Property reliefs
There are a number of different types of property reliefs that reduce business rates to those who are eligible.
Please select a relief below for further information and how to apply.
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.
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)
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.
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
If you wish to apply for the relief please complete this application form. Please note you will require your account number and property reference number (PRN) to apply. This can be found either on your bill or searched for on the Valuation Office website.
Our application portal uses data provided by Companies House. To avoid delays in processing your application, please ensure your Companies House information is correct and up to date prior to submitting an application.
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 3 years.
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.
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.
This relief needs to comply with the European Union law on State Aid. Therefore, to qualify for this relief, your business should not receive more than €200,000 of State Aid in a 3 year period (being the current and prior two financial years). The €200,000 threshold may be of particular relevance to those premises that are part of a large chain.
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.
Retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties received a 40% discount in 2025. In the Autumn 2025 Budget, the government announced that the discount would be removed.
You are still able to retrospectively submit applications for this relief. Please apply online select ‘Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme’ in the rates discount forms section.
The RHL relief has now been replaced with two new multipliers specially designed for RHL properties.
To qualify for the lower RHL multiplier the property must be used wholly or mainly for one or more of the following purposes to visiting members of the public:
- Retail sale or hire of goods or provision of a service e.g. shops, supermarkets, florists, butchers, garden centres, car showrooms, funeral directors, hairdressers, and dry cleaners
- Sale of food or drink e.g. restaurants, takeaways (if generally open to the public), cafes, pubs, and bars.
- Hospitality or accommodation e.g. hotels, guest houses, B&Bs, self-catering holiday homes, caravan parks, and campsites.
- Cultural, community, or recreational facilities e.g. cinemas, theatres, museums, public halls, gyms, sports clubs, swimming pools, and theme parks.
Properties primarily used for certain activities are specifically excluded, even if they have some public access, these include:
- Financial services (banks, building societies, etc.)
- Medical and health services (dentistry, physiotherapy, etc.)
- Professional services (law, accountancy, estate agents, etc.)
- Storage and distribution of goods for online sales (warehouses)
- Car parks
- Schools, nurseries, or universities
- Betting shops
Detailed guidance for the scheme provided by the Government is available here. If you believe your bill should be calculated using one of the lower RHL multipliers, please apply below.
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 rate relief, rural rate relief, retail hospitality and leisure relief or 2023 supporting small business relief and, as a result, are facing large increases in their bills.
The ratepayer must have been in receipt of small business rate relief, rural rate relief, retail hospitality and leisure relief or 2023 supporting small business relief on 31 March 2026 and must have had their bill increased by more than £800 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, rural rate relief, retail hospitality and leisure relief or 2023 supporting small business relief will see the increase in their bill capped at £800 or the percentage caps listed in the table (whichever is greater) for the 2026 to 2027 tax year.
Rateable Value Bands | Percentage Cap |
Up to £20,000 | 5% |
£20,001 to £100,000 | 15% |
Above £100,000 | 30% |
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.
Transitional relief limits how much your bill can change each year as a result of business rates revaluation. This means changes to your bill are phased in gradually, if you’re eligible.
We will adjust your bill automatically if you’re eligible.
How much your bill can change by from one year to the next depends on both:
- your property’s rateable value
- whether your bill is increasing or decreasing as a result of revaluation
You stop getting transitional relief when your bill reaches the full amount set by a revaluation.
If your bill is increasing from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029
Rateable value | 2026 to 2027 | 2027 to 2028 | 2028 to 2029 |
Up to £20,000 (£28,000 in London) | 5% | 10% plus inflation | 25% plus inflation |
£20,001 (£28,001 in London) to £100,000 | 15% | 25% plus inflation | 40% plus inflation |
Over £100,000 | 30% | 25% plus inflation | 25% plus inflation |
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:
- have qualifying improvement works, and
- 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
A 15% discount is available in 2026-27 for Pubs and live music venues that meet one of the below definitions.
Pubs that meet all of the following characteristics:
- is open to the general public,
- allows free entry other than when occasional entertainment is provided,
- allows drinking without requiring food to be consumed, and
- permits drinks to be purchased at a bar.
For these purposes, the meaning of pub does not include restaurants, cafes, nightclubs, snack bars, hotels, guesthouses, boarding houses, sporting venues, festival sites, theatres, concert halls, cinemas, museums, exhibition halls, and casinos.
Live music venues that are wholly or mainly used for the performance of live music for the purpose of entertaining an audience are also eligible to the relief.
Their bills will then be frozen in real terms in 2027-28 and 2028-29, meaning it will only go up by inflation in those years.
If you have not received this relief and believe you qualify, please apply below.