Business Rates

We offer various ways to pay business rates, including direct debits and online payments. Please note we no longer accept cheques.

Revaluation 2023

Ratepayers are now able to access the draft rating list 2023 and estimate what their business rates bill might be from 1 April 2023.

Find a business rates valuation – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

At revaluation, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) adjusts the rateable value of business properties to reflect changes in the property market. The most recent revaluation came into effect in England and Wales on 1 April 2017, based on rateable values from 1 April 2015. The next revaluation will come into effect on 1 April 2023, based on rateable values from 1 April 2021.

A package of targeted support worth £13.5 billion over the next five years will support businesses as they transition to their new bills, protect businesses from the fill impact of inflation, and support our high streets. English Local Authorities will be fully compensated for the loss of income because of these business rates measures and will receive new burdens funding for administrative and IT costs.

Multipliers from 1 April 2024

Please note that the small business multiplier will also be used if a business with a rateable value between 0 and £50,999 is unoccupied, on the central list or occupied by charities too in accordance with the Non-Domestic Rating Act 2023.

Business Rates Transitional Relief Scheme

Transitional relief limits how much your bill change each year as a result of the latest business rates revaluation which took effect from 1 April 2023. Transitional relief is awarded if your rates go up or down by more than a certain amount. This means changes to your bill are phased in gradually. We will adjust your bill automatically if you are eligible. Transitional relief will be awarded as below:

Business Rates Supporting Small Business Scheme (SSB)

Bill increases for the smallest businesses losing eligibility or seeing reductions in Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) or Rural Rate Relief (RRR) will be capped at £600 per year from April 2023. This is support worth over £500 million over the next three years and will protect over 80,000 small businesses who are losing some or all eligibility for relief. This means no small business losing eligibility for SBRR or RRR will see a bill increase of more than£50 per month in 2023-24.

From 1 April 2020 the government expanded the Retail Discount as follows:

• widened the Retail Relief scheme to include the leisure and tourism industry, including hotels, cafes, restaurants, nightclubs and gyms. Properties previously not allowed retail relief including estate agents and betting shops have now also been included.
• removed the £51,000 rateable value ceiling level.

This then continued for 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24 and will continue during 2024/25 as follows:

• 100% relief for three months from 1 April 2021 to 30 June 2021 with no cash cap, followed by 66% relief from 1 July to 31 March 2022.
• 50% relief from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.
• 75% relief from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2025 for eligible properties up to a cap of £110,000 per business.

The latest guidance for the Business Rates Relief: 2023/24 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Scheme can be found at Business Rates Relief: 2023/24 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Scheme – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

All ratepayers have the option of declining their retail relief. If you wish to decline the retail relief as described in the Budget, please contact us as soon as possible.

We can be contacted at nndr@northlincs.gov.uk or call 0300 3030164 and choose option 4

Reduction and relief information for non domestic rates (NNDR)

Please contact us if you need any further information.  Please remember to have your account number to hand.

Local Newspapers

The extension of the £1,500 business rates discount for office space occupied by local newspapers will apply for an additional five years until 31 March 2025.

Partly occupied property relief

The full non-domestic rate is due whether a property is wholly or partly occupied. Where a property is partly occupied for a short time we have discretion, in certain cases, to award relief for the unoccupied part.

Charity and community amateur sports relief

Charities and registered community amateur sports clubs (CASCs) are entitled to 80 per cent relief in many cases. If the property is occupied by the charity of the CASC and is wholly or mainly used for the charitable purposes of charity, or for the purposes of the CASC (or of that and other CASCs), relief will be granted. We also have discretion to give further relief on the remaining 20 per cent of the bill.

Hardship relief

We have discretion to give relief in special circumstances.

Rural Rate Relief

Certain types of properties in a rural settlement, with a population below 3,000, may be entitled to relief. The property must be:

• the only general store, the only Post Office, or a food shop and have a rateable value of less than £8,500, or
• be the only public house or the only petrol station and have a rateable value of less than £12,500

Improvement Relief

Section 1 of the Non-Domestic Rating Act 2023 created a new mandatory relief to support businesses making improvements to properties they occupy. From 1 April 2024, businesses that have made qualifying improvements may benefit from 100% relief from higher bills for 12 months. The scheme will run until 1 April 2029. Further information will be published once guidance has been received in relation to this relief.

