Non-domestic rates - money off your bill
Other reliefs
Subsidy control rules under Subsidy Control Act 2022
The following reliefs will be subject to the subsidy rules under the above regulations -
- Rural relief
- Transitional relief for properties in parks
- Transitional relief for small businesses
- Day nursery relief
- District heating relief
- Renewable energy relief
- Retail, hospitality and leisure relief (2022/23 only)
These reliefs may be offered as a Minimum Financial Assistance (MFA) subsidy under the Subsidy Control Act 2022. MFA is capped at a maximum of £315,000 over a three-period – cumulated over the current and previous two financial years.
To ensure that we comply with the subsidy regime, we may be required to cap relief at the MFA maximum limit. This may depend on:
- the level of other public sector assistance received by your entity
- whether or not you have an interest in any business with other properties, is in receipt, or eligible, for one of the existing rate relief schemes
You must consider whether you have already received support from any public sector body in the current financial year and the two financial years immediately preceding this. We will determine this from the completed Subsidy Information Declaration Form that is part of your application.
A written record must be kept for at least three years beginning with the date on which the MFA was given. This will enable you to respond to future requests from public authorities on how much MFA you have received and whether you have reached the cumulative threshold.
Further information on this is available on the Scottish Government website.
For information on the relief type and how to apply or renew, please access using the buttons below.
We aim to process your application within 10 working days. Due to current volumes of customer contact and correspondence, there may be a delay to this timescale.
We are working hard to reduce our response times and will process your application as soon as possible.
You can get 100% relief if your property is in a designated rural area with a population below 3,000 and it is
- a small food shop, general store or post office with a rateable value below £8,500
- a small hotel, public house or petrol filling station with a rateable value of up to £12,750
- any other business providing a benefit to the community with a rateable value of up to £17,000
Certain other rural businesses can also get up to 50% relief depending on their use and rateable value.
We can give 100% relief to premises that are occupied as a day nursery.
Exemption is awarded where the property is used as a place of worship, or a hall in association with a place of worship.
Up to 100% relief is given where the property is used only to provide care, training or support to disabled people.
You can get 100% relief for up to 12 months where a property is occupied after being empty for the preceding 6 months. You must apply for this relief within 12 months of the property being occupied. From the 1 April 2023 the rateable value must be £100,000 or less and prior to this the rateable value must be £95,000 or less.
You can get this relief if
- your premises is a new build property
- your rateable value has increased because you have expanded or made improvements to your property
New Build Premises
Occupiers of newly built properties can receive 100% relief for the first 12 months that they occupy the property.
From 1 April 2021, new builds that are unoccupied may be able to claim 100% relief for up to 3 years.
Expanded or improved properties
If you have expanded or made improvements to your property you can receive relief for up to 12 months that will keep your non-domestic rates bill at the level it was prior to the expansion or improvements.
You can get 100% relief on your non-domestic rates for the site of a Reverse Vending Machine (RVM).
The site of RVMs will not add to the rateable value of a property if applying for the Small Business Bonus Scheme
To apply for this relief, please contact the non-domestic rates team using the contact details shown.
We can award relief to properties that are only partly occupied, subject to the following
- the property must be an industrial property such as a workshop or factory
- the unoccupied part must be at least 5% of the total rateable value of the property
- relief is awarded once only for a period of between 1 and 3 months
This relief is calculated on the rateable value of the unoccupied part of the property which will be determined by the Lanarkshire Valuation Joint Board. Photographic evidence will be required as part of the application process.
If you have been asked to provide evidence in support of an application for rates relief, you can use our online form to provide this.