Small business rate relief (SBR)

You can get SBR on your business rates if your business uses:

• only use one property with a rateable value of less than £15,000
• more than one property if each of your other properties has a rateable value of less than £2,900

If you have more than one property, the rateable values will be added together. The discount will be applied to the main property. You will not get a discount on a second property.

If you get a second property, you can keep the existing discount on your main property for 36 months. However, your existing discount can only be kept for 12 months if the second property was purchased before 26 November 2025.

Discount amounts

If your rateable value is:

• £12,000 or below, you will get SBR at 100%
• between £12,001 and £15,000, the SBR multiplier is used, and relief will be given on a scale between 100% and 0%
• between £15,001 and £51,000, the SBR multiplier is used even if you have more than one property

Your reduction based on rateable value:

• £12,000: 100% reduction
• £12,300: 90% reduction
• £12,600: 80% reduction
• £12,900: 70% reduction
• £13,200: 60% reduction
• £13,500: 50% reduction
• £13,800: 40% reduction
• £14,100: 30% reduction
• £14,400: 20% reduction
• £14,700: 10% reduction
• £15,000: 0% reduction

Apply for SBR

By applying for SBR, you confirm that you have one business in England or that you meet any of the rules listed above.

Giving false information or knowingly applying when you are not entitled is a criminal offence.

Relief can be backdated up to six years, but you cannot get relief for empty properties.

Apply for small business rate relief

Charitable relief

There are two types of charitable rate relief, mandatory and discretionary. You can get up to 80% relief for mandatory and up to 100% relief for discretionary. You can find out about our policy on our webpage.

You can apply if you meet any of the following:

Mandatory

• a property that is in use by a charity or trustees for a charity and is used for charitable purposes.
• an empty property where the ratepayer is a charity or trustee for a charity and the property will be used for charitable purposes in the future.

Discretionary

• the ratepayer is a charity or trustees for a charity and the property will mainly be used for charitable purposes in the future.
• all or part of the property is in use for charitable purposes for one or more non-profit organisations.
• all or part of the property is occupied for the purpose of a non-profit club, society, or other organisation.

To apply for charitable relief, please email businessrates@midkent.gov.uk

Rural relief

There are two types of Rural Rate Relief - mandatory and discretionary. You can get up to 100% relief from the charge. You can apply if you meet the following:

Mandatory

• A post office or general store that is the only one in the community and has a rateable value of less than £8,500. The post office and general store can be in part use and can be combined.
• A pub or petrol station that is the only one in the community and has a rateable value of less than £12,500.

Discretionary

This applies to a property that has a rateable value of less than £16,500 that is within the boundaries of a rural village. We may not allow the relief if we are not satisfied that the property is used for the benefit of the community.

Rural village list

These are the villages that currently have a population under 3,000 for the purpose of awarding Rural Rate Relief:

Apply for rural rate relief

Other types of relief

Empty property

You may be eligible for relief if your property is empty and unfurnished. You can receive 100% relief for the first three months the property is empty and unfurnished. If the property is industrial, for example, a warehouse, you will receive the relief for six months. When the 100% relief period has ended, you will need to pay the full amount.

If property is a listed building or has a rateable value of less than £2,900, you won’t have to pay Business Rates on an empty property. Once your property is occupied, the exemption will stop.

The empty rate reset period will increase to 13 weeks from 1 April 2024. Your property must be occupied continuously for 13 weeks before you can benefit from a further period of empty property rate relief.

Hardship relief

If you’re having trouble paying your business rates, you can apply for Hardship Relief. This is given at our discretion, is only a short-term relief and will only be given if it is in the interest of the community and taxpayers of the borough.

Part-occupied property

You can apply to pay less business rates if only part of your property is occupied. The unoccupied part must only be empty for a short time. We will ask the valuation officer for a certificate advising what the rateable value of the occupied part of your property is and you will only get charged for that part.

When you apply for a part occupied property relief, you'll need to attach a plan showing the occupied and unoccupied parts of the property.

Transitional relief and Supporting Small Business relief (SSB)

You can get SSB if both of the following apply:

• your business property's bill will increase when the next revaluation happens on 1 April 2026
• you have lost some or all of your small business rate relief, rural rate relief, retail hospitality and leisure relief, or 2023 supporting small business relief

SSB 2026 will apply for three years or until your bill reaches the full amount set by the revaluation. If you received SSB 2023, the SSB26 relief will end after one year.

2026 to 2027 tax year

If you are eligible, your bills will increase by a maximum of £800 or the rateable value percentage cap listed below:

• 5% for up to £20,000 or £28,000 in London
• 15% for between £20,001 (£28,000 in London) and £100,000
• 30% for over £100,000

This is compared to your bill from 2025 to 2026 and includes the following:

• any small business rate relief
• rural rate relief
• retail hospital and leisure relief
• 2023 supporting small business relief

Transitional relief limits how much your bill can change each year as a result of business rates revaluation. You will get transitional relief if your rates go up or down by more than a certain amount. This means changes to your bill are phased in gradually.

How much your bill can change 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. If your bill is increasing from 1 April 2026:

Transitional relief supplement

A 1p supplement to the relevant tax rate for ratepayers who do not receive Transitional Relief or the Supporting Small Business scheme to partially fund Transitional Relief. This will apply for one year from 1 April 2026. Further information can be found on the introduction to business rates page on GOV.UK.

We have automatically identified those ratepayers who should receive these reliefs and have applied them to their bills. If you feel that you qualify for these reliefs but it is not showing on your bill, please email businessrates@midkent.gov.uk.

Pub and live music venues relief

In 2026/27, eligible pubs and live music venues will receive 15% relief on top of the support announced at Budget 2025. Their bills will then be frozen in real terms for a further two years. To be eligible, a pub must:

• be open to the general public
• allow free entry other than when occasional entertainment is provided
• allow drinking without requiring food
• permit drinks to be purchased at a bar

For this purpose, the meaning of pub does not include:

• restaurants, cafes, nightclubs, snack bars
• hotels, guesthouses, boarding houses
• sporting venues
• festival sites, theatres, cinemas
• museums, exhibition halls
• casinos

Read more about the relief on the government advice webpage. If we have been able to confirm that the use of the property meets the criteria, the relief will have been applied to your 2026/27 bill.

Film studio relief

At the Spring Budget on 6 March 2024, the Chancellor announced that the government would continue to support the creative industries and set out that it would introduce a business rates relief for eligible film studios in England worth around £470 million over the next 10 years.

Eligible film studios in England will receive a 40% reduction on gross business rates bills until 2034, backdated to 1 April 2024. The 40% reduction is inclusive of transitional relief. The value of any transitional relief a studio receives will be deducted from the value of the film studio relief. This means that eligible film studios’ final bills will be no more than 60% of their gross bill. The VOA will notify authorities of which studios are eligible for support

Improvement relief

Improvement Relief will support businesses wishing to invest in their property. It will ensure that no ratepayer will face higher business rates bills for 12 months as a result of qualifying improvements to a property they occupy. The Non-Domestic Rating Bill currently before Parliament contains powers to allow for the Improvement Relief Scheme.

Exemptions

Some land and property won’t have to pay business rates. These are:

• agricultural land and buildings
• fish farms
• places of religious worship
• sewers and properties belonging to drainage companies
• parks
• properties used for disabled people. For example training, welfare services, workshops
• air raid protection works
• swinging moorings
• road crossings over a river
• property in enterprise zones
• visiting forces

To find out the definitions of each of the types of properties and land you can visit the legislation website.

Email our Business Rates Team or call 01622 602230 if you think your property is exempt.