Section 49 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 allows us to reduce or remit the business rates for a property as long as we are satisfied that:

• the ratepayer would sustain hardship if the we did not do so; and
• it is reasonable for us to do so. We must consider the interests of everyone who pays council tax or business rates.

We can award hardship relief to a limited company, a person, or a group of people in the case of partnerships.

You can apply for hardship relief if you are paying either occupied rates or empty property rates.

We will only grant hardship relief in exceptional circumstances.

When we decide whether to award relief, we must take into account many factors. These include:

We treat each case on an individual basis.

When we are making the decision, we must consider the factors mentioned above. This means we will also think about:

• the benefits the business provides to the local community.
• the profitability of the business.
• anything which affects the ability of a business pay its business rates. For example, planning difficulties may make a property difficult to let or sell the property.
• the interests of the community. For example, if a company went out of business unemployment would rise, or if the only shop in a village closed.
• if you could have avoided the hardship with better financial management.

You can download and print off a hardship relief application form (PDF 69Kb)

You should fill in a separate form for each business rates account.

Please make sure you provide any evidence we ask for on the application form as we can't consider you claim if we don't have all the information.

Alternatively you can contact us and we'll send you the application form.