Small Business Rate Relief Campaign

September 2008-September 2010

Introduction

Small Business Rate Relief is simple. Occupy 1 property with a rateable value of less £10000, fill in a form, and have your Business Rates bill reduced by up to £1100 a year. A business applying today and who has been eligible to relief since April 2007, can also get a backdated refund of up to £2200.

This relief started in April 2005 and, amazingly, in June 2006, the Local Government Association reported that £400 million a year was going unclaimed in Small Business Rate relief (to see article click here). All the evidence since points to the fact that this situation remains little changed, and that is hardly surprising.

Part of the problem is noone is really directly responsible for promoting it.

Technically the Councils should be, and many who we surveyed in February  2008 made it their responsibility. But many Councils don't even mention it, and the worst performers greeted us with a stony silence.

The Inland Revenue should be, but if everyone claimed the Government has to pay back £400 million a year, backdated to April 2007, so a cynical view could see it being "slow pedalled".

For many of those Small Business £1000 a year is the difference between trading and bankruptcy. So if the money could be directed where it was intended, then more Small Businesses would be trading. Those Small Businesses are invariably the customers of the larger ones

So both moral and reasons of self interests, ALL businesses should be encouraging Small Businesses to claim what they are entitled to. 

A simple solution

If you tell businesses to go to their Local Authority and claim it is a hit and miss affair. Some have downloadable forms, some don't. Some mention it on their website some don't.  Small businesses can easily be deterred. We have made it simple.

We have built a simple computer application that works out if your are eligible, and fills in a generic application form, and preprint the address to send it to. All the Small Business has to do is print it off and put a stamp on it! It takes less than 2 minutes.

Now it is just a question of spreading the word.