National non-domestic rates for billing authorities: form guidance

Question 1

1. Introduction

Accepted Answer

These instructions are to help billing authorities on the centralised national non-domestic rates (NNDR) payment process for local authority maintained schools and academies. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) pays NNDR bills directly to billing authorities on behalf of local authority maintained schools and academies.

Further information on this change can be found at changes to the payment process of schools’ business rates.

Question 2

2. Eligibility to claim

Accepted Answer

The annual process for billing authorities to confirm their NNDR payment process for 2024 to 2025 concluded in January 2024. You can view the NNDR payment process, for 2024 to 2025 for billing authorities and schools to check the process confirmed for your billing authority.

If you did not confirm to ESFA your intention to implement the centralised payment process, you should continue to bill your maintained schools and academies directly.

2.1 Eligible schools

All local authority maintained schools and academies, including 16 to 19 academies that are not further education (FE) establishments, that deliver education fall under the centralised payment process.

The schools and academies by billing authority area for national non-domestic rates 2024 to 2025 document details the schools that fall under the remit of each billing authority.

Maintained schools

local authority maintained schools
community schools
community special schools
foundation schools
foundation special schools
pupil referral units (only where a prior arrangement exists)
voluntary aided schools
voluntary controlled schools

Academies:

pre-16 academy schools
special academies
alternative provision academies
16 to 19 convertor academies
16 to 19 sponsor led academies
special converter academies (only where a prior arrangement exists)
free schools
free schools alternative provision (only where a prior arrangement exists)
special free schools (only where a prior arrangement exists)
16 to 19 free schools (only where a prior arrangement exists)
studio schools
university technical colleges

Early years or post-16 provider based provision, which form part of the overall school operation, will continue to be funded as they have been historically under the centralised process. Maintained nursery schools are out of scope of these changes.

Sixth forms which are part of secondary schools will also be funded as they have been historically under the centralised process.

Special schools and pupil referral units are in scope of the changes, however we would expect these to receive 100% relief for rates.

Question 3

3. When to claim

Accepted Answer

The deadline for submitting your claim is 11:59pm on Wednesday, 22 May 2024.

Claims can be amended up until the deadline. It will not be possible, under any circumstances, to grant any extensions to the deadline.

Question 4

4. Accessing the claim form

Accepted Answer

4.1 Before you start

Before you start the claims process, you will need to:

have a DfE Sign-in account that is linked to your billing authority
have ‘NNDR service’ added to your billing authority DfE sign-in account
confirm you are an eligible establishment
have prepared your data; the data template can be downloaded by accessing the NNDR claim form

Question 5

5. 
DfE Sign-in

Accepted Answer

Follow the steps below to proceed with your claim form:

Access the online NNDR claim form and when prompted, enter your DfE Sign-in credentials (your username and password) for authentication.
Choose the organisation for whom you are completing the form (this is only required if you are linked to several organisations).
The next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed in. This will show the name, address and unique identifier of the billing authority, as well as the name and email address of the person who signed into DfE Sign-in.
If these details are correct, select ‘Continue’ to go to the next page.
If you believe these details are incorrect, please contact us via the customer help centre and we will investigate. You can still proceed with your submission.
Complete the form as instructed in the following sections.

Please note: to complete the form, your account must be connected to the billing authority you are completing the form for. This is your organisation type that will allow access to this form and is different to the local authority. You must also add ‘NNDR services’ in DfE Sign-in.

You will need to create a DfE Sign-in account if you do not have one by completing steps 1 to 5 below: 

Select ‘create a DfE Sign-in account’ on the DfE Sign-in page.
Enter your name and email address (use a valid business email address that contains your name).
You will receive an email to verify your email address. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.
Create a memorable password of 8 characters or more. Your password must include 2 uppercase letters, 2 lowercase letters, and 2 numbers.
Sign in using your new credentials, and request access to the billing authority for which you would like to submit the form. Please ensure the type of your organisation is ‘billing authority’ and not a ‘local authority’ when selecting from the search results. Your request will be sent to the approver(s) of your organisation or will be dealt with by DfE Sign-in Support Team if you do not already have an approver.

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you will need to add NNDR service to your account and then follow the steps outlined under  ‘already have a DfE account’  to complete the form.

You might have noticed the term ‘approver’ when creating your account. An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. This is usually a senior person, such as an administrator or a manager.

For security reasons, you will need the approval of one of your organisation’s approvers before you can access the form.

5.3 If you need further assistance

If you need help using the DfE Sign-in service, visit DfE Sign-in help. You will be able to request further assistance if required. When raising a support request, please select ‘other’.

If you believe you are eligible to claim but have problems accessing the form, please contact us via the customer help centre.

Question 6

6. Completing the form

Accepted Answer

By clicking ‘Continue’ on each page this will take you through the form.

