Official Statistics

National non-domestic rates collected by councils in England: 2020 to 2021

Updated 7 July 2023

Applies to England

This release provides data on non-domestic rating income collected by local authorities in 2020-21, including data relating to the amount of business rates reliefs given to businesses. The data in this version of the release are based on returns received by 10 January 2024. For 207 authorities, data are finalised after an audit of accounts. For the remaining (107 authorities) data are provisional.

This is an update to the version of the release published on 7 July 2023. These changes only have a minimal effect on the England totals compared to the previous release, and do not impact the tables contained in this release. We will continue to update this release as audited returns are submitted, but we do not expect any major change in the figures.

1. In this release:

• Local authorities reported that the non-domestic rates income for 2020-21 was £13 billion. This amount is what authorities collected after all reliefs, accounting adjustments and sums retained outside the rates retention scheme are taken into consideration. This is significantly lower than usual, due to the expanded retail discount relief of £11.1 billion which was introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
• Local authorities reported that they granted a total of £16 billion of relief from business rates in 2020-21. Of this £1.6 billion is the net cost of small business rate relief, £3.1 billion is the cost of other mandatory relief, and £11.3 billion is the cost of discretionary relief, of which £11.1 billion was the expanded retail discount relief.
• Total relief provided to charitable occupations (that is both mandatory and discretionary relief) amounted to £2.1 billion in respect of 2020-21.
• Authorities granted £2.1 billion relief under the Small Business Rate relief scheme for 2020-21.
• Local authorities reported a net increase in appeals provision of £870 million and losses in collection of £821 million in 2020-21. These are both much higher than in previous years and are driven by large additions to provision for future years.

Release date: 17 November 2021 (latest update published on 24 January 2024)
Date of next release: July 2024
Contact: 0303 444 8433 / nndr.statistics@levellingup.gov.uk (Responsible Statistician: Jo Coleman)
Media enquiries: 0303 444 1209 / NewsDesk@levellingup.gov.uk

2. Introduction

This release has been compiled by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and it provides information on national non-domestic rates and associated information for the financial years 2016-17 to 2020-21. This information has been derived from the national non-domestic rates (NNDR3) returns submitted on behalf of all 314 billing authorities that were in existence in 2020-21 in England.

Final returns are those that have been submitted following an audit of their accounts. Where audit of accounts for 2020-21 have not yet been completed, we have published data based on authorities’ provisional unaudited accounts. In our original publication in November 2021, 259 of the 314 returns were provisional. In the latest update published on 24 January 2024, 107 of the 314 returns were provisional. We will update this data release when more finalised figures are available, however we do not expect any major change in these figures.

Non-domestic rates, or business rates, are collected by billing authorities and are the way in which those that occupy a non-domestic property (or hereditament) contribute towards local services. The introduction of the business rates retention scheme in 2013-14 allows local authorities to retain a proportion of the revenue that is generated in their area.

Apart from properties that are exempt from business rates, such as agricultural land, parks and places of worship, each non-domestic property has a rateable value which is set by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). Billing authorities work out the business rates liability for every hereditament by multiplying the rateable value of the property by the appropriate multiplier. There are two multipliers, the non-domestic multiplier and the small business non-domestic rate multiplier. The former is higher because it includes a supplement which is used to fund the Small Business Rate Relief scheme, which is designed to help small businesses meet the cost of their business rates.

The Government sets the multipliers for each financial year for England according to formulae set by legislation. Previously, the multipliers have increased in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) in September of the preceding year, however in 2014-15 and 2015-16, the Government capped the increase in the multiplier at 2% to provide business rate payers with additional support, and this has had a knock on effect in subsequent years, which authorities are being compensated for through a Section 31 grant. In the Autumn 2017 Budget, Government announced that the multipliers would increase in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than the RPI in September of the preceding year from 2018-19. This change has also been compensated for through a Section 31 grant.

In addition to the Small Business Rate Relief scheme, rateable properties may also be eligible for other discounts or reliefs on their business rates bills. Some of these are mandatory i.e. they are automatic entitlements in any billing authority area. Business rates payers may also receive discretionary relief which are granted at a billing authority’s discretion. Further information about the types of reliefs available are presented in Table 2.

