Form

NNDR3: national non-domestic rates - validation notes 2025 to 2026

Updated 1 April 2026

Applies to England

Please read this form before submitting NNDR3.

The National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) Return 2025-26 is designed to report your authority’s non-domestic rating contribution for 2025-26 under the business rates retention system. On receipt of your form, we carry out a number of checks to satisfy ourselves that the form has been completed without errors, but it is also useful to understand why the data varies significantly from that provided from the previous year’s NNDR3 on key items within the form. To do this, we ask that you review and provide explanations in the ‘Main validation’ tab.

NNDR3 form

A number of validation checks are built into the NNDR3 form and there is space on the ‘Main Validation’ sheet for local authorities to comment on any data that have flagged the validation checks. Details of the validation fields that are included in the validation sheet in the NNDR3 form are set out below.

Even where the reason for the variance may be obvious, or out of the authority’s control (e.g. changes to relief values), please still check that the data matches your internal figures and provide comment. This ensures there have been no data entry errors and also helps us to inform policy colleagues of the scale of known issues.

Messages highlighting potential errors have also been included in the form, so do please double check calculations where an error message has appeared in the form. The ‘Main validation’ tab includes a general comments box which you could use to provide further explanations on any error message remaining. We will contact you for an explanation if the error messages have not been explained.

Please note we may need to contact the local authority for additional information following the validation in our database, so it is essential that full contact details are entered in the appropriate place in Part 1 of the NNDR3 form. These details will not be shared outside of the MHCLG data collection team.

General checks

Certification

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government requires the NNDR3 to be certified by the Chief Financial Officer or Section 151 officer. The Excel copy of the NNDR3 form should be sent by the Chief Financial or Section 151 officer with their e-signature and a confirmation they are happy with the figures in the form.

The first deadline, to submit the form containing data aligned to provisional accounts is Friday 29 May 2026.

We have set a deadline of Friday 27 November 2026 for either a final post-audit form (if available) or revised provisional form (if necessary). This data (or the original provisional data if there are no changes) will be used to inform the payments that will be made in March 2027.

The audit deadline for 2025-26 is Sunday 31 January 2027 and we will confirm our deadline in relation to submitting final, post-audit forms in due course.

We ask that you select the status of the form being submitted each time from the drop down options in Part 1 of the 2025-26 NNDR3 form, so that we have a clear understanding of the status and changes being submitted. We will contact you if this has not been completed.

The confirmation by the Chief Financial or Section 151 officer should be as follows, for the provisional form:

“I confirm that the amounts entered in this form are in accordance with schedule 7B of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 and regulations made under it.”

And for the final post-audit form:

“I certify that the amounts entered in this form are in accordance with schedule 7B of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 and regulations made under it and are consistent with the amounts for non-domestic rates in the authority’s post-audit opinion Statement of Accounts.

I further certify that the amounts of s.47 rate relief for which the authority claims s.31 grant have been given to ratepayers in accordance with the relevant guidance issued by the Government.”

Alterations

The NNDR3 form is an auditor-certified form. If alterations need to be made to the form, please submit a revised form, clearly indicating that the form is revised. A copy of the revised form must be certified by your CFO / S151 officer and resubmitted by email.

Arithmetic calculations

Before returning the form, please ensure that all arithmetic calculations are correct and that data are specified to the correct number of decimal places. Data should be entered in £s only – pence should not be reported.

We are not allowed to alter the form, even the smallest changes will need to be amended and signed by the CFO / S151 officer. The completing officer needs therefore to ensure that the correct rounding conventions are used.

Validation checks in the ‘main validation’ sheet

Mandatory reliefs (Tests 1 - 7)

We compare the mandatory reliefs reported for 2025-26 with those that were provided in the NNDR3 for 2024-25. Please note that this will use the updated data that was published on 27 January 2026.

Explanation will be required if the relief is now being used and wasn’t in the previous year or if the relief is no longer being used but was used in the previous year.

Explanation will be required if the figure for 2025-26 has changed by more than the following amounts. The line references in brackets relate to the 2025-26 NNDR3 form and will compare data in the total column (column 7).

Test 1

The cost of Small Business Rate Relief granted (Part 3 Line 7) - by more than 5% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £500,000.

Test 2

The cost of Charity relief (Part 3 Line 12) - by more than 15% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £300,000.

Test 3

The cost of Community Amateur Sports Clubs relief (Part 3 Line 14 - by more than 10% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £10,000.

