result of this amendment, private schools run by charities are no longer eligible to 80% mandatory rate relief from 1 April 2025.

Apply for Charity / Non-Profit Making Organisation / Community Amateur Sports Club Relief

In exceptional circumstances, we can give hardship relief to a ratepayer in difficulty. Hardship relief is a discount on the rates payable for a specific period. It's a discretionary relief, which means it's not guaranteed.

You might be able to get hardship relief if all the following apply:

• your business is suffering unexpected hardship (financial or otherwise), and
• the rate payer would sustain hardship if the Authority did not do so, and
• it is reasonable for the Authority to do so, having regard to the interest of persons subject to its Council Tax.

You must be able to show you are taking reasonable steps to help yourself. We would expect you as a business owner to do everything you can to tackle the problems you are facing. This might mean, for example, getting  business advice, reducing overheads, reviewing pricing, offering discounts, extending the range of stock or services, or negotiating with creditors.

You can't get hardship relief to help establish a new business, unless the viability of the business is threatened by events you couldn't reasonably have foreseen.

For full details, please see our Hardship Relief Policy and Criteria (PDF)

Apply for Hardship Relief

Certain types of properties in a rural settlement with a population below 3,000 may be entitled to Rural Rate Relief. The property must be:

• the only general store, post office or food shop and have a rateable value of less than £8,500
• the only public house or petrol station and have a rateable value of less than £12,500
• the property has to be occupied

We can also grant relief to occupied properties with a rateable value of under £16,500 if the property is used for a purpose that benefits the community.

Apply for Rural Rate Relief

You can get small business rate relief if:

• your property’s rateable value is less than £15,000
• your business only uses one property - you may still be able to get relief if you use more

What you get

You will not pay business rates on a property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less.

For properties with a rateable value of £12,001 to £15,000, the rate of relief will go down gradually from 100% to 0%.

Examples

If your rateable value is £13,500, you’ll get 50% off your bill. If your rateable value is £14,000, you’ll receive a discount of 33%.

If you use more than one property

When you occupy a second property, you’ll keep getting any existing relief on your main property for 12 months.

You can still get small business rate relief on your main property after this if both the following apply:

• none of your other properties have a rateable value above £2,899
• the total rateable value of all your properties is less than £20,000

You’re a small business but do not qualify for small business rate relief

If your property in England has a rateable value below £51,000, your bill will be calculated using the small business multiplier, which is lower than the standard one.

Change in circumstances

Provided the ratepayer continues to satisfy the conditions for relief which apply at the relevant time as regards the property and the ratepayer, they will automatically continue to receive relief in each new valuation period.

Certain changes in circumstances will need to be notified to the local authority by a ratepayer who is in receipt of relief.

The changes which should be notified are—

(a)  the ratepayer taking up occupation of an additional property, and

(b)  an increase in the rateable value of a property occupied by the ratepayer in an area other than the area of the local authority which granted the relief.

Apply for Small Business Rates Relief

From 1 April 2017 the Government is providing funding to local authorities so that they can provide a discount worth £1,500 in year 2017/18 and 2018/19 for office space occupied by local newspapers. The Autumn budget 2018 extended this relief to financial year 2019/20.

In a Written Ministerial Statement 27 January 2020, the Government further extended this relief to apply in the financial years 2020/21 to 2024/25. Please note that this relief will cease at the end of the 2024/25 financial year.

For more information about State Aid please see the state aid website.

Eligibility criteria

This relief is administered under the local powers discount contained in Section 47 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988.

• The relief is available to local newspapers only
• The property must be occupied by a local newspaper and used wholly or mainly as offices for journalists and reporters
• You can only get the relief for one property per newspaper even if more than one property is used as offices for the newspaper.
• If several local newspapers use the same office, they can only get the relief on one newspaper title.
• Subject to State Aid limits

Exclusions

• Local council newspapers
• Online publications
• Local magazines

The Council must make a decision within 6 months of the end of the financial year for the discount to be granted.

Apply for Local Newspaper Relief

The Government has announced that the 2025/26 scheme will retain the existing eligibility criteria but reduce the level of relief to 40%, up to a cap limit of £110,000 per business group and subject to subsidy.

You could qualify for retail discount if your business is a:

• Shops (such as: florists, bakers, butchers, grocers, greengrocers, jewellers, stationers, off licences, chemists, newsagents, hardware stores, supermarkets, etc)
• Charity shops
• Opticians
• Post offices
• Furnishing shops/ display rooms (such as: carpet shops, double glazing, garage doors)
• Car/ caravan show rooms
• Second-hand car lots
• Markets
• Petrol stations
• Garden centres
• Art galleries (where art is for sale/hire)
• Hair and beauty services (such as: hairdressers, nail bars, beauty salons, tanning shops, etc)
• Shoe repairs/ key cutting
• Travel agents
• Ticket offices e.g. for theatre
• Dry cleaners
• Launderettes
• PC/ TV/ domestic appliance repair
• Funeral directors
• Photo processing
• Tool hire
• Car hire
• Restaurants
• Takeaways
• Sandwich shops
• Coffee shops
• Pubs
• Bars
• Cinema
• Live music venue
• Sports grounds and clubs
• Museums and art galleries
• Nightclubs
• Sport and leisure facilities
• Stately homes and historic houses
• Theatres
• Tourist attractions
• Gyms
• Wellness centres, spas, massage parlours
• Casinos, gambling clubs and bingo halls
• Public halls
• Clubhouses, clubs and institutions
• Hotels, guest and boarding houses
• Holiday homes
• Caravan parks and sites