2.1 Special Factors Since 2017-18

Revaluation and transitional relief

Every few years, the government adjusts the rateable value of business properties to reflect changes in the property market. This is known as a revaluation. At revaluation, the Government also revises the business rates multiplier to reflect the aggregate change in rateable values. As the revaluation is not designed to raise any more or less tax, the Government adjusts the multiplier. So, the small business non-domestic multiplier for 2017-18 was decreased from 48.4p to 46.6p. The national non-domestic multiplier decreased from 49.7p to 47.9p.

The latest revaluation came into effect on the 1 April 2017 and reflects the rental market as at 1 April 2015. Table 1 therefore shows a discontinuity between 2016-17 and 2017-18 to reflect the revaluation.

At a revaluation, the Government also puts in place a transitional scheme that protects small and medium business ratepayers from significant step-changes in bills, by phasing-in increases over a number of years. The net transitional arrangements shown in Table 1 reflects the difference between revenue foregone and additional revenue collected, because the rates bills of ratepayers are being phased up or down as a result of the transitional scheme.

Small business rates relief

In the 2016 Budget, Government announced a permanent doubling of small business rates relief and changes to the thresholds, meaning that 100% relief is given to all businesses that have a rateable value of below £12,000, and tapering of the relief for businesses with a rateable value between £12,000 and £15,000. This was previously a temporary doubling that required an extension each year. The threshold at which a higher multiplier is applied was increased from £18,000 (or £25,500 in Greater London) to £51,000.

Multipliers

In the Autumn 2017 Budget, Government announced that the multipliers would increase in line with the Consumer Price Index rather than the Retail Price Index. Further details of the national multiplier and small business rate multiplier can be found in the technical notes of this release.

Telecomms relief

In the 2016 Autumn Statement the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the Government would provide 100% business rates relief for new fibre infrastructure for a five year period from 1 April 2017, to support the rollout of fibre connectivity for broadband and future 5G communications to homes and businesses.

2.2 Special Factors Affecting 2020-21

In 2020-21 the government implemented many measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In relation to business rates, the existing retail discount relief was expanded into a 100% relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses and is referred to as the expanded retail discount relief in this release. A relief for nurseries was also introduced. These two reliefs were granted by local authorities and funded through section 31 grants.

3. National non-domestic rates collected by local authorities

Table 1 provides details of the total amount of national non-domestic rates local authorities collected in 2020-21 and the reliefs they granted. The multipliers used are also shown. The national non-domestic multiplier in 2020-21 included a 1.3p supplement to fund the Small Business Rate Relief scheme. Table 1a has been additionally included to show the breakdown of the losses in collection and net addition to appeals provision, to aid interpretation of these figures.

• Local authorities reported that the non-domestic rating income for 2020-21 was £13 billion. This amount is what authorities collected after all reliefs, accounting adjustments and sums retained outside the rates retention scheme are taken into consideration. This is significantly lower than usual, due to the expanded retail discount relief of £11.1 billion which was introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
• Local authorities reported that they granted a total of £16 billion of relief from business rates in 2020-21.
• Local authorities reported a net increase in appeals provision of £870 million in 2020-21. This was driven primarily by a large increase in the appeals provision (£1565 million), and there was little change in the amount charged against the existing provision in-year (£694 million). Authorities may have put more money into the provision in anticipation of an increase in appeals.
• Local authorities reported losses in collection of £821 million in 2020-21. This was larger than previous years, and was driven primarily by a large increase in the provision for losses in collection (£805 million), rather than the amount lost as written off bad debt in-year (£17 million). This may be due to local authorities predicting more of the current debt to not be repaid, for example due to ratepayers going out of business.

