Retail rate relief - properties that can benefit
The government has introduced a temporary relief to help the retail sector. The properties that can benefit from this relief must be business premises that are occupied and have a rateable valuation of £50,000 or less and be wholly or mainly used as shops, restaurant, cafes and drinking establishments.
The total amount of relief available for each property will be £1,000 for 2014-15 and £1,500 for 2015-16. However, as the award of such discounts is considered likely to amount to state aid, normal state aid regulations apply.
Which properties will benefit from relief?
1. Retail properties that are being used for the sale of goods to visiting members of the public:
• Shops (such as: florist, bakers, butchers, grocers, greengrocers, jewellers, stationers, off licence, chemists,newsagents, hardware stores, supermarkets, etc)
• Charity shops
• Opticians
• Post offices
• Furnishing shops/ display rooms (such as: carpet shops, double glazing, garage doors)
• Car/ caravan show rooms
• Second hand car lots
• Markets
• Petrol stations
• Garden centres
• Art galleries (where art is for sale/hire).
2. Retail properties that are being used for the provision of the following services to visiting members of the public:
• Hair and beauty services (such as: hairdressers, nail bars, beauty salons, tanning shops, etc)
• Shoe repairs/ key cutting
• Travel agents
• Ticket offices eg for theatre
• Dry cleaners
• Launderettes
• PC/ TV/ domestic appliance repair
• Funeral directors
• Photo processing
• DVD/ video rentals
• Tool hire
• Car hire.
3. Retail properties that are being used for the sale of food and/ or drink to visiting members of the public:
• Restaurants
• Takeaways
• Sandwich shops
• Coffee shops
• Pubs
The relief is £1,000 and will be applied after any other relief and will not exceed the total liability. It is available on all qualifying hereditaments, however awards such as retail relief are required to comply with the EU law on state aid. In this case, this involves returning the declaration to this authority if you have received any other De Minimis state aid, including any other retail relief you are being granted, and confirming that the award of retail relief does not exceed the €200,000 an undertaking can receive under the De Minimis regulations EC1407/2013.
How to apply for retail rate relief
If you wish to apply for this relief, please complete the application form and the state aid De Minimis declaration form, which are available from the links below. In terms of declaring previous De Minimis aid, we are only interested in public support which is De Minimis aid (state aid received under other exemptions or public support which is not state aid does not need to be declared).
If you have not received any other De Minimis state aid, including any other retail relief you are being granted for premises other than the current one, you do not need to complete or return the declaration.
If you do not wish to claim retail relief and are not returning the application form you do not need to complete the declaration. This may be particularly relevant to those premises that are part of a large retail chain, where the cumulative total of Retail Relief received could exceed €200,000.
Under the European Commission rules, you must retain this state aid letter for three years from the date on this letter and produce it on any request by the UK public authorities or the European Commission. (You may need to keep this letter longer than three years for other purposes). Furthermore, information on this aid must be supplied to any other public authority or agency asking for information on ‘De Minimis’ aid for the next three years.
Click here for the rate relief application form (20 Kb pdf)
Please return the form to: Norwich City Council, City Hall. St Peters Street, Norwich, NR2 1NH.
De Minimis declaration
The government announced in its autumn statement that a temporary retail rate relief would be available for all occupied retail properties that are wholly or mainly used as shops, cafes and drinking establishments with a rateable valuation of £50,000 or less in each of the financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16.
European Union law regulates state funded support to businesses and retail relief is classed as state aid. Under the “De Minimis” regulations, no one company or sole trader may receive more than €200,000 of state aid in a three year period.
You can find out more about state aid on the government website https://www.gov.uk/state-aid
Click here for the De Minimis declaration form (63 Kb pdf)
Please return the declaration to: Norwich City Council, City Hall. St Peters Street, NR2 1NH.