Find out if you qualify for a bill reduction

Charities and registered Community Amateur Sports Clubs are entitled to 80% relief where the property is occupied by the charity or the club, and is wholly or mainly used for the charitable purposes of the charity (or of that and other charities), or for the purposes of the club (or of that and other clubs).

Find out more about charity and CASC relief

The council recognises the importance of supporting local businesses and organisations to promote the provision of local facilities, inclusive growth, employment and investment to improve prosperity across the city and in particular support our most disadvantaged communities.

The principal consideration when making an award is that any relief granted is in the best interests of the residents and taxpayers of Salford and produces a local benefit. Thus, that an award is reflective of and complementary to, at least one of the council’s ‘Great Eight’ vision priorities. In addition, a recipient should support the council’s equality and cohesion ethos.

This discretionary rate relief scheme enables the council to grant relief which is in the best interest of the residents and taxpayers of Salford and generates local benefit. Discretionary relief is limited to a maximum of 85%.

Find out more about discretionary rate relief scheme

Heat Network Relief will apply from Friday 1 April 2022 for hereditaments being used wholly or mainly as a heat network which have their own rating assessment.

Find out more about Heat Network relief

From 1 April 2024, business that make qualifying improvements to their property which are completed by 31 March 2028 may benefit from 100% relief from higher business rates bills for 12 months. This scheme will run until April 2029.

For further information contact the Valuation Office Agency.

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 for a short time Salford City Council has discretion in certain cases to award relief in respect of the unoccupied part.

Find out more about part-occupied property rate relief

In 2021 the Non-Domestic Rating (Public Lavatories) Bill came into force which gives public lavatories 100% relief from business rates effective 1 April 2020.

The relief will not apply to toilets of a larger unit of rateable property (a “hereditament”), for example, toilets in public libraries. It amends Part 3 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 to ensure that, in relation to an eligible hereditament which consists wholly or mainly of a public lavatory, the chargeable amount will be zero. This provides, in effect, a 100% mandatory relief for eligible public lavatories in England and Wales.

The relief will be applied automatically to the business rates account.

The government is providing funding to local authorities so that they can provide a discount worth up to £1,500 a year on office space occupied by local newspapers. This discount commenced on the 1 April 2017 and will apply until 31 March 2025.

The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief (RHL) scheme will provide eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality, and leisure properties with a 75% relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business for chargeable days from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2025. Subject to eligibility criteria and not breaching the UK Subsidy allowance threshold.

Find out more about the RHL relief scheme

Small business rate relief is available to ratepayers who occupy one property in England with a rateable value of up to £15,000. A property with a rateable value under £12,000 will have 100% relief applied, and properties between £12,001 to £15,000 will have relief applied on a sliding scale from 100% to 0%.

Generally, this percentage reduction (relief) is only available to ratepayers who occupy either:

• one property, or
• one main property and other additional properties providing those additional properties each have a rateable value which does not exceed the limit set in regulations.

Certain changes in circumstances will need to be notified to the local authority by the ratepayer who is in receipt of relief, including:

• the property falls vacant
• the ratepayer taking up occupation of an additional property, and
• an increase in the rateable value of a property occupied by the ratepayer in an area other than the area of the local authority which granted the relief.

Find out more about small business rate relief

The 2023 Supporting Small Business (SSB) Relief Scheme will provide support to cap bill increases to £600 per year for any business losing eligibility for some or all Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) or Rural Rate Relief at the 2023 revaluation.

The council will adjust your bill if you're eligible.

You can read the full guidance for Supporting Small Business Relief on GOV.UK.

Find out more about 2023 SSB relief scheme

In the past when a revaluation has meant a significant increase or decrease in the rateable value, the change is phased in. This is to mitigate the financial impact of a change in rateable value as a result of the revaluation. This is known as upwards transition and downwards transition.

From 1 April 2023, there is only support available for upwards transition. That is if your property’s rateable value increases significantly, the increase will be phased in gradually, so the full financial impact is not immediate. There is no longer downward transition support, which means if the rateable value decreases significantly your business will reap the full benefit immediately.

Under the 2023 to 2026 Transitional relief scheme the following limits have been applied to yearly increases until the full amount is due. We will automatically adjust your bill if deemed eligible.

If your bill is increasing from 1 April 2023

Find out more about Transitional Relief

Business rates will not be payable in the first three months that a property is empty. This is extended to six months in the case of certain industrial properties. After this period rates are payable in full.

Some unoccupied properties may be exempt from a charge, they are:

• Properties with a rateable value less than £2,900, effective from 1 April 2017
• Occupation prohibited by law
• Vacant due to action taken on behalf of the Crown
• Listed buildings
• Ancient monuments
• The ratepayer is a charity and the property’s next use will be wholly or mainly for charitable purposes
• Owner is entitled to possession only in his capacity as personal representative of a deceased person
• Insolvency and debt administration
  • Bankruptcy order in respect of the ratepayer or their estate
• The ratepayer is a company in administration, in liquidation, or subject to winding-up order
• The ratepayer is the ratepayer because they are a trustee under a deed of arrangement

Find out more about unoccupied relief

On 25 March 2021 the government introduced the COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund of £1.5 billion. The fund was available to support those businesses affected by the pandemic but were not eligible for existing support linked to business rates. The fund closed for applications on 30 September 2022.