Test 4

The cost of Rural rate relief (Part 3 Line 16) - by more than 10% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £5,000.

Test 5

The cost of Public lavatories relief (Part 3 Line 19) - by more than 10% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £2,000.

Test 6

The cost of Partly Occupied “relief” (Part 3 Line 26) - by more than 20% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £75,000.

Test 7

The cost of Empty Property “relief” (Part 3 Line 28) - by more than 25% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £500,000.

Discretionary reliefs (Tests 8 - 14)

We compare the discretionary reliefs reported for 2025-26 with that provided in the NNDR3 for 2024-25. Explanation will be required if the figure for 2025-26 has changed by more than the following amounts.

Explanation will be required if the relief is now being used and wasn’t in the previous year or if the relief is no longer being used but was used in the previous year.

The line references in brackets relate to the 2025-26 NNDR3 form and will compare data in the total column (column 7)

Test 8

The cost of Charity relief (Part 3 Line 31) - by more than 15% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £25,000.

Test 9

The cost of Non-Profit bodies’ relief (Part 3 Line 33) - by more than 15% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £25,000.

Test 10

The cost of Community Amateur Sports Clubs relief (Part 3 Line 35) - by more than 5% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £2,000.

Test 11

The cost of Other Small Rural Businesses relief (Part 3 Line 38) - by more than 5% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £2,000.

Test 12

The cost of Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) relief (Part 3 Line 59) – by more than 15% (down) and the actual difference is more than £500,000, or any increase in relief.

Test 13

The cost of film studio relief (Part 3 Line 63) - by more than 30% (either up or down).

Test 14

The cost of other s47 discretionary relief (Part 3 Line 40) - by more than 25% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £75,000.

Below are a few examples of the type of explanations we might expect:

• councils may have had a change of policy and approved more/fewer reliefs
• Charity Relief increased due to relief being given to a large leisure centre and this was not known when completing the NNDR1
• following publicity there is a greater number of applications received than anticipated

We will seek further explanations if the comment provided is not adequately descriptive. Examples that are not adequate and will prompt us to send further queries are

• figures gone up/down
• figures OK

Other checks (Tests 15 - 22)

These are checks on other key inputs in the form, comparing figures reported for 2025-26 with those provided on the NNDR3 for 2024-25. Explanation will be required if the figure for 2025-26 has changed by more than the following amounts.

Test 15

The non-domestic rating income (Part 1 line 11) - by more than 15% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £5,000,000.

Test 16

Gross rates payable (Part 3 reconciliation line 1 column 7) - by more than 10% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £10,000,000.

Test 17

The net rates payable (Part 2 line 1 column 3) - by more than 15% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £1,000,000.

Test 18

The sums written off (Part 2 line 3 column 3) - by more than 10% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £1,000,000.

Test 19

The sums outstanding from ratepayers (Part 5 line 11 column 5) - by more than 20% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £2,000,000.

Test 20

The sum, outstanding due to ratepayers (Part 5 line 12 column 5) - by more than 20% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £2,500,000.

Test 21

The non-collection closing balance (Part 5 line 17 column 5) - by more than 15% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £2,000,000.

Test 22

The provision for backdated appeals adjustment, closing balance (Part 5 line 27 column 5) - by more than 25% (either up or down) and the actual difference is more than £5,000,000.

Part 5 adjustments

The following three tests (tests 23 -25) seek an explanation for the adjustments made to previously reported opening balance figures. This will allow us to confirm this against submitted returns and understand why these figures are being adjusted.

Test 23

The allowance for non-collection opening balance adjustment (Part 5 Line 14 column 5) is not zero.

Test 24

The appeals adjustment opening balance adjustment (Part 5 Line 19 column 5) is not zero.

Test 25

Collection Fund opening balance adjustment (Part 5 Line 29 column 5) is not zero.

COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund relief

Test 26 is looking to check whether the total COVID-19 Addition Relief Fund relief to be provided in respect of 2021-22 (taken as a sum across the 2021-22 to 2025-26 forms) has exceeded the amount of funded compensation offered. If this is the case, then confirmation would be helpful.

Test 26

The difference between the CARF relief to be paid (Part 3 Line 62 plus amounts reported in previous year’s forms) and the maximum amount of compensation to be paid is more than £0.

Sums written off

Test 27 is to confirm that the sums written off figure is positive (because of write-ons), as typically this value is negative. This check is to ensure that no data entry mistake has been made.

Test 27

The sums written off value (Part 2 line 3 column 3) is positive.