After completing all mandatory sections within the claim form, you will be prompted to complete the required declarations before you can submit your form. Once you have submitted your form, an explanation on what happens next will follow.

6.1 Claim template file

You can choose to download the claims submission template before you continue to upload your file. You should select the ‘template’ link to download the most up to date file version.

6.2 Download the claim template file

The page allows you to download the most up to date version of the template file. Click the file link to download the file to your device. The file will download as an .XLSX file type (Excel). This should be ‘saved as’ a CSV (comma delimited) (*.csv) file type before the completed version is uploaded to ESFA.

6.3 Your claims

This page allows you to upload your completed .CSV template file.

6.4 Uploading the claim file

The file will initially be saved as an .XLSX file type (Excel) when downloaded. This should then be ‘saved as’ a .CSV file type before the completed version is uploaded to ESFA. When saving as .CVS you must select the option as highlighted below.

6.5 Validating your claim file

Once you have uploaded the claim file, click ‘Continue’ and the service will validate it. If the validation fails, you must clear the file errors and upload again.

You may wish to copy your data across to a newly downloaded template file in case the problem is due to an out-of-date template.

You may experience a validation failure due to some common errors. In Annex 1: how to successfully validate your file, we have provided further guidance on fixing these errors.

Question 7

7. Troubleshooting

Accepted Answer

There may be instances where your NNDR data contains more than one property for a single school.

Every educational provider in the UK has their own UK provider reference number (UKPRN). For most schools, there will be a one-to-one relationship between your account number for a property and the UKPRN for a school. However, as an example, where an academy has a split site, you will have 2 NNDR account numbers against the same UKPRN, this is acceptable. In these cases, simply present the numbers as 2 lines of data in your claims’ submission, each with the same UKPRN.

7.1 Marking relevant properties within your NNDR system

This may be a two-step process. Depending on your requirements you may need to flag properties on your system with a new payment code, and/or add the properties to a new payment group.

7.2 Matching schools to NNDR properties

Billing authorities will need to map ESFA’s schools’ data to their NNDR property data.

For maintained schools and academies, this can be done through a combination of matching postcodes and school names.

7.3 Entering your data into the spreadsheet

For each row/claim, enter the:

name of the school (ratepayer/liable parties)
property description
property address line 1
property postcode
property reference number
account reference number
amount due/net liability
if the property (or sports field) is being used for educational purposes (this is a new column for financial year 2024 to 2025)

Do not add, remove, or change the names of any columns as this will prevent the service from accepting your claim.

The name and address of the school you are claiming for, should match the equivalent ESFA data. However, we understand that there may be minor discrepancies, and this is acceptable. ESFA is using this data to help double-check that the reference numbers and claims values have been placed in the correct row.

7.4 Including missing schools in your claim

If there are schools relevant to your billing authority which are not in the spreadsheet provided by ESFA, you can add them to your claim following these steps:

create a new row on the template and add the property reference number, the NNDR account reference number and the claim amount
find the UKPRN, official school name and address by using get information about schools (GIAS)
add the UKPRN, name and address to the relevant row

You do not need to contact ESFA about these properties. We will identify them during the claims’ validation process.

7.5 Properties you can or cannot claim for

The following properties should not be included in your claim:

maintained nursery schools/early years settings that are not part of the overall school operation for example run by a private provider
buildings used for non-educational purposes, for example, office and premises
rented buildings
FE establishments 
private schools

Early years provision which is part of the overall school operation (for example, nursery classes in primary schools) will continue to be funded as previous years under the centralised payment process.

Sixth form provision within secondary schools will continue to be funded as previous years under the centralised payment process.

We have detailed some examples below that may help you determine whether you can submit a claim.

1). A school may have a playing field on a separate hereditament which is used by the school for educational purposes. The billing authority can submit a claim for this.

2). A school has an adjacent nursery, which is a separate hereditament from the main school. Maintained nursery schools are not part of the new policy change so no claim can be submitted by the billing authority. The billing authority and the school must make arrangements to cover this rates bill.

3). A school estate may be made up of a single hereditament which includes a nursery. As it is not possible to separate this property for rates purposes and it has been previously funded by ESFA this will continue to happen under the centralised payment process. Where there is a clear requirement for a split, the billing authority and school must work together to have this rated separately. This is not a new policy change.

Example 1:

You have a playing field on a separate hereditament, and it is used by the school, you can claim for the playing fields. If you have a nursery which is part of a larger primary school that is a separate hereditament from the main school, you cannot claim for the nursery.

Example 2:

You have a single hereditament which includes a primary school, a maintained nursery school and playing fields. As it is not possible to separate out the hereditament into those areas which are relevant to ESFA, and if these have been funded previously by EFSA you can continue to do so.

