Some properties are eligible for business rates relief, depending on the type of business and how the property will be used. Below is a list of the business rates reductions you may be able to claim.
UK subsidy allowance guidance
You are responsible for making sure that any reliefs you apply for are claimed in line with the UK subsidy allowance. For more information, visit GOV.UK - UK subsidy control regime.
Retail, hospitality and leisure relief
At the Autumn Statement 2024, the Chancellor announced the business rates relief scheme for retail, hospitality, and leisure properties (worth over £1.5 billion), has been extended for 2025/26.
The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) relief scheme will provide eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality, and leisure properties with 40% relief, up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business for 2025/26.
Under the cash cap, no ratepayer can in any circumstances exceed the £110,000 cash cap across all of their hereditaments in England. Where a ratepayer has a qualifying connection with another ratepayer then those ratepayers should be considered as one ratepayer for the purposes of the cash caps.
Government guidance for 2025/26 provides local authorities with information about the intended operation and delivery of the policy. The government anticipates that local authorities will include details of the relief to be provided to eligible ratepayers for 2025/26 in their bills for the beginning of the 2025/26 billing cycle. The government has published guidance setting out the eligibility criteria for the scheme.
Cash cap and refusal declaration
In line with the conditions set by the government, a ratepayer may only claim up to £110,000 of support under the 2025/26 RHL 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.
Furthermore, the RHL Relief Scheme is subject to the Minimal Financial Assistance limits under the Subsidy Control Act. This means no recipient can receive over £315,000 over a 3-year period (consisting of the current financial year and the 2 previous financial years). Extended Retail Discounts granted in 2021/22 do not count towards the limit. Covid business grants received from local government and any other subsidy claimed under the Minimal Financial Assistance or Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit over the 3-year period should be counted.
Therefore, to claim the RHL relief you must not have exceeded either the £110,000 cash cap for 2025/26 or the Minimal Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over 3 years (including 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26). See further details of the cash cap and subsidy control.
You do not need to take any further action if you have only received 2025/26 RHL Relief on one premises, and you have not received more than the Minimal Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over 3 years (including 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26).
If the following applies to you, complete the declaration in Form A (accepting the relief and declaring that you comply with the cash cap and exemption threshold) and return it to revs@enfield.gov.uk with your account number and 'ACCEPT RETAIL RELIEF' in the subject title:
- You (or if appropriate a company in your Group) have received the 2025/26 RHL Relief Scheme support on more than one property but to a level below the £110,000 cash cap. You should list the other RHL Relief being granted for premises other than the one to which this account 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, 2024/25 and 2025/26). If appropriate you should list the other subsidies you have received.
If the following applies to you, complete Form B (refusing the relief) and return it to revs@enfield.gov.uk with your account number and 'DECLINE RETAIL RELIEF' in the subject title:
- You have exceeded the cash cap on other properties
- You have received more than the Minimal Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over 3 years (including 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26)
The government and Enfield Council will not tolerate any business falsifying their records or providing false evidence to gain this discount, including claiming support above the cash cap or the exemption threshold. A ratepayer who falsely applies for any relief or provides false information or makes false representation in order to gain relief may be guilty of fraud under the Fraud Act 2006.
Under the cash cap, no ratepayer can in any circumstances exceed the £110,000 cash cap across all their hereditaments in England. Where a ratepayer has a qualifying connection with another ratepayer, those ratepayers should be considered as one ratepayer for the purpose of the cash cap.
If you are a new occupier or occupy a newly created property and think you are eligible, email revs@enfield.gov.uk.
Applications must be made within 6 months of the end of the financial year to which it relates, and we must receive it in sufficient time to enable a decision to be made.
Small business rate relief
Occupiers of properties with a rateable value under £51,000 automatically have their bill calculated using the lower Small Business Rate multiplier.
Amount of relief
As a result of government changes, the level of Small Business Rate Relief has been increased for eligible ratepayers from 1 April 2017 as follows:
- Rateable value up to £12,000 – no rates payable
- Rateable value between £12,001 and £15,000 – tapered relief between 100% and 0%
Eligibility
If the sole or main occupied property has a rateable value up to £15,000, the ratepayer will receive a percentage reduction in their rates bill for this property, see above.
To be eligible for relief, you must occupy either:
- one property with a rateable value under £15,000
- one main property plus other additional properties, providing those additional properties each have rateable values less than £2,900
The total rateable value of all the occupied properties must be under £28,000.
If you are in receipt of relief, you must notify the local authority if:
- you take up occupation of an additional property
- you occupy an additional property outside of Enfield Council and the rateable value of this property is increased
If you do not notify Enfield Council within four weeks, relief will cease with effect from the day that the change happened. If you are still eligible, relief will apply again with effect from the day that you notify the local authority.
From 14 February 2014, 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.
To apply for this relief, download the Small Business Rate Relief application form below and return it to revs@enfield.gov.uk.
Apply for small business rate relief (PDF, 120.29 KB)
Supporting small business relief
In his 2022 Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced that the 2023 Supporting Small Business (SSB) scheme will cap bill increases at £600 per year for any business losing eligibility for some or all Small Business Rate Relief or Rural Rate Relief at the 2023 revaluation. SSB was first introduced at the 2017 revaluation to support ratepayers facing bill increases greater than the Transitional Relief caps due to loss of Small Business Rate Relief or Rural Rate Relief.
Central Government guidance on the relief can be found on GOV.UK - Business Rates Relief.
Partly occupied premises
A ratepayer is liable for the full non-domestic rate whether a property is wholly occupied or only partly occupied.