Heat networks relief

You can get heat networks relief if your property is only used or mainly used as a ‘heat network’.

A heat network supplies heating or cooling to other properties from a central source. To be eligible, the heat network must:

• take its energy from a low carbon source
• supply heating and cooling to other properties – for example, homes, shops, public buildings, hospitals and offices

The heat network must not supply heat or cooling for industrial use – for example, to create products in factories.

You will not pay business rates if your property is eligible for heat networks relief. Contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to check if your property is eligible for heat networks relief.

Film Studio Relief

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in his latest budget 6 March 2024 that eligible film studios would benefit from a 40% reduction on gross business rates bills from 1 April 2024 until 2034. Further details to follow.

New rules in relation to self-catering accommodation has come into force from 1 April 2023. All new self-catering accommodation from 11 November 2022 onwards will fall under the new rules. Whether it be a brand-new dwelling/complex or an existing property in the domestic list which is now being rented out commercially as self-catering accommodation, it will remain in the domestic list or enter the domestic list until the following criteria is met:

The whole of the building or self-contained part of the building must have been available to let commercially, as self-catering accommodation, for short periods totalling 140 days or more and actually let out for a total of at least 70 days.

A short term let is considered to be a period of 28 days or less.

Until the criteria is met, Council Tax will be payable. Once the property meets the criteria to enter the non-domestic ratings list, the owner must submit a “Form of Return” to the Valuation Office Agency. This can be found at Request for rental information for specific business types – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Valuation Office Agency will then make the final decision and notify the council.

If you own or hold a lease for a non-domestic property and it is empty and not in use, you may be entitled to a period exemption (3 months/6 months for industrial premises) from the date if first became empty. After the exemption ends, full business rates will be payable.

PLEASE NOTE – If a property has not been in occupation for at least 13 weeks before it becomes empty, an exemption will not be awarded.

For further information visit the business rate relief page on GOV.UK.

If you have been asked to supply evidence for your relief, complete form Business Rates Evidence Request and attaching your documents.

You can submit the following types of evidence

• Image files – format GIF, JPG, TIF, PNG or BMP (maximum file size is 5000mb)
• PDF files – you can upload PDF copies of evidence (maximum file size 5000mb)
• The form does not support the upload of other file types such as DOC/DOCX (Microsoft Word) or xlx/xlsx (Microsoft Excel). If you want to submit evidence in this file type, you must save it first as a PDF document. This can be done by clicking ‘Save As’ in the file menu in Microsoft Word or Excel and selecting ‘PDF’ from the ‘Save As type’ dropdown menu. You can then attach the PDF document to the form

Dealing with all the problems debt creates can be difficult, but you can find help and guidance from the following organisations:

This explains what happens if you fail to pay business rates, and the summons procedures for the recovery of unpaid business rates.

Non payment of business rates

If you are experiencing difficulties paying your business rates please contact us to see how we can help.

Missed instalments

If an instalment is not paid by the due date:

• a reminder notice will be issued
• the reminder will show the amount required to be paid to bring your instalments up to date
• you will have seven days to make the payment or the right to pay by instalments will be removed

Once instalments have been cancelled:

• a further seven days will be given to pay the full balance otherwise further recovery action will be taken
• at this stage bringing the account ‘up-to-date’ will not be sufficient to prevent legal action being taken against you
• if this happens you will receive a summons to appear before the Magistrates Court

Summonsed to court

Business Rates Summons and Liability Audio Hearing

If you have received a Summons Notice from the council, it means that they will ask the court to grant a liability order for unpaid business rates. A liability order means that the court agrees that you owe the money and that the council can take steps to collect it by taking control of goods, bankruptcy, or winding up order.

At present, liability order hearings are held remotely by audio link. You should not attend a Magistrates Court building.

