Help paying your business rates

Small business rate relief

Apply for small business rate relief

This reduction is not available on empty properties or ratepayers who are in receipt of any other mandatory relief eg charity relief.

Small business rates relief has two elements:

  • a percentage reduction in the amount payable
  • calculation of the rates liability using the small business rates multiplier

A percentage reduction in the amount payable

  • rateable value up to £12,000 – no rates payable
  • rateable value between £12,001 and £15,000 – tapered relief between 100% and 0%

Eligibility

The percentage reduction is available to ratepayers who are liable for business rates on:

  • one property with a rateable value below £15,000
  • one main property and other additional properties that have rateable values less than £2,899 and the combined rateable value of all the properties is under £27,999 in London

Ratepayers are entitled to keep an existing award of small business rate relief for 12 months where they take up occupation of an additional eligible property, which would have previously disqualified them from relief.

Application process

Applying for relief does not entitle you to withhold payments on your account. Recovery action will be taken if your payments are not up to date.

Calculation using small business rates multiplier

  • occupiers of properties with a rateable value under £51,000 automatically have their bill calculated using the small business rate multiplier
  • The small business rate multiplier for 2024/25 is 49.9p (0.499), for other businesses it is 54.6p (0.546)
  • more information on the multiplier can be found on the Valuation Office website.

Requirement to notify of a change in circumstances

Certain changes in circumstances will need to be notified to the council by the ratepayer.

The changes which must be notified are:

  • you take up occupation of an additional property
  • you occupy an additional property outside of Barking and Dagenham and the rateable value of this property is increased

Notification of these changes must be given to the council within four weeks of the day after the day on which the change happened. If this happens, there will be no interruption to the ratepayer’s entitlement to the relief.