Where a property is partly occupied and a clearly defined area is going to be left empty for a short period of time only, the local authority has the discretion in certain cases to grant relief in respect of the unoccupied part under Section 44A of the Local Government Finance Act 1988.
Partly occupied rate relief (Section 44A) is aimed at situations where there are practical difficulties in occupying/vacating part of an assessment.
Relief will not be granted retrospectively, and the property will be inspected by one of our officers to verify your claim.
The empty area of the assessment must be unfurnished.
If Enfield Council decides to award the relief it will request that the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) provides a certificate that apportions the rateable value between the occupied and unoccupied parts of the hereditament. The temporary apportioned value will enable the Council to calculate your relief entitlement but does not replace the value in the rating list. Once your relief has been calculated, a revised demand will be issued showing your entitlement.
The relief will end on the day that there is a change in the extent of the partial occupation or 31 March in the financial year in which relief is applied for or the property becomes completely occupied or unoccupied. You must notify Enfield Council immediately if there is any change to the partial occupation.
If you wish to apply for this relief, email revs@enfield.gov.uk with the relevant documents including plans of the occupied and unoccupied areas, and the reason why the area is unoccupied and how long it is expected to last with ‘s44A Relief’ in the title of the email.
Whilst your application is being processed your current rates remain due and payable.
Empty rate relief
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
- 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
Relief for charitable organisations
Premises occupied by charities and wholly or mainly used for charitable purposes are entitled to a reduction in the rates payable. Relief is given at 80% of the rates bill (if applicable, after considering transitional arrangements).
To be eligible, the property must be used by either:
- a charity, or the trustees of a charity
- a community amateur sports club (CASC)
If you consider that your organisation qualifies for charitable rate relief, email revs@enfield.gov.uk.
Discretionary rate relief
Section 47 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 allows the Common Council to grant Discretionary relief if:
- all or part of the hereditament is occupied for the purposes of one or more institutions or other organisations
- none of which is established or conducted for profit
- each of whose main objects are charitable or otherwise philanthropic or religious or concerned with education, social welfare, science, literature, or the fine arts
- or the hereditament:
- is wholly or mainly used for purposes of recreation
- all or part of it is occupied for the purpose of a club, society or other organisation not established or conducted for profit
Enfield Council may in its discretion award up to 20% discretionary relief to charitable organisations in receipt of 80% mandatory rate relief.
It may also in its discretion award up to 100% of discretionary relief to organisations not eligible for mandatory relief.
This approach of granting discretionary rate relief has regard to the impact of the council’s wider financial position and cost to Council Tax payers.
If you wish to apply for discretionary rate relief, email revs@enfield.gov.uk
Heat network relief scheme
Heat networks relief explained
Heat networks take heat or cooling from a central source(s) and deliver it to a variety of different customers such as public buildings, shops, offices, hospitals, universities and homes. By supplying multiple buildings, they avoid the need for individual boilers or electric heaters in every building. Heat networks have the potential to reduce bills, support local regeneration and be a cost-effective way of reducing carbon emissions from heating.
Heat networks play an important role in decarbonising heat and support delivery of net zero commitments. They are uniquely able to unlock otherwise inaccessible large-scale renewable and recovered heat sources such as waste heat and heat from rivers and mines.
Properties that benefit from the relief
To be eligible for heat network relief, the hereditament must be:
- wholly or mainly used for the purposes of a heat network
- expected to generate heat from a low carbon source (irrespective of whether that source is located on the hereditament or on a different hereditament)
For more information, visit GOV.UK - business rates heat network relief: local authority guidance.
Improvement relief
If you make certain improvements to your property, you may get relief from higher business rates bills.
You do not need to apply for improvement relief or do anything differently. If you meet the necessary requirements, we will apply the relief to your bills providing you meet the qualifying occupation condition.
You can find out more about which improvements are eligible by going to GOV.UK - improvement relief.
If you have questions about a certificate of qualifying works, contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) using the email address on your certificate.
Improvement relief explained
- Improvement relief supports businesses who have invested in their property.
- It provides relief from higher business rates bills, where the increase in your bill was due to making certain improvements to your property.
- The relief lasts for 12 months from when the improvement works were completed.
Eligibility and applying for improvement relief
- You do not need to apply for improvement relief or do anything differently.
- We will apply the relief to your bills if you are eligible.
- To be eligible for improvement relief, you must:
- have qualifying improvement works, and
- meet the occupation condition
How improvement relief works
- You will receive a certificate from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) if you have qualifying works. The VOA will give the same information to us.
- We will apply the relief and send you a revised bill if we are satisfied that you meet the occupation requirements. This means that you have occupied the property during and after the improvement works.
Who to contact if you think your certificate for improvement relief is wrong
- The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) values qualifying works and issues certificates to ratepayers.
- There is no right of appeal against the certified values, however, you should let the VOA know if you think there is something wrong with your certificate.
- You can contact the VOA using the email address on your letter.
Film studios business rates relief
At the Budget on 6 March 2024, the Chancellor announced that eligible film studios in England will receive a 40% reduction on gross business rates bills until 2034. The relief once implemented will apply to hereditaments assessed by the VOA as film studios and will be backdated to 1 April 2024.
The government has published guidance setting out the eligibility criteria for the scheme. The Film Studios relief scheme guidance provides local authorities with information about the operation and delivery of the policy. The government encourages local authorities to quickly implement the scheme and apply the relief to eligible ratepayers.
For more information, visit GOV.UK Business rates: Film studio relief - local authority guidance.