In 2005 the Government set up a rate relief system to help small businesses.

Eligible businesses with a rateable value of £6,000 or less can claim a 50% discount on their business rates. If your business has a rateable value of between £6,001 - £12,000, this discount will decrease on a sliding scale of roughly 1% for every £120 your rateable value is over £6,000.

The scheme is funded by a supplement to the business rates bill of those businesses which don't qualify for the relief. Businesses that have a rateable value of between £12,001 and £18,000 may be able to pay their business rates without this supplement included. This is known as the 'buffer zone'.

To qualify for relief and/or the reduced multiplier, a business must:

• only occupy one business property in England or,
• occupy one main property in England with additional business properties as long as those additional properties each have a rateable value of less than £2,599. The total rateable value of all properties occupied will be used to assess business rate relief. We can only award the relief to the main property. The additional properties will not qualify for small business relief.

We can only award the relief to the main property. The additional properties will not qualify for small business relief.

To apply, you need to fill in the official application form, which also gives more information about the scheme.

Download the Small business relief application form (PDF 43kb)

Please make sure you provide any evidence we ask for on the application form as this will help us to make our decision quicker.

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

If we grant your application, provided you continue to satisfy the conditions for relief which apply, you will not need to re-apply for relief until the next revaluation period.