Retail Relief

Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme

The 2023/24 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme will provide eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a 75% relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business.

The relief will be administered in accordance with guidance issued by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which is summarised below.

Eligibility for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme

Businesses that meet the eligibility for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure scheme will be:

Occupied hereditaments which meet all of the following conditions for the chargeable day, and

they are wholly or mainly being used as:

shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas or live music venues

for assembly and leisure; or

hotels, guest & boarding premises or self-catering accommodation

Definitions

Shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues are considered to be those being used as follows-

Businesses that are being used for the sale of goods to visiting members of the public, such as -

  • Shops (e.g. 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 and second-hand car lots
  • Markets
  • Petrol stations
  • Garden centres
  • Art galleries (where art is for sale/hire)
  • Businesses that are being used for the provision of the following services to visiting members of the public, such as-
  • 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

Businesses that are being used for the sale of food and/or drink to visiting members of the public, such as-

  • Restaurants
  • Takeaways
  • Sandwich shops
  • Coffee shops
  • Pubs
  • Bars

Other types of premises which have been included in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme include: 

Properties used for assembly and leisure, e.g. sports grounds and clubs; museum and galleries; nightclubs; sports and leisure facilities; stately homes and historic houses; theatres; tourist attractions; gyms; wellness centres, spas, massage parlours; casinos, gambling clubs and bingo halls.

Properties used for the assembly of visiting members of the public, such as public halls, clubhouses, clubs and institutions.

Hotels; guest and boarding houses; holiday homes and caravan parks and sites.

These lists are not intended to be exhaustive as it would be impossible to list the many and varied retail uses that exist.

Conversely, properties that are not broadly similar in nature to those listed above should not be eligible for the relief.

To qualify for the relief the hereditament should be wholly or mainly being used for the above qualifying purposes. Properties which are occupied but not wholly or mainly used for the qualifying purpose will not qualify for the relief.

Businesses which are not considered to be eligible for the relief

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

This list is not exhaustive and the Council may decide not to award relief where a business is broadly similar in nature to those above.

Businesses that occupy properties which are not reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public will not be eligible for the relief.

Amount of Relief

The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure scheme is always calculated after mandatory relief and other discretionary reliefs funded by section 31 grant. Full government guidance provided to local authorities can be found here.

Application

Ratepayers wishing to apply for the Relief will be required to complete our online form - Retail Relief

 

Cash Caps

Under the cash cap, no ratepayer can in any circumstances exceed the £110,000 cash cap across all of their businesses in England.

Where a ratepayer has a qualifying connection with another ratepayer then those ratepayers should be considered as one ratepayer for the purposes of the cash caps.

A ratepayer shall be treated as having a qualifying connection with another:

where both ratepayers are companies, and

one is a subsidiary of the other, or

  • both are subsidiaries of the same company; or where only one ratepayer is a company, the other ratepayer (the “second ratepayer”) has such an interest in that company as would, if the second ratepayer were a company, result in its being the holding