Find out more about COVID-19 Additional Relief

The Government announced the establishment of a £300m discretionary fund over four years from 2017/18 to support those businesses that face the steepest increases in their business rates bills as a result of the 2017 revaluation.

In order to be eligible for the relief:

• The rateable value of the premises must have been less than £100,000
• The ratepayer must have been in occupation of the premises on 1 April 2017 and have been in continuous occupation of the property from or prior to 31 March 2017.
• Have had an increase in their rates bill from 2016/17 to 2017/18.

The relief is aimed on small local businesses. To ensure that all the 2017/18 allocation for Salford was utilised for local business qualifying business didn’t face an increase in their 2017/18 bill.

For the following years qualifying businesses will receive the following relief:

• 2018/19 £420
• 2019/20 £175
• 2020/21 £24

Relief will end and be given pro-rata if a qualifying business no longer occupies the premises. This has been automatically applied to accounts which met the criteria.

At the Budget on Wednesday 3 March 2021 the Chancellor announced that the government would provide, as a temporary measure for 2021/22, the Nursery (childcare) Discount Scheme based on the 2020 to 2021 scheme.

This was for eligible properties which were occupied by providers on Ofsted’s Early Years register and which are wholly or mainly used for the provision of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

The discount scheme provided 100% relief on your bill for the first three months, from 1 April 2021 to 30 June 2021, and then the relief was at 66% for the remaining period, from 1 July 2021 to 31 March 2022.

Find out more about Nursery Childcare discount 2021 to 2022

This one-third discount for eligible retail businesses with a rateable value of less than £51,000, up to state aid limits commenced 1 April 2019 and ran for two years. The discount was increased to a 100% discount running from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. The discount was applied to the bill after the application of any reliefs, excluding any local discounts.

The government issued guidance on the operation of the scheme. For a list of properties that benefitted, go to our expanded retail discount page. This scheme ended on 31 March 2021.

The 2022/23 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief (RHL) scheme provided eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality, and leisure properties with a 50% relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business for chargeable days from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. Subject to eligibility criteria and not breaching the UK Subsidy allowance threshold. This scheme ended on 31 March 2023.

Supporting small business rate relief (SSB) was introduced to help support those ratepayers facing a large increase in their business rates bill due to no longer qualifying for small business rate relief, following the 2017 revaluation. SSB has been applied year on year, with a limit to how much the bill can increase either as a percentage or a cash value of £600, whichever is the greater. Between 2017 and 2023 this was automatically applied to bills by the council using the following percentage values:

Extension of the relief for 2022 to 2023

SSB has been extended for 2022 to 2023 ahead of Revaluation 2023. The bill percentage increase remains at 15% or £600 whichever is the greatest.

Do I need to apply for SSB relief?

Yes, as SSB is likely to amount to being a subsidy so it can only be awarded if the current UK Subsidy threshold is not breached. Eligible ratepayers need to complete the declaration using the form in the link below to declare any subsidies received. This is to evidence that by accepting this relief the business will not breach the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance threshold.

You can also use the same form if you wish to decline the relief being applied to your bill, if you already have or would breach the subsidy limit if the relief was applied to your bill.

Complete the Supporting Small Business rate relief declaration form

What is the UK Subsidy – Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit?

The UK Subsidy Small Amounts of Financial Assistance allowance (SAFA) permits a business at group company level (for example, a holding company and its subsidiaries) to receive up to the value of 325,000 special drawing rights in subsidies over a three-year period (the current and the two previous financial years). The special drawing rights can be converted into UK pound sterling using the special drawing rights calculator as the value can change on a daily basis. For example, this equated to £343,000 on 9 December 2021.

For the purposes of calculating the total amount of subsidy received this should include all business grants (throughout the three years) and any other subsidies claimed previously under SAFA but should not include relief awarded under the Expanded Retail Discount granted in either 2020/21 or 2021/22.

Property values can change between each revaluation. To help phase in the effects of these changes, transitional arrangements are put in place to limit the amount a bill can increase or decrease each year until the new bill amount is correct. Following the 2017 Revaluation, transitional arrangements were put in place to cover the five years from 2017 to 2022. These arrangements were applied automatically to bills and ended on Thursday 31 March 2022.

Under this 2017 to 2022 Transitional relief scheme, the following limits were applied to yearly increases and decreases until the full amount was due.

If your bill is increasing

If your bill is decreasing

Transitional relief was introduced in relation to the 2017 Revaluation to help ensure large changes to rates bills were phased in.

At the budget in 2021 government announced an extension of Transitional relief as a temporary measure for 2022-2023. This discretionary scheme will ensure eligible properties receive the same level of protection they would have received had the statutory transitional relief scheme extended into 2022 to 2023.

The main key difference is that this scheme only applies to properties with a rateable value up to and including £100,000 based on the value shown for 1 April 2017 or the substituted day in the cases of splits and mergers. For the avoidance of doubt, properties whose rateable value is £100,000 or less on 1 April 2017 (or the day of merger) but increase above £100,000 from a later date will still be eligible for the relief.

Find out more about the extension of Transitional Relief 2022 to 2023 and what information you need to declare to be awarded this relief.