You could be eligible for rural rate relief if your business is in a rural area with a population below 3,000.

You will not pay business rates if your business is in an eligible area and either:

  • the only village shop or post office, with a rateable value of up to £8,500
  • the only public house or petrol station, with a rateable value of up to £12,500

Rural Rate Relief was doubled from 50% to 100% from 1st April 2017 and must be applied for with the local council. The relief will normally be granted for each year that the criteria for the relief is met.

Qualifying criteria

A. For a Post Office or General Store to be entitled to 100% relief all the following criteria must be met :

  1. The Rateable Value of the property must not exceed £8,500 (£7,000 prior to 1 April 2010).
  2. The property must be used as a Post Office or a General Store or both. This is defined as : “General Store” means a business or trade which wholly or mainly sells by retail both food (other than confectionery) for human consumption and general household goods. Where there are two or more General Stores within the same Rural Settlement, none can qualify for Mandatory Relief on that basis, although if one of them functions as a Post Office or a Food Shop relief may be claimed independently on that ground.  However, both a General Store and a Post Office in the same Rural Settlement will qualify for Mandatory Relief, provided that they both meet the criteria. 
  3. The property must be the only Post Office or the only General Store in the Rural Settlement.

B. For a Public House or Petrol Filling Station to be entitled to 100% relief all the following criteria must be met :

  1. The Rateable Value of the property must not exceed £12,500 (£10,500 prior to 1 April 2010).
  2. The property must be used as a Public House or a Petrol Filling Station. A public house is defined as : any premises as defined in the Licensing Act 2003 which has a premises licence authorising sale by retail of alcohol for consumption on the premises. In addition the premises must be used principally for retail sales of alcohol to members of the public for consumption on the premises, and sales must not be subject to the condition that buyers reside at or consume food on the premises. A Petrol filling station is defined as : A premises where petrol or other automotive fuels are sold retail to the general public for fuelling motor vehicles intended or adapted for use on roads
  3. The property must be the only Public House or the only Petrol Filling Station in the Rural Settlement.

C. For a village food shop to be entitled to 100% relief  all the following criteria must be met :-

  1. The Rateable Value of the property must not exceed £8,500 (£7,000 prior to 1 April 2010).
  2. The property must be used as a shop selling mainly food. This is defined as :  a trade or business consisting wholly or mainly of the sale by retail of food for human consumption (excluding confectionery and catering – in this context catering means any supply of food for consumption on the premises on which it is supplied and any supply of hot food for consumption off the premises). This definition may also include shops which sell mainly household foods and which may partly also sell hot take away food or food consumed on the premises. But shops whose main business is a restaurant, tea room, take-away, or confectionery sales are not Food Shops and so will not qualify.

It is important to note that while the council is dealing with your application for rural rate relief you continue to pay your business rates.