2024/25 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme

The 2024/25 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme provides occupied business rated retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a 75% relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business.

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. No business rates payer should in any circumstances exceed this limit across all of their properties in England.

Eligibility

To qualify for relief the business must be occupying a non-domestic rated property that is wholly or mainly used as:

• shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas, live music venues
• venues for assembly
• hotels, guesthouses, self-catering accommodation

Properties used for the provision of the following services to visiting members of the public are not eligible for this relief:

• financial services, such as banks, building societies, cash points, bureaux de change, short-term loan providers, betting shops
• medical services, such as vets, dentists, doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors
• professional services, such as solicitors, accountants, insurance agents, financial advisers, employment agencies, estate agents, letting agents
• post office sorting offices

Find out more about the scheme, including a list of the trading activities that qualify for relief, by visiting the Business Rates Relief: 2024/25 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Scheme (opens new window), local authority guidance on GOV.UK.

How we will award relief

We will automatically apply the relief in your 2024/25 business rates bill for the properties that we think qualify.

We will withhold relief for the properties that are either not eligible or it is considered likely that the cash cap and/or the Minimal Amounts of Financial Assistance limits have been breached.

The cash cap and subsidy control

Under the cash cap, no ratepayer can in any circumstances exceed the £110,000 cash cap across all of their business rated properties in England.

Where a ratepayer has a qualifying connection with another ratepayer then those ratepayers should be considered as one ratepayer for the purposes of the cash caps. A ratepayer shall be treated as having a qualifying connection with another:

• where both ratepayers are companies, and
  • one is a subsidiary of the other, or
  • both are subsidiaries of the same company, or
• where only one ratepayer is a company, the other ratepayer (the 'second ratepayer') has such an interest in that company as would, if the second ratepayer were a company, result in its being the holding company of the other

Furthermore, the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme is likely to amount to a subsidy. Any relief provided under this scheme will need to comply with the UK's domestic and international subsidy control obligations. The Subsidy Control Act allows an economic actor (e.g. a holding company and its subsidiaries) to receive up to £315,000 in a three-year period consisting of the 2024/25 financial year and the two previous financial years. COVID business grants and any other subsidies claimed under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement should be counted towards the £315,000 allowance.

Therefore, to claim the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief you must not have exceeded either the £110,000 cash cap for 2024/25 or the Minimal Amounts of Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over the last three financial years (including 2024/25).

The award of this relief must comply with subsidy rules. See further information regarding subsidies on the UK subsidy control regime page on GOV.UK (opens new window).

Accepting the relief

You do not need to take any action if you have received the 2024/25 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief for only one eligible premises in England and you have not received more than the Minimal Amounts of Financial Assistance of £315,000 over three years (including 2024/25).

If both the following two bullet points apply to you, please complete the online declaration form to accept the relief and declare that you comply with the cash cap and exemption threshold:

• you (or if appropriate a company in your group) have received the 2024/25 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme support on any other property but to a level below the £110,000 cash cap; you should list the other Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief being granted for premises other than the one to which this bill relates, and
• you (or if appropriate a company in your group) have not received more than the Minimal Amounts of Financial Assistance of £315,000 over three years (including 2024/25); if appropriate you should list the other subsidies you have received

If one, or both, of the following two bullet points applies to you, please complete the online declaration form to refuse the relief:

• you have exceeded the cash cap on other properties, or
• you have received more than the Minimal Amounts of Financial Assistance limit of £315,000 over three years (including 2024/25)

Please complete the online declaration form to accept or refuse the relief.

If you require a further copy, please contact us on nndr@great-yarmouth.gov.uk.

Opt out of the relief

You have the option to refuse at any time up to 30 April 2025 the relief for each eligible business rated property. Once made, you cannot withdraw your refusal for either all or part of the year.

Notifications of your refusal of the relief should be emailed to nndr@great-yarmouth.gov.uk.

The government and Great Yarmouth Borough Council will not tolerate any business falsifying their records or providing false evidence to gain this relief, including claiming support above the cash cap or the exemption threshold. A ratepayer who falsely applies for any relief, or who provides false information or makes false representation in order to gain relief, may be guilty of fraud under the Fraud Act 2006.