Table 1: National non-domestic rates collected by local authorities 2016-17 to 2020-21 (all figures £ million)

	2016-17		2017-18(f)		2018-19		2019-20		2020-21(g)
Gross rates payable in year	27,215	||	28,492		29,957		30,933		30,942	(R)
Net cost of Small Business Rate relief	584	||	1,062		1,258		1,416		1,601
Other mandatory relief	2,655	||	2,782		2,995		3,071		3,127
Discretionary relief	143	||	306		229		603	||	11,303	(R)
Total cost of reliefs	3,382	||	4,150		4,483		5,090	||	16,031	(R)
Gross Rates Payable in year less total cost of reliefs	23,833	||	24,342		25,474		25,842	||	14,912	(R)
Additional revenue received in current year because reduction delayed	0	||	1,184		657		354		207
Additional revenue received in respect of previous years because reduction delayed	27	||	24		-9		7		47
Less - Revenue foregone in current year because reduction delayed	0	||	1,252		661		324		155
Less - Revenue foregone in respect of previous years because reduction delayed	-82	||	-53		-8		-46		-92
Net cost of transitional arrangement	109	||	9		-5		83		192
Net Rates Yield (Gross Rates Payable plus net cost of Transition)	23,942	||	24,351		25,470		25,925	||	15,103	(R)
Losses in collection(b)	235	||	209		181		301		821	(R)
Net addition to appeals provision(c)	-164	||	171		101		-54		870	(R)
Interest payable	1	||	0		0		0		0
Total cost of accounting adjustments	72	||	380		282		247		1,692	(R)
Other deductions from collectable rates(d)	204	||	104		91		179		288
Amounts retained in respect of Designated Areas(e)	29	||	40		52		83		64	(R)
Amounts retained in respect of Renewable Energy schemes	51	||	61		65		72		85
Amounts retained in respect of Shale Gas	–	||	–		0		0		0
Total Disregarded Amounts	80	||	101		117		155		148	(R)
Non-domestic rating income from rates retention scheme (Net Rates yield less Accounting adjustments, Other deductions & Disregarded amounts)	23,585	||	23,765		24,979		25,344	||	12,976	(R)

	2016-17		2017-18(e)		2018-19		2019-20		2020-21
Small business rate multiplier (pence)	48.4	||	46.6		48.0		49.1		49.9
National non-domestic rates multiplier (pence)	49.7	||	47.9		49.3		50.4		51.2
Number of hereditaments on rating list as at 30 Sept (`000s)	1,831	||	1,856		1,882		1,943		1,976
Total aggregate rateable value of all hereditaments on rating list as at 30 Sept (million pounds)	57,289	||	63,212		63,213		63,637		64,045

(R) = Revised since the original publication of this release. 207 final post-audit returns are included in this table, with provisional data used for the remaining authorities (107). This release will be updated when more final returns are available, and we do not expect any major change to the data.
(a) Transitional Arrangements - only values in respect of previous years for 2016-17 as scheme ended 2014-15. New scheme for 2017-18.
(b) Losses in collection comprise both losses in collection in-year relating to write-offs and additions reflecting authorities’ view of their need in future to write off bad debt – see Table 1a for more details of the large increase in 2020-21.
(c) Net addition to the appeals provision comprises both deductions relating to the use of the provision and additions reflecting authorities’ view of their need in future to make refunds to ratepayers as a result of changes to rating lists – see Table 1a for more details of the large increase in 2020-21.
(d) Other deductions from collectable rates includes an allowance for cost of collection & legal costs, a special authority deduction for the City of London, and the net cost of transitional protection payments made to authorities to reverse the effects of transitional arrangements.
(e) Designated Areas comprises Enterprise Zones & New Development Deal areas.
(f) Revaluation effective from 1st April 2017.
(g) In 2020-21, the coronavirus pandemic caused parts of the figures to be different from the norm. Discretionary reliefs were far higher than usual due to expanded retail relief in response to the pandemic.

