Small business rates relief

Small business rate relief is aimed at helping small businesses and is based on the rateable value of your business and the number of business properties you occupy. 

Relief application conditions

To be eligible for small business rate relief, the following needs to apply:

  • your property has a rateable value of less than £15,000
  • the property is occupied
  • it is your only occupied business premises, or you have other business premises with a rateable value under £2,900, and collectively the total rateable value of all properties is less than £20,000

If you receive small business rate relief and take on a further property that will stop eligibility. You may be able to keep the relief on the existing property for a further 12 months.

If you receive small business rate relief, you must inform us within 28 days of changes that could affect the eligibility.

Read more about small business rate relief

Inform us

You must inform us, if:

  • you meet the application conditions and small business rate relief has not been applied to your bill
  • you would like to refuse small business rate relief

Apply online for small business rates relief

How your bill will be calculated

Your bill will be calculated by:

  • a percentage reduction in the amount payable
  • calculation of the rates liability using the small business rates multiplier

Rateable values

If your property has a:

  • rateable value up to £12,000 – no rates payable
  • rateable value between £12,001 and £15,000 – tapered relief between 100% and 0%
  • rateable value above £15,000 but under £51,000 your bill will automatically be calculated using the small business rate multiplier

The small business rate multiplier for 2024/2025 is 49.9p (0.499), for other businesses this is 54.6p (0.546).

Read more about the multiplier

Changes in circumstances

Certain changes in circumstances will need to be notified to us by the ratepayer.

The changes which must be notified are:

  • your property becomes empty
  • you get another property
  • you make any changes to your property that would increase its value
  • you occupy an additional property outside of Woking and the rateable value of the property has increased

Notification of these changes must be given us within four weeks of the day after the day on which the change happened. 

Important payment information

  • Applying for relief does not entitle you to withhold payments on your account. You must continue to pay your business rates as billed.
  • Recovery action will be taken if your payments are not up to date.