Good Morning All
I just want to be sure you are all aware of the above money-saving opportunities:
General retail discount (ie a national government scheme)
This is especially targeted at independent businesses and should enable you to avoid 66% of rates last year and 50% of rates this year. The form only takes a moment to complete - please see Bristol Council website here or extract below.
Discounts for Roadworks (Dalby Malago)
This is tricier as the difficulty is that as a retail occupier you should be getting 50-66% off your rate rate bill (this year and next year), in the coming 2022/23 tax year, you should be getting 50% off.
To give a worked example:
High-ish Rateable Value of say £18,500 – if you managed to negotiate a 10% reduction for the roadworks(this I am told would be a very good result) for 30 months starting this week, the actual saving would be, including all the relief, around £500 per year. This would give a total saving across 30 months of around £1,250 before our fees. .
I have already enquired with business rates specialists to see if they wish to do a street representation exercise however because of the discounts you will already be receiving they would have to charge ‘astronomical fees’ and they recommend you all individually appeal. Worth bearing in mind the larger businesses on East St will already be represented by agents and so ideally they do the hard work and agree on a discount with the business rates office that creates a path for the smaller traders to ‘piggyback’ on any agreements they make.
It is quite bureaucratic process but worth it for businesses with larger rateable values. See https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/check-and-challenge-step-by-step
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EXTRACT FROM BRISTOL CITY COUNCIL WEBSITE:
Business rate discount for retail premises, hospitality and leisure venues
If you have a retail, hospitality or leisure property you may be eligible for a business rate discount.
From April 2021 to June 2021, there's a full discount for businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure venues. There will be no rateable value limit on the discount.
From 1 July 2021 to 31 March 2022 the discount is 66%.
From 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 the discount is 50%.
How to get the discount
You can apply for this discount if you think your property qualifies, and we’ll assess your application.
Apply for business rate discount 2021-22
Apply for business rate discount 2022-23
The 2022-23 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. If your business has, together with any other companies in the same group for Cash Cap purposes, received Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief/Expanded Retail Discount from any other local Authorities, you will need to include Expanded Retail Discount Additional Values document (word doc, 14KB) (opens new window) telling us the:
other properties' reference number
local authority providing relief or discount
properties' address
value of Expanded Retail Discount received for each
Expanded Retail Discount and Nursery Discount (2021-22)
From 1 April 2021 to 30 June 2021 the total amount of discount available is 100% of the net amount of business rates chargeable.
There’s no rateable value limit on this discount and state aid limits do not apply.
We’ll consider each award based on:
individual merits
the supporting information and evidence that is provided to show that they fall within the eligible categories
For the period 1 July 2021 to 31 March 2022 the total amount of the discount available is 66% of the net amount of business rates chargeable.
Ratepayers may, for this period, only claim:
up to £2 million of Expanded Retail Discount in 2021-22 for hereditaments which based on the coronavirus rules at 5 January would have been required to close
£105,000 for other eligible properties, up to a cap of £2 million for all properties
For the Nursery Discount only the £105,000 cap applies as properties were not required to close on 5 January 2021.
This cash cap applies at a Group company level. Holding companies and subsidiaries cannot claim up to the cash cap for each company. It also applies 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.
The following eligibility or ineligibility lists are not exhaustive and we may decide that other businesses fail to be excluded based on the criteria detailed in the government guidance. If an award of either the Expanded Retail or Nursery Discount has been made in respect of a hereditament that may not qualify, it will reconsider the award and may remove entitlement.
Email business.rates@bristol.gov.uk if your business does not wish to receive the Expanded Retail or Nursery Discount in respect of a hereditament in the Bristol area.
You should quote the business rate account numbers for which you do not wish to receive the discount as well as the date from which you do not wish the discount to be applied.
Expanded Retail Discount Eligibility
Properties that will benefit from the relief will be occupied hereditaments that are wholly or mainly being used:
as shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues
for assembly and leisure
as hotels, guest and boarding premises and self-catering accommodation
The government has guidance on the types of businesses that fall within each of the above categories and the authority will consider this when making any decision regarding entitlement.
Ineligible properties
The list below sets out the types of uses that we don't consider to be retail use for the purpose of this discount:
retail properties that are being used for the provision of the following services to visiting members of the public such as:
financial services such as banks, building societies, cash points, bureau de change, payday lenders, betting shops, pawn brokers
medical services such as vets, dentists, doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors
professional services such as solicitors, accountants, insurance agents/ financial advisers; and
Post office sorting offices
retail properties that are not reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public