With a new financial year just beginning, now is a good time to consider if your business is receiving all the relevant reliefs available to help when it comes to business rates.
It always makes good economic sense to seek expert advice when it comes to business rates and stay informed of the latest changes, exemptions and business rate reliefs that are currently available in England and Wales.
One area that would be worth looking at now is whether your business could benefit from
Improvement Relief which is available if you make certain improvements to your property. If you’re eligible, you’ll get the relief for one year starting from when you complete your improvements.
Any improvements you make must:
- Increase the ‘rateable value’of your property
- Be completed on or after 1 April 2024
They must also either:
- Increase the size of your property or,
- Add new features or equipment to your property, such as heating, air conditioning or CCTV.
Any improvements to existing features or equipment don’t qualify and you must have occupied the property during and after the improvement works to get Improvement Relief. Improvement Relief is not transferable to anybody else.
What do you get?
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) will decide how much relief you get based on your property’s
‘rateable value’ and the type of improvements you’ve made.
How to get Improvement Relief
The good news is that you don’t need to apply for improvement relief. The VOA will be told if you’ve made an improvement to your property and will decide if you qualify.
If you qualify, the VOA will send a certificate to you and your local council showing
the property’s new Rateable Value and how much improvement relief you’re getting when the relief ends.
Once your local council has confirmed you were occupying the property, you’ll get a reduced business rates bill.
If you think you should be getting improvement relief but are not
Contact your local council if you’re not getting improvement relief and you think you’re eligible for it.
Dunlop Heywood offers a business rates’ bill review service which involves a free analysis of your rates bills by our team of specialists. If a saving opportunity is identified, we will contact you to explain the process and the details of our “no win, no fee” service.
Go to
Upload Your Rates Bill for a FREE Analysis by Dunlop Heywood and simply upload a copy of your latest rates’ bill along with your contact details and we will be in touch should there be an opportunity for you to save on your business rates.