Table 1a: Further details of accounting adjustments on national non-domestic rates 2016-17 to 2020-21

	2016-17		2017-18		2018-19		2019-20		2020-21
Losses in collection in excess of the allowance(a)	24		20		17		34		17
Change in allowance for losses in collection(b)	211		189		165		266		805	(R)
Losses in collection	235		209		181		300		821	(R)
Amount charged in-year to appeals provision(c)	-757		-891		-637		-691		-694	(R)
of which in relation to the 2010 ratings list	–		–		-456		-257		-187	(R)
of which in relation to the 2017 ratings list	–		–		-182		-434		-508	(R)
Change in appeals provision(d)	593		1,063		738		637		1,565	(R)
of which in relation to the 2010 ratings list	–		–		-23		100		31	(R)
of which in relation to the 2017 ratings list	–		–		761		537		1,534	(R)
Net addition to appeals provision	-164		171		103		-56		870	(R)

(R) = Revised since the original publication. Changes are predominately because of changes to guidance regarding the Material Change of Circumstance (MCC) appeals in respect of COVID-19. 207 final post-audit returns are included in this table, with provisional data used for the remaining authorities (107). This release will be updated when more final returns are available, and we do not expect any major change to the data.
(a) Sums written off as bad debt during the year in excess of the amount that authorities had already allowed for through their allowance for non-collection.
(b) The increase in the allowance for non-collection (or ‘bad debt’) represents a deduction from authorities’ income for the year, reflecting their view of the sums currently unpaid by ratepayers that authorities believe they will never collect.
(c) Authorities set aside money each year in provisions to enable them to finance backdated reductions to a ratepayer’s rates liabilities following an alteration to a rating list (usually as a result of appeals). Amounts charged against the provision in a year, following the alteration of a rating list, do not affect the authority’s income in that year and so are deducted from the total adjustment.
(d) Amounts added to the provision reduce an authority’s income for the year. The amounts added reflect authorities’ views of how much they ned to set aside in respect of future reductions in the year’s rates liability, plus additions or reductions in respect of amounts already set aside in provisions for past years.

4. National non-domestic rate reliefs granted by local authorities

Table 2 shows figures for mandatory reliefs and discretionary reliefs granted by billing authorities. Mandatory reliefs are automatic entitlements in any billing authority area whereas discretionary reliefs are granted at a billing authority’s discretion.

• Of the £16 billion relief granted from business rates, £4.7 billion was mandatory relief (including small business rate relief) in 2020-21.
• Local authorities granted a total of £11.3 billion of discretionary relief in 2020-21 and of this, £11.2 billion was funded through Section 31 grants, of which £11.1 billion was the expanded retail discount relief.
• Total relief provided to charitable occupations (that is both mandatory and discretionary relief) amounted to £2.1 billion in respect of 2020-21.
• Authorities granted £2.1 billion of relief under the Small Business Rate relief scheme for 2020-21.
• Receipts from the supplement paid by some businesses (additional yield) to fund the Small Business Rate relief scheme in 2020-21 was £630 million.
• The amount of relief granted to empty premises in 2020-21 was £1.1 billion.

Table 2: Cost of reliefs from national non-domestic rates : 2016-17 to 2020-21 (all figures £ million)

	2016-17		2017-18(d)		2018-19		2019-20		2020-21(e)
MANDATORY RELIEFS
Small Business Rate Relief
In respect of current year
Relief provided in year	1,165	||	1,670		1,820		1,970		2,100
Additional yield generated from the small business supplement	651	||	621		631		632		630
Net cost of small business rate relief in respect of current year	514	||	1,049		1,190		1,338		1,470
Net cost of small business rate relief in respect of previous years	69	||	13		68		77		131
Net cost of small business rate relief	584	||	1,062		1,258		1,416		1,601
Other Mandatory reliefs
In respect of current year
Charitable occupation	1,616	||	1,825		1,933		2,011		2,021
Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs)	19	||	19		20		21		22
Rural rate relief	6	||	4		4		4		4
Telecomms relief(b)	–	||	–		0		0		0
Partially occupied hereditaments	28	||	24		24		26		22
Empty premises	950	||	916		996		1,006		1,082
Total other mandatory relief in respect of current year	2,619	||	2,789		2,977		3,069		3,151
Other mandatory relief in respect of previous years	36	||	-6		18		2		-24
Total cost of mandatory relief	3,239	||	3,844		4,253		4,487		4,728
DISCRETIONARY RELIEFS
In respect of current year
Charitable occupation	44	||	44		47		48		42
Non-profit making bodies	41	||	37		38		37		31
Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs)	1	||	1		1		1		1
Rural shops etc(b)	3	||	1		0		0		0
Small rural businesses	2	||	1		1		1		1
Other ratepayers under s47	17	||	18		21		22		20
Hardship relief	2	||	2		2		2		3
Total discretionary relief in respect of current year	109	||	103		110		112		98
Discretionary relief in respect of previous years	7	||	2		5		3		1	(R)
Discretionary reliefs funded through Section 31 grants(a)
“New Empty” properties	7	||	4		–		–		–
“Long term empty” properties	10	||	1		–		–		–
Flooding relief(b)	2	||	0		0		2		1
In Lieu of Transitional Relief	2	||	–		–		–		–
Rural Rate relief	–	||	4		4		4		4
Local Newspaper Temporary relief(b)	–	||	0		0		0		0
Supporting Small Businesses relief	–	||	17		14		13		13
Discretionary Scheme relief	–	||	155		77		30		3
Pub relief	–	||	18		17		–		–
Retail discount relief(c)	–	||	–		–		432	||	11,061
Nursery relief	–	||	–		–		–		98
Total cost of discretionary reliefs funded through S31 grant	21	||	200		113		481	||	11,180
Discretionary relief funded through S31 grants in respect of previous years	6	||	1		1		7		25	(R)
Total cost of discretionary relief	143	||	306		229		603	||	11,303	(R)
TOTAL COST OF ALL RELIEFS	3,382	||	4,150		4,483		5,090	||	16,031	(R)

(R) = Revised since the original publication of these statistics (changes are less than 0.5 million so there is no change in the rounded figures). 207 final post-audit returns are included in this table, with provisional data used for the remaining authorities (107). This release will be updated when more final returns are available, and we do not expect any major change to the data.
(a) Some discretionary reliefs that are funded through Section 31 grants are time limited. Therefore, relief will only be given for a certain number of years.
(b) Telecomms relief, rural shop relief, local newspaper relief, and flooding relief in some years are below £1 million and are therefore presented as 0.
(c) A discount of one third of the non-domestic rates bill for retail shops, restaurants, pubs and cinemas with a rateable value of £51,000 or less in 2019-20. In 2020-21 this is the expanded retail relief announced in response to the covid-19 pandemic.
(d) Revaluation effective from 1 April 2017
(e) Reliefs were significantly higher than usual in 2020-21, this was driven mostly by the introduction of expanded retail relief in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but the presence of that relief may also have affected the levels of other reliefs.

5. National non-domestic rate reliefs funded by Section 31 grants

A number of measures have been announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn Statements and Spring Budgets since 2012 that affect the national non-domestic rates scheme. Central government compensates local authorities for these changes and this compensation is made outside of the rate retention scheme by means of a Section 31 (S31) grant.

Table 3 shows the section 31 grants paid to local authorities since 2016-17 to compensate them for the loss of income arising from the various national non-domestic rates measures shown below. They differ from the amounts shown in Table 2 which show the total amount of relief granted to business ratepayers under each of the measures. This is because this table reflects just the local authority share of retained business rates. These shares have changed in 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21 due to rates retention pilots and increased retention as part of devolution deals.

• Local authorities were paid a total of £8.5 billion in Section 31 grant in 2020-21, of which £7.1 billion related to the expanded retail relief and £1 billion related to compensation for doubling of the Small Business Rates multiplier and changes of eligibility thresholds.

Table 3: National non-domestic rates measures funded by Section 31 grants (all figures £ million)

