Help with your business rates

Some small businesses can get relief to help them reduce their business rates bill

To qualify, your business must:

• occupy one business property with a rateable value below £15,000
• occupy one business property with a rateable value below £15,000, together with others whose rateable values are below £2,899, and when added together, the total rateable value does not exceed £20,000

Businesses with rateable values below £12,000 may be entitled to 100% relief.

Rateable values between £12,000 and £15,000 will receive a percentage reduction on a sliding scale of between 0% and 100%.

Small Business Rates Relief grace period

Businesses can keep Small Business Rates Relief on their first property for three years after they take on a second property, instead of just one year.  NB: The second property must be acquired after 26 November 2025.

The 2026 Supporting Small Business Rate Relief scheme help businesses who have lost all or part of:

• Small Business Rate Relief
• Rural Rate Relief
• Retail, Hospitality & Leisure relief 

It is capped at the higher of £800 or the relevant transitional relief. 

This relief will be automatically awarded.

There are two common vacant exemptions for business rates:

• industrial premises and some warehouses qualify for a six-month exemption
• all other properties qualify for a three-month exemption

Property is only classed as unoccupied when all the items have been removed (except for fixtures and fittings). If a property is being used for storage purposes, then full business rates must be paid.

If you take on a vacant unit, you may not qualify for any exemption if it has already been used up by the previous ratepayer.

A property must be continually occupied for a minimum of 13 weeks to benefit from either a three-month void period or a six-month void period when a property becomes empty.

You may be entitled to a reduction of up to 100% on your business rates if you're a:

• non-profit organisation
• registered charity or community amateur sports club

If the 80% Mandatory Relief is awarded, we may award a 20% Discretionary Relief to grant a full 100% relief from business rates.

Apply for Mandatory Relief

Apply for Discretionary Relief

We have considered how we should use our discretionary powers to give extra rate relief to voluntary and charitable type groups in Hart. The policy sets out the criteria we will use in deciding whether to give extra rate relief:

• Mandatory and Discretionary Relief Policy

We may be able to reduce your business rates bill with Hardship Relief.

To be eligible, you must satisfy us that 

• you would be in financial difficulties without it, and
• it is in the interests of Council Tax payers

The government has introduced a relief for pubs and live music venues which will reduce their business rates by an additional 15% in 2026/27.

The relief has been automatically granted to qualifying businesses.

The eligibility criteria can be found on the government’s pubs and live music venue relief webpage

Where a pub believes it meets the eligibility criteria but has not had the relief applied, it should contact the business rates team (using the contact details on this page) and provide confirmation that the property:

• is occupied
• is open to the general public
• allows free entry (except for occasional entertainment)
• allows drinking without requiring food to be consumed
• allows drinks to be purchased at a bar

The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme has been replaced by new multipliers for businesses from 1 April 2026. You can read more about them on our about business rates section.

However, businesses can still claim for previous years’ relief if they had not applied at the time.

The 2025/26 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme provided a 40% relief to eligible ratepayers, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business.  The relief is applied after mandatory reliefs, and any other discretionary reliefs have been applied.

If you have not yet applied for this relief for 2023/2024, 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 financial years, submit your application:

Apply for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief