Get help paying your business rates
Depending on the property you occupy and / or your business sector you may be eligible for a relief or exemption.
On this page:
- you have not received any other 2023/24 retail, hospitality and leisure relief for premises other than the one to which you are liable for in Hackney and you have not received more than the Minimal Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over 3 years (including 2023/24)
- you (or if appropriate a company in your Group) have received the 2023/24 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme support on any other property but to a level below the £110,000 cash cap – you should list the other retail, hospitality and leisure relief granted for premises other than the one to which this bill relates
- you (or if appropriate a company in your Group) have not received more than the Minimal Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over 3 years (including 2023/24) – if appropriate you should list the other subsidies you have received
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you have exceeded the cash cap on other properties
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you have received more than the Minimal Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over 3 years (including 2023/24)
Relief will be provided to eligible occupied retail, hospitality and leisure properties in 2022/23. Follow the link below for full eligibility guidance.
2022/23 Retail, hospitality and leisure relief guidance
In line with the conditions set by the government, a ratepayer may only claim up to £110,000 of support under the 2022/23 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme for all of their eligible hereditaments. This 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.
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 £343,000 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). Extended Retail Discounts granted in 2020/21 or 2021/22 do not count towards the limit. Covid business grants received from local government and any other subsidy claimed under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit over the 3 year period should be counted.
Therefore, to claim the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief you must not have exceeded either the £110,000 cash cap for 2022/23 or the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit of £343,000 over 3 years (including 2022/23).
Small business rate relief is not applied automatically – you need to apply for it.
You can get small business rate relief if:
- your property’s rateable value is less than £15,000
- your business occupies one property – you may still be able to get relief if you occupy more than one property
Apply
Apply for small business rate relief
If you’ve applied for small business rate relief in the past, you don’t have to apply again.
However, you must contact us if the rateable value of the property has changed.
What you get
You will generally not pay business rates on a property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less.
For properties with a rateable value of £12,001 to £15,000, the rate of relief will go down gradually from 100% to 0%.
If you use more than one property
When you get a second property, you’ll keep getting any existing relief on your main property for 12 months.
You can still get small business rate relief on your main property after this if both the following apply:
- none of your other properties have a rateable value above £2,899
- the total rateable value of all your properties is less than £28,000
Charities and community amateur sports clubs can apply for rate relief of up to 80% where they occupy a property that is wholly or mainly used for charitable purposes.
If you think you’re eligible, apply:
We can also give charities and not for profit organisations discretionary rate relief of up to 100%, if you are a registered charity in receipt of the 80% mandatory charity relief or a not for profit organisation
The application process can take up to 4 months. Note that applications are currently impacted by the cyberattack and are taking longer to process.
Check if you can apply: charity and not for profit – discretionary rate relief policy
The relief is awarded at our discretion. There is no right or entitlement to an award.
Applications have to be made every year and must be made online.
You can save your progress and continue whenever you want. For more information, see our guidance documents listed below.
2022/23 applications
Before making your application read the charity and not for profit – guidance for applicants (google doc).
Apply now Continue your application
2023/24 applications
Before making your application read the updated 2023/24 guidance for applicants (google doc).
Apply now Continue your application
Once you have applied, you will get an email with a tracking reference. If you haven’t included all the information, the application might take longer.
A panel meets on a quarterly basis and decides who will get discretionary rate relief. This is currently impacted by the cyberattack.
To be eligible for hardship relief, you need to satisfy us that both:
- you would be in financial hardship without it
- giving hardship relief to you is in the interests of people of Hackney
If you think you might be eligible, complete the form and explain your situation:
We introduce transitional relief schemes at each revaluation to limit how much your bill can change each year as a result of the business rates revaluation. The next revaluation will come into effect on 1 April 2023.
This means we phase in the changes to your bill gradually, if you’re eligible.
From the 2023 to 2024 tax year you’ll get transitional relief if your:
- property is in England
- rates go up by more than a certain amount
We adjust your bill automatically if you’re eligible.
How much your bill can change by
How much your bill can change by from one year to the next depends on both:
- your property’s rateable value
- whether your bill is increasing or decreasing as a result of revaluation
You stop getting transitional relief when your bill reaches the full amount set by a revaluation.
The business rates year is from 1 April to 31 March the following year.