Businesses that are not eligible for retail relief include:

• Financial services (e.g. banks, building societies, cash points, bureaux de change, short-term loan providers, betting shops)
• Medical services (e.g. vets, dentists, doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors)
• Professional services (e.g. solicitors, accountants, insurance agents/ financial advisers, employment agencies, estate agents, letting agents)
• Post office sorting offices
• Hereditaments that are not reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public

In line with the conditions set by the government, a ratepayer may only claim up to £110,000 of support under the 2025/26 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme for all of their eligible hereditaments. This cash cap applies at a Group company level (so holding companies and subsidiaries cannot claim up to the cash cap for each company) and also to organisations which, although not a company, have such an interest in a company that they would, if they were a company, result in its being the holding company.

Furthermore, the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme 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). 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.

Therefore, to claim the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief you must not have exceeded either the £110,000 cash cap for 2025/26 or the Minimal Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over 3 years (including 2025/26).

Further details of the cash cap and subsidy control can be found at: Business Rates Relief: 2025/26 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Scheme - GOV.UK.

The government and Horsham District Council will not tolerate any business falsifying their records or providing false evidence to gain this discount, including claiming support above the cash cap or the exemption threshold. A ratepayer who falsely applies for any relief or provides false information or makes false representation in order to gain relief may be guilty of fraud under the Fraud Act 2006. XXXX

If you have received the award on your business rates bill but are not eligible

• You should apply to opt out of this relief immediately if your business has automatically been awarded this relief but:
•  
• you believe that it will breach the £110,000 cash cap limit
• your business will exceed the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit of £343,000 over 3 years (including 2025/26)

Apply to Opt Out of Retail Relief

If you haven’t received the award but believe you are eligible

If your business has not automatically been awarded this relief and you are of the opinion that it does meet the qualifying criteria, please complete the application below.

Please ensure you read through the guidance and criteria on the gov.uk website before applying.

Apply for Retail, Hospitality & Leisure Relief

The Government has reintroduced the supporting small business rate relief scheme for small businesses that as a result of the revaluation are losing some or all of their small business or rural rate relief and, as a result, are facing large increases in their bills.

The ratepayer must have been in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief on 31 March 2023 and must have had their bill increased by more than £600 as a result of the revaluation.

In the first year of the scheme, this means all ratepayers losing some or all of their small business rate relief or rural rate relief will see the increase in their bill capped at £600. The cash minimum increase is £600 per year thereafter.

Relief has been automatically granted on the annual bill issued. Ratepayers remain in the supporting small businesses relief scheme for three years or until they reach the bill they would have paid without the scheme.

Eligibility will be lost if the property falls vacant or becomes occupied by a charity.

If you make certain improvements to your property, you may get relief from higher business rates bills.
You do not need to apply for improvement relief or do anything differently. If you meet the necessary requirements, your council will apply the relief to your bills.

You can find out more about which improvements are eligible by going to GOV.UK and searching ‘business rates reliefs’.

If you have questions about a certificate of qualifying works, please contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) at the email address on your certificate. Please note that the VOA cannot answer queries about the occupation condition or your business rates bill.

Customer Questions and Answers:

What is improvement relief?

• Improvement relief supports businesses who have invested in their property.
• It provides relief from higher business rates bills, where the increase in your bill was due to making certain improvements to your property.
• The relief lasts for 12 months from when the improvement works were completed.

Who is eligible for improvement relief? Do I need to apply for it?

• You do not need to apply for improvement relief or do anything differently.
• Your local council will apply the relief to your bills if you are eligible.
• To be eligible for improvement relief, you must:

1. have qualifying improvement works, and
2. meet the occupation condition.

• For more information, go to GOV.UK and search ‘business rates relief’.

How does improvement relief work?

• You will receive a certificate from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) if you have qualifying works. The VOA will give the same information to your local council.
• Your council will apply the relief and send you a revised bill if they are satisfied that you meet the occupation requirements. This means that you have occupied the property during and after the improvement works.

I have received a certificate from the VOA – what does this mean?

• If you have received a certificate of qualifying works from the VOA, this means that you may be eligible for improvement relief.
• Improvement relief provides relief from higher business rates bills, where the increase in your bill was due to making certain improvements to your property.
• The VOA will send this information to your local council.
• Your local council will apply the relief to your business rates bill if you also meet the occupation condition.

I think my certificate for improvement relief is wrong. Who should I contact?

• The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) values qualifying works and issues certificates to ratepayers.
• There is no right of appeal against the certified values, however, you should let the VOA know if you think there is something wrong with your certificate.
• You can contact the VOA using the email address on your letter.

Where can I find out more information about improvement relief?

• To find out more about improvement relief, go to GOV.UK and search ‘business rates relief’.

Certain properties are exempt from business rates.

You may not have to pay business rates on:

• agricultural land and buildings, including fish farms
• buildings used for training or welfare of disabled people
• buildings registered for public religious worship or church halls

However, there are strict legal requirements for these exemptions.

If your property is in England, you can report that you think it should be exempt using the Valuation Office Agency service