Lambeth Council
The government has announced retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England will not need to pay business rates for the 2020 to 2021 tax year. Lambeth Council will be applying this automatically to businesses in Lambeth, you do not need to apply.
A grant scheme has also been announced and Lambeth are awaiting further guidance from central government on how local authorities will administer this. At the moment we know that:
- A £25,000 grant will be provided to retail, hospitality and leisure businesses operating from smaller premises, with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000.
- A £10,000 grant will be provided to businesses currently eligible for Small business rate relief (SBBR) to help meet their ongoing business costs.
Lambeth expect that eligible businesses currently in receipt of Retail Rate Relief will not need to apply for the £10k grant and that they will be providing these automatically. Lambeth are still awaiting information on the eligibility criteria for the £25k grants.
Amended bills detailing the 100% Retail Rate Relief increased from 50% will be issued on Friday 20th March.
Lambeth will be updating the information here.
The Government
The Government announced in the Budget on 29 October 2018 that it would provide a Business Rates Retail Discount, to apply in the years 2019/20 and 2020/21. In response to the coronavirus, in the Budget on 11 March the Government announced that it would increase the discount to 100% and extend it to include the leisure and hospitality sectors.
This relief will apply to occupied retail, leisure and hospitality properties in the year 2020/21. There will be no rateable value limit on the relief.
The government Business Rates document can be found here.