7.6 Declarations

Once you have completed your upload, you will be presented with mandatory declarations.

You will not be able to submit your claim without agreeing to these declarations and to do that, you will need to tick each box.

Once you have completed this page, select ‘Continue’ to proceed.

7.7 Confirmation

The final page confirms your claim has been submitted successfully. You will receive a unique reference number against your submission, followed by an explanation of what happens next.

You will receive an email confirming successful submission of your claim.

Make a note of your unique reference number as this information is not included in the confirmation email.

We will review your claim and contact you if additional information is required.

7.8 Amend claim page

Claims can be amended up until the deadline by selecting the link to the claim form. The deadline will not be extended. Once a new file is submitted, any previous submission(s) for this claim cycle will be overwritten.

ESFA will only review the latest file.

You must resubmit the completed file with your full list of claims.

You will receive a new unique submission number for an amended claim.

7.9 Making in-year adjustments

The service will remain open for any adjustments to rates claims. You can submit in-year adjustments for the financial year ending March 2025 using the existing claims service. Claims can be submitted up until Friday 31 January 2025.

Billing authorities who implemented the centralised payment process in 2023 to 2024 can submit adjustments for their maintained schools and academies that relate to 2023 to 2024 financial year up until Friday 31 January 2025.

NNDR adjustments between 1 February to 31 March 2024 can be submitted when the service opens on Tuesday 2 April 2024.

7.10 Historical claims

Billing authorities moving onto the centralised payment process in 2024 to 2025 will not be able to submit NNDR prior year adjustments for their local authority maintained schools using the claims service. Historic adjustments for 2023 to 2024 have been submitted by local authorities in the 2024 to 2025 authority proforma tool (APT).

Billing authorities moving to the centralised payment process in 2024 to 2025 will pick up any prior year adjustments for their academies on previously paid claims back to 2018 to 2019 using the new service.

Academies whose billing authority remains on the old NNDR process can submit changes to previously paid claims back to 2018 to 2019 up until Friday 31 January 2025 via the existing NNDR academy service. Claims submitted after the 31 January 2025 deadline will be paid during 2025 to 2026 financial year.

You can find out more about the changes to payment process of schools business rates.

Question 8

8. Enquiries

Accepted Answer

If you have read this guidance and have any questions about the NNDR process or how to complete the online form, contact us via the customer help centre

When completing the enquiry form, select ‘other’ as your query type.

Question 9

9. What happens next

Accepted Answer

The information you have entered will be checked and validated against your funding allocation. Spot checks on receipted records will be carried out.

Question 10

10. Payments

Accepted Answer

Billing authorities will receive payments via Bacs as a single lump sum.

Payments will be made on the last working day of the month. For new claims the first payments to billing authorities will be 28 June 2024. The cut-off date for claim uploads for June payment is 22 May 2024.

Claims submitted after 22 May 2024 will be paid at the next reconciliation point.

Remittance is automatically sent when a payment is made. We will provide a separate breakdown of individual payment amounts with their associated account reference numbers.

For reconciliation payments (positive adjustments to claims), the first payment will be made on 31 October 2024.

The final payment for adjustments (which will include recoveries) will be made on 31 March 2025.

The cut-off date for October payments is 11 September 2024 and 31 January 2025 for March payments.

Any 2023 to 2024 adjustment claims submitted after 31 January 2024 deadline, will be paid in the following claim year.

Adjustments for 2024 to 2025 can only be submitted until 31 January 2025.

Where there is a query on a claim and ESFA require clarification/further evidence we will pay those claims within 2 months of receiving clarification/evidence.

Question 11

11. Annex 1: how to successfully validate your file

Accepted Answer

11.1 Preparing your claim file for validation

Where to find the template claim file

You can download the template file to make your claim directly from the NNDR service.

The template file will save as an .XLSX file type (Excel) by default but should be converted to .CSV before the completed file can be uploaded.

The template contains the column headers in the exact format needed by the NNDR service to validate your claim.

You must not change the column headers in any way otherwise your file will be rejected by the service.

The template file should be populated with your school-level claim data. You can find further support on how to do this in the ‘troubleshooting section’.

Please ensure you remove the example data from the downloaded template.

Before taking the next steps, ensure that you have populated columns N, O and Q correctly by using the pre-prepared drop-down lists. These columns are labelled as:

property liability year
property is this an adjustment to a previous claim for the stated year
property reason for adjustment (only applicable if claiming an adjustment otherwise leave blank)

11.2 Prepare your file for validation and upload

To successfully validate your file in the service, you should process the template file containing your data in the following way:

How to copy your data to a new blank workbook and save as .CSV (comma delimited) (*.cvs)

Open a new blank workbook in Excel.

Select the column headers and your school-level claim data from the populated template file.

