At the Budget on 27th October, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the introduction of a new business rates relief scheme for retail, hospitality, and leisure properties worth almost £1.7 billion in 2022/23.

This aims to support the businesses that fill the country’s high streets and town centres and help them to evolve and adapt to changing consumer demands.

Scheme breakdown

Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme will provide eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a 50% relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business.

The UK government anticipates that local authorities will include details of the relief to be provided to eligible ratepayers for 2022/23 in their bills for the beginning of the 2022/23 billing cycle.

As this is a temporary measure for 2022/23 only, the government is not changing the legislation relating to the reliefs available to properties. Instead, the Government will reimburse local authorities that use their discretionary relief powers to grant relief. It will be for individual local billing authorities to adopt a local scheme and determine in each individual case when this relief can be granted.

The government plans to fully reimburse billing authorities and major precepting authorities for their loss of income under the rates retention scheme as a result of awarding the relief.

The government expects billing authorities to apply and grant relief to qualifying ratepayers from the start of the 2022/23 billing year. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will undertake a regular DELTA collection exercise. This will be used to monitor the scheme’s progress.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible for the scheme, businesses must mainly be used for the following purposes:

  • As shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas or live music venues
  • For assembly and leisure; or
  • As hotels, guest & boarding premises or self-catering accommodation

An exhaustive list of eligible businesses can be found here.

Available relief

As discussed, subject to the £110,000 cash cap per business, the total amount of government-funded relief available for each property for 2022/23 under this scheme is, for chargeable days from 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023, 50% of the chargeable amount.

The relief should be applied after mandatory reliefs and other discretionary reliefs have been applied, but before those where local authorities have used their wider discretionary relief powers.

Ratepayers that occupy more than one property will be entitled to relief for each of their eligible properties up to the maximum £110,000 cash cap, per business.

As always, if you would like any further information regarding the above, please feel free to contact our offices by email info@williamsoncroft.co.uk.