Your options

You have some options:

• Pay off the amount on the summons in full including the costs – that will end the case
• Do nothing – the council will ask the court to make the liability order in your absence
• If you accept that you owe the money, you can make an agreement with the council about how you will pay it (usually in instalments)

If you make an agreement to pay with the council, they will still ask the court for a liability order. But if you stick to the agreement, they will not take any other steps (seizing goods etc). However, should you default on payment the liability order will be enforced. To make an agreement you should contact the council immediately on 0300 303 0164 rather than waiting for the court hearing. If you do that, you will probably not need to attend the court hearing as the council will ask the court to make the liability order in your absence. Then they will collect the money as you and the council have agreed. If you are thinking about disputing the order (instead of paying – perhaps by instalments – or doing nothing) you should read the notes on the back of the Summons. They tell you what the council must prove to the court, and what defences you have. These are listed below. Then, if you still want to dispute the liability order you must, check the Defences to a Liability or to be sure you have a valid defence.

Then:

• Contact the council at least seven days prior to the court hearing and have a meeting with them to explain why you believe you are not liable
• If you cannot agree, you will be given a time to attend court by way of a telephone hearing
• You will need to make yourself available for this telephone hearing for the full period of time the council will give you
• If you are not available and fail to answer the call when the court telephones you the court may make the liability order against you in your absence

Please Note: if you turn up at the Magistrates’ Court without a prior appointment, you may be refused entry and your case may be heard in your absence.

Defences to a liability order

These are defences which have previously been successful:

NNDR: Local Government Finance Act 1989. National Non-Domestic Rating (Collection & Enforcement) (Local Lists) Regulations 1989.

• There is no entry in the rating list effective for the period for which the defendant is alleged to have been liable to pay the business rates
• That the bill, reminder/final notice, and summons have not been demanded or served in accordance with the National Non-Domestic Rating (Collection & Enforcement) (Local Lists) Regulations 1989
• That the amount demanded has been paid
• The ratepayer is deceased
• That application was made more than six years after the first demand notice was issued
• That the council is in breach of the duty to service notices “as soon as practicable” in the relevant year
• Although you occupy only part of the premises in one assessment you are being charged for the whole property (with no lease in place for this)

The court will issue a liability order if the council has done what it should, and you are the person responsible for the council tax at that property but you have not got an acceptable defence

The extra costs of non payment

The Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1990 PART III Regulation 7, allows for the court to make an order for reasonable costs incurred in the application.

• A Non-domestic Rates Summons is £55 plus £10 for the Liability Order
• A Committal Summons is £245 plus a further £105 for a Warrant of Arrest
• A liability order received by an enforcement agent (bailiff) for collection incurs a compliance fee of £75 and an enforcement fee of £235 for a visit by an enforcement agent

For further information please contact us on nndr@northlincs.gov.uk or 0300 3030164

The council (including Council Tax, Benefits, Business Rates and Debt Recovery teams) are now using SMS text messages to provide you with information about our services. Please note that these are only used in some cases and you should not rely on us sending you a text message to update you about your account.

How it works

If we already have your mobile number in our system you will be signed up for the service automatically. If we don’t have your mobile number or your number has changed recently and you would like to receive SMS texts please send an email to nndr@northlincs.gov.uk

Opting out

If you would like to opt-out of receiving SMS text messages for Business Rates please email nndr@northlincs.gov.uk to confirm that you do not wish to receive information from us by SMS text message. You will need to give your account number, name and address so we can update your account accordingly.

Who sends the messages?

The SMS text messages are sent by North Lincolnshire Council, and will show as “NL Council”. The sending of messages is a confidential service, your mobile number will not be shared with third parties and we will not send you any other marketing messages to your phone.

We receive a number of requests for information about business rate accounts (non-domestic properties). To provide a better understanding of business rates in North Lincolnshire the following information is made available.

North Lincolnshire (NL) and North East Lincolnshire (NEL) Councils have a shared service agreement covering the Local Taxation and Benefits sections.

The shared service agreement consists of information sharing protocols and signed agreements covering the Council Tax and Benefits services.

• NL and NEL Info Sharing Finance Agreement [PDF, 389Kb]
• NL and NEL Info Sharing Legal Agreement [PDF, 2Mb]
• NL and NEL Signed Secondment Agreement[PDF, 1Mb]

We have tried to make these documents as accessible as possible. If you require a different format, please contact us. You can read our Accessibility Statement on our website