	2016-17		2017-18(n)		2018-19		2019-20		2020-21(o)
a - Capping the increase in the small business rates multiplier	172	||	223	||	471	||	583	||	327	(R)
b - Doubling of the Small business rates multiplier and changes of eligibility thresholds(a)	306	||	773	||	1,065	||	1,054	||	1,014	(R)
c - Maintaining small business rates relief on “first” properties(b)	2	||	3	||	4	||	3	||	5
d - Relief to newly built properties(c)	4	||	3	||	0	||	0	||	0
e - Relief awarded on the occupation of “long-term empty” properties(d)	6	||	2	||	0	||	0	||	0
f - Retail relief(e)	1	||	-1	||	0	||	6	||	4
g - Flooding relief(f)	1	||	0	||	0	||	1	||	1	(R)
h - In Lieu of Transitional relief	1	||	0	||	0	||	0	||	0
i - Rural Rate relief(g)	–	||	2	||	3	||	3	||	2
j - Local Newspaper Temporary relief(h)	–	||	0	||	0	||	0	||	0
k - Supporting Small Businesses relief(i)	–	||	10	||	12	||	9	||	8
l - Discretionary Scheme relief(j)	–	||	97	||	68	||	21	||	-1
m - Pub relief(k)	–	||	11	||	13	||	0	||	0
n - Enterprise Zone relief provided in 100% Pilot Areas	–	||	4	||	11	||	5	||	3
o) Additional Growth in Growth Pilot Areas (Tees Valley) (l)	–	||	1	||	–	(R)||	–	(R)||	–
p - Telecomms relief	–	||	–	||	0	||	0	||	0
q - Retail Discount relief(m)	–	||	–	||	–	||	309	||	7,117	(R)
r - Nursery relief	–	||	–	||	–	||	–	||	62
Total amount of reliefs funded by Section 31 grants	493	||	1,128	||	1,645	(R)||	1,991	(R)||	8,542	(R)

Note: Since 2017-18 some authorities have been able to retain more than a 50% share of income. The amount of share and authorities involved change from year to year, and so annual figures are not directly comparable.
(R) = Revised since the original publication of these statistics (changes are less than 0.5 million so there is no change in the rounded figures)
(a) In 2017-18 a special threshold factor was incorporated into the S31 calculation.
(b) Ratepayers continuing to receive their Small Business Rates Relief for 1 year when they take on an additional property which would normally disqualify them from receiving the relief.
(c) Empty New Build properties are exempt from empty property rates for 18 months.
(d) 50 per cent business rates relief for 18 months for businesses that - between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2016 - move into retail premises that have been empty for a year or more.
(e) A discount of £1,000 for shops, pubs and restaurants with a rateable value of £50,000 or less for two years, from 1 April 2014.
(f) Authorities were compensated for cost of discounts given to eligible businesses as a result of the floods that occurred.
(g) For (discretionary) doubling of mandatory rural rate relief from 1 April 2017.
(h) £1500 discount relief for local newspapers office space effective from 1 April 2017 for 2 years and extended through to 2020-21.
(i) To support businesses losing small business or rural rate relief due to revaluation effective from 1 April 2017 for 5 years.
(j) Relief awarded by local authorities according to their own framework effective from 1 April 2017 for 4 years.
(k) A discount of £1000 for pubs with rateable value less than £100,000 effective from 1 April 2017 for 1 year.
(l) Funding for additional growth in Growth Pilot Areas was a section 31 payment in 2017-18 only. 2018-19 and 2019-20 figures have been amended to reflect this.
(m) A discount of one third of the non-domestic rates bill for retail shops, restaurants, pubs and cinemas with a rateable value of £51,000 or less in 2019-20. In 2020-21 this is the 100% discount on rates announced in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
(n) Revaluation effective from 1 April 2017.
(o) Reliefs were significantly higher than usual in 2020-21, this was driven mostly by the introduction of expanded retail relief in response to the coronavirus pandemic

6. Accompanying tables and open data

6.1 Symbols used

… = not available
0 = zero or negligible
- = not relevant
|| = a discontinuity in data between years
(R) = Revised since the previous update of this data

6.2 Rounding

Where figures have been rounded, there may be a slight discrepancy between the total and the sum of constituent parts.

6.3 Tables

Accompanying tables are available to download alongside this release. These include Tables 1 to 3 for England and a copy of the NNDR3 form with the national-level figures for each cell.

6.4 Open data

These statistics are available in fully open and linkable data formats online.

6.5 Technical Notes

Please see the accompanying technical notes document for further details.
Information on Official Statistics is available via the UK Statistics Authority website.
Information about statistics at DLUHC is available via the Department’s website.