Small business relief

You can get small business rate relief if you only use one property, or you have additional properties with a rateable value (RV) of less than £2,899 and your RV does not exceed £20,000 when added together.

You will not pay business rates on a property with an RV of £12,000 or less, if that’s the only property your business uses.

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

Ratepayers who are not entitled to another mandatory relief or are liable for unoccupied property rates and occupy a property with an RV of less than £51,000 will have their bill calculated using small business non-domestic rating multiplier rather than the national non-domestic rating multiplier.

Changes from 1 April 2026

As of 1 April 2026, ratepayers of a property with an RV of less than £51,000 will have their bill calculated using either of the following depending on the usage of the property:

• small business non-domestic rating multiplier 
• small business retail, hospitality and leisure non-domestic rating multiplier

Ratepayers who are liable for unoccupied property rates with an RV of less than £51,000 will have their bill calculated using the small business non-domestic rating multiplier.

For those businesses that take on an additional property, which would normally have meant the loss of small business rate relief, the government has confirmed that they will be allowed to keep that relief for a period of 36 months.

Apply for small business rates relief