Rate relief 2025/26

Expanded Retail Relief 2025/26

The government will continue to provide additional business rates support for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England occupying a qualifying property. The scheme will provide eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a 40% relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business. The council will automatically award the relief on your new bill if you were in receipt of the relief in 2024/25 and remain eligible.

Qualification criteria

The scheme provides 40% relief to eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties, up to a maximum cash cap limit of £110,000 per business. The property must be occupied (i.e. open/trading), and allow reasonable access to visiting members of the public. To qualify for the relief the business property should be wholly or mainly used for retail purposes.

Under the cash cap, no ratepayer in any circumstances can exceed the £110,000 cash cap across all of their business properties in England. Where a ratepayer has a qualifying connection with another ratepayer (i.e. one is a subsidiary of the other) then those ratepayers should be considered as one ratepayer for the purposes of the cash caps.

The 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.

UK subsidy rules

The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme is subject to the subsidies chapter within the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). The subsidies chapter within the TCA only applies to subsidies over the value of approximately £315,000 per beneficiary over a 3-year period (consisting of the current financial year and the two previous financial years) (the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit). 

Therefore, in order to be entitled to Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief you must not have exceeded either the £110,000 cash cap for 2025/26, or the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over 3 years.

You may wish to opt out of receiving this relief, in which case you should notify us by 30 April 2025. Please note that if you choose to opt out of the scheme you will not be able to change your mind.

Both the government and the council will not tolerate any business falsifying their records or providing false evidence to gain this discount. A ratepayer who falsely applies for any relief or provides information or makes false representation in order to gain relief may be guilty of fraud under the Fraud Act 2006.