It is important that you only select from the template header column range and only rows containing your populated data. Do not included the example data already populated when you downloaded your sample template.

Copy your data and the template column headers.

Paste your data and the template column headers into the new blank workbook that you previously created.

Select ‘save as’ or ‘save a copy’ from the file menu.

Select file type ‘CSV (comma delimited) (*.csv)’ and save. You can give any file name when saving your claim file, but it must be saved in CSV format, or it will not be accepted.

11.3 How to cleanse your data to remove commas

All commas need to be removed from your data so that this can be successfully validated into the NNDR service. You can use the ‘Replace’ function that can be found by ‘Home>Find and Select>Replace’ in Excel to remove all commas from the data.

The ‘Replace’ tab should be selected in the ‘Find and Replace’ pop up window. Type a comma into the ‘Find what’ box and select ‘Replace All’.

Do not enter anything in ‘Replace with’ box when performing this action.

11.4 How to cleanse your data to check data formats

The data formats in columns M and P (NNDR claim cash values) are formatted as ‘General’ data type in the template. This might have changed once you have copied across your data. These columns are labelled as ‘Property net liability (the NEW FULL amount liable for the stated year including any adjustments) £’ and ‘Property adjustment amount £’.

You can check the data format within columns M and P by selecting each column. You can select a column by clicking on the column label (M or P). This should highlight the column.

With the column selected, you can change the data type formatting from the dropdown option to ‘General’. This setting can be found in the ‘Number’ section of the ‘Home’ menu.

11.5 Other checks to ensure successful validation

The NNDR service is expecting data to be populated in every cell of your return, except for the last two columns which are only for adjustments. If you have missed a field (such as a missing postcode), then the service will ask you to complete the missing data before trying again.

UKPRN values in column G should be a valid 8-digit number (for example 10012345). You can check UKPRN numbers by searching for schools directly in the GIAS service, or by reviewing the schools and academies by billing authority area for national non-domestic rates.

If you have copied your billing authority code down the spreadsheet rows, double check that these have copied correctly, and that Excel has not ‘filled series’ by escalating the number by one each time.

11.6 How to upload your completed file into the NNDR service

Navigate to the ‘Upload your file’ page within the NNDR service. The ‘completing the form’ section of this guidance can help you.

When you have arrived at the ‘Upload your file’ page you must select your template file by selecting the ‘Choose File’ button.

Selecting the ‘Choose File’ button will launch a pop-up window. Use this to navigate to your completed CSV (comma delimited) (*.csv) file saved on your computer.

Once your file shows as chosen you must click to ‘Save and continue’.

The service will scan the file for viruses and will validate your file data. This may take up to a minute, depending on your service provider.

The file validation checks scan the content of your completed template file. It checks for the correct column headers in the correct position, missing data, and correctly formatted data (such as the ESFA reference number, UKPRN).

Once the file checks have been completed you will be able to complete your declarations and submit your file.

The validation function works through each of the checks in order. If your file fails one of the steps, then the validation function will stop and provide you with a report on screen of how you should proceed to fix the issue. The report will include the cell reference numbers of any missing data, or any data items that need correction.

You must open your saved file outside of the service to fix any errors. You can then continue to upload. You may want to log out and into the service again at this point to ensure that you have not been ‘timed-out’, before returning and re-uploading your file.

11.7 Validating fail with error messages

Timed-out error

If you experience a ‘Network timed-out’ error, this may be due to your internet speed, and we recommend you make a further attempt to upload your template. Please ensure to remove any special characters from the file name and preferably use a short file name to resolve this issue.

Selected file isn’t a CSV

This validation failure can occur if the uploaded template is not saved as a .CSV file. You must resave the template as a CSV as explained in section 5.2: download the claim template file, and re-upload it.

If you still receive the error message ‘column header missing’ you may be using an old template, and you will need to download the most up to date version. Once you have downloaded the new template, you can copy and paste data from the old template across to the new template. Please ensure, when transferring this information across, that all populated columns match from the old template to the new one.

11.8 Missing or mismatched data

If you receive this error message, add the missing data in the relevant rows and columns and re-upload your template. However, if there is no missing data, this error will occur if you have used commas in your template. Search and remove any commas before re-uploading your template and validating again.

11.9 Empty rows up to row 1020

There may be times where the system detects ghost data in your template, meaning that it attempts to incorrectly import empty rows. You may be presented with an error. In this scenario, select all empty rows up to and including row 1020 and delete them by right clicking the mouse and selecting ‘delete’. This will enable a validation success.

If you continue to experience a validation failure, please contact us using the customer help centre

11.10 Validation success

Once you have removed all the errors and re-uploaded your file, the service will take you to agree to the declarations when you click ‘Save and continue’. You will then be able to agree to the declarations and submit your claim.

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