If your bill is increasing from 1 April 2023
| Rateable value | 2023 to 2024 | 2024 to 2025 | 2025 to 2026 |
| Up to £20,000 (£28,000 in London) | 5% | 10% plus inflation | 25% plus inflation |
| £20,001 (£28,001 in London) to £100,000 | 15% | 25% plus inflation | 40% plus inflation |
| Over £100,000 | 30% | 40% plus inflation | 55% plus inflation |
You can get supporting small business relief from 1 April 2023 if both the following apply:
- your business property’s bill is going up after the revaluation on the 1 April 2023
- you’ll lose some or all of your small business rate relief (SBRR) or rural rate relief (RRR)
If you are eligible, your bills will go up by no more than £600 for the 2023 to 2024 tax year.
We adjust your bill automatically if you’re eligible.
If your property has a rateable value up to £50,999, your bill will be automatically calculated using the small business relief reduced multiplier, which is lower than the standard one.
From 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 the small business multiplier is 49.9p and the standard multiplier 51.2p.
From 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 the small business multiplier is 49.9p and the standard multiplier 51.2p.
From 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 the small business multiplier is 49.9p and the standard multiplier 51.2p.
From 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 the small business multiplier is 49.9p and the standard multiplier 51.2p.
Businesses in London with a rateable value over £75,000 from 1 April 2023 also pay the Business Rate Supplement (BRS) which is charged by the Greater London Authority in relation to the Crossrail project.
See Crossrail BRS explanatory information for ratepayers (google docs).
A property qualifies for an empty rate exemption (no rates are payable while the property remains empty and unoccupied) in these circumstances:
- the rateable value is less than £2,900
- it’s a listed building
- occupation is prohibited by law (it must be shown that the law provides the owner must not occupy the property in the circumstances currently prevailing or the effect of a prohibition or enforcement notice is to prohibit the owner from occupation)
- the owner is entitled to possession only in their capacity as the personal representative of a deceased person
- the property is the responsibility of a liquidator, administrator or trustee in bankruptcy
- properties that are held by a charity and will be used for charitable purposes when next occupied
- properties that are held by a community amateur sports club and will be used for this purpose when next occupied
Non-domestic properties that are empty get 100% empty rate relief for three months from the date on which they become empty and unoccupied. Industrial properties get six months empty rate relief.
Following this period, the full charge is payable unless the property is exempt from empty property rates.
Empty rate exemptions
A property qualifies for an empty rate exemption (no rates are payable while the property remains empty and unoccupied) in these circumstances:
- the rateable value is less than £2,900
- it’s a listed building
- occupation is prohibited by law (it must be shown that the law provides the owner must not occupy the property in the circumstances currently prevailing or the effect of a prohibition or enforcement notice is to prohibit the owner from occupation)
- the owner is entitled to possession only in their capacity as the personal representative of a deceased person
- the property is the responsibility of a liquidator, administrator or trustee in bankruptcy
- properties held by a charity and are used for charitable purposes when next occupied
- properties held by a community amateur sports club and are used for this purpose when next occupied
What happens if I don’t pay?
If you get into payment difficulties and you can’t afford to pay your instalments, and if you’ve received a reminder notice, final notice or a court summons, you can make an arrangement to pay:
We don’t promise to be able to help everyone but the sooner you contact us, the better our chances of being able to help.
For general recovery enquiries, contact us:
Business rates are due in monthly instalments.
If you miss one payment, we’ll send you a reminder. If you don’t pay this within 7 days, you’ll receive a final reminder and have to pay all the business rates you owe for the year at once.
If you pay the amount you missed but miss payments again we will send you a second and final reminder. You’ll have to pay the full amount that you owe for the year within 7 days.
If you can’t pay the full balance, contact us immediately to see if we can help you.
We don’t promise to be able to help everyone but the sooner you contact us, the better our chances of being able to help.
Or tel 020 8356 3466.
If you don’t pay the full balance, we will start legal proceedings and apply to the magistrate’s court for a liability order against you.
The summons costs are £92.00. If the court grants the liability order, you will have to pay £8.50 on top of the £92.00.
There may also be fees for enforcement agents, which can be substantial.
The liability order allows us to:
- employ enforcement agents to seize goods to pay for your debt
- start insolvency proceedings against you
- make an application for your committal to prison for a maximum of 3 months (if the enforcement agent is unable to recover the debt)
If you pay what you owe, including the enforcement agent’s fees, we will stop all action and costs from the date we receive your payment.