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Small business rate relief

 
This relief began on 1 April 2005 and applies only to occupied property. Eligible businesses with rateable values of below £5,000 get 50% rate relief on their liability. This relief decreases on a sliding scale of one percent for every £100 of rateable value over £5,000, up to £9,999.

The relief is available to ratepayers with either:

  • one property, or 
  • one main property and other additional properties, providing that the additional properties do not have individual rateable values of more than £2,200, and the combined rateable value of all the properties is under £21,500. The threshold for the combined rateable value depends on the location of the main property.

Small business rate relief application forms

Small business relief application form 2007 to 2010 pdf 17kb

You will need a copy of Adobe Reader to download these documents. See the Useful links on the right to download a free copy of the reader.

Please note:

You must submit your application for the relief within six months of the end of the financial year to which it relates.

Further relief with the small business multiplier

In addition to this relief on liability, eligible businesses with rateable values of between £10,000 and £21,499 will have their liability calculated using the small business multiplier.

The Small Business Rate Relief scheme will be funded by a supplement on the rate bill of businesses not eligible for the relief. This supplement is built into the standard multiplier.

Changes to the scheme

Important changes have been made to the Small Business Relief scheme. Under the new arrangements, ratepayers are required to apply for Small Business Relief only once between each revaluation of non-domestic hereditaments, provided that certain circumstances do not change.

The new arrangements first apply where applications for relief are made for the 2007 to 2008 year. Provided their circumstances do not change, ratepayers will not be required to make a further application until the 2010 to 2011 year.

An additional condition of entitlement to Small Business Relief is that ratepayers must notify the Council of particular changes to circumstances that may affect their entitlement to the relief within four weeks, starting on the day after the change occurred.

The changes are:

  • increases in the rateable value of a property occupied by the ratepayer which is not in the area of the billing authority granting Small Business Relief. These changes will have to be notified in writing.
  • the ratepayer coming into occupation of any property which is not mentioned in the application for relief. These changes will have to be notified through a fresh application for Small Business Relief.

Please notify us of changes

Failure to notify Greenwich Council within four weeks, starting with the day after the date of change, will mean that the ratepayer will not be entitled to relief. If the ratepayer notifies the Council after the four weeks, the ratepayer will lose the relief from the day after the date of change until the day the Council is notified.

If the change of circumstances means that the ratepayer will no longer be eligible for the relief, the relief will end from the date of change.

  • If your business ceases to be eligible on a day during the year in question, the relief will cease on that day.
  • You must submit your application for the relief within six months of the end of the financial year to which it relates.

Further information

For more information about small business rate relief, please contact the Business rate section.

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