Official Statistics

National non-domestic rates collected by local authorities in England 2025 to 2026

Published 22 July 2026

Applies to England

This release provides data on non-domestic rating income collected by local authorities in 2025-26, including the amount of business rates reliefs given to businesses. There are changes from year to year such as changes to reliefs, multipliers and periodic revaluations that mean, figures are not directly comparable to those in other years.

The data in this release are based on the provisional data received by 296 authorities. We will update in due course, as final data become available.

1. In this release:

• Local authorities reported that the non-domestic rates income for 2025-26 was £27.6 billion. This amount is what authorities collected after all reliefs, accounting adjustments and sums retained outside the rates retention scheme are taken into consideration.

• Local authorities reported that they granted a total of £7.7 billion of relief from business rates in 2025-26. Of this £6.0 billion was the cost of mandatory relief and £1.8 billion was the cost of discretionary relief, of which £1.4 billion was the retail, hospitality and leisure relief.

• Total relief provided to charitable occupations (that is both mandatory and discretionary relief) amounted to £2.4 billion in respect of 2025-26.

• Authorities granted £2.2 billion relief under the Small Business Rate relief scheme for 2025-26 and £1.3 billion in empty property relief.

• Local authorities reported a net decrease in appeals provision of £224 million and losses in collection of £295 million in 2025-26.

2. Introduction

This release has been compiled by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) and it provides information on national non-domestic rates and associated information for the financial years 2021-22 to 2025-26. This information has been derived from the national non-domestic rates (NNDR3) returns submitted on behalf of the 296 billing authorities that were in existence in 2025-26 in England.

Provisional returns are those that have been submitted in line with the authority’s provisional statement of accounts. Final returns are those that have been submitted following an audit or audit opinion of their accounts. This release contains provisional data from all 296 billing authorities. These returns have been approved by the Chief Financial Officer to confirm that the form had been completed in accordance with schedule 7B of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 and the regulations made under it. We will update this release, in due course, as finalised data become available, but we do not expect any major changes to these figures. The next update to the 2025-26 data is expected to be in January 2027.

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. In 2025-26 there were two multipliers, the standard non-domestic rate multiplier (previously called the non-domestic rate multiplier) and the small non-domestic rate multiplier.

The multipliers are set each financial year for England according to formula set by legislation, which, from 2018-19 have been determined by the increase in the previous September’s Consumer Price Index. Government can then cap the multiplier and compensate authorities for the loss of income through Section 31 grant. From 2024-25, the multipliers have been decoupled so that the standard and small multipliers can be set separately.

Rateable properties may be eligible for discounts or reliefs on their business rates bills. Some of these are mandatory i.e. they are automatic entitlements in any billing authority area, and some are discretionary granted at a billing authority’s discretion. As new reliefs have been introduced since the start of this series, and some of these reliefs were time limited, changes across years are not strictly comparable. Further information about the types of reliefs available are presented in Table 2.

Further details about the business rates retention scheme and an explanation of hereditaments can be found in the Definitions section of the accompanying technical document.

2.1 Technical Information

Please see the accompanying technical notes document for further details.

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 non-domestic and small business standard multipliers to reflect the aggregate change in rateable values.

Before the 2025-26 financial year, the most recent revaluation came into effect on the 1 April 2023 and reflects the rental market as at 1 April 2021. The tables in this release therefore show a discontinuity between 2022-23 and 2023-24 because this affects gross business rates and the amount of relief granted.

At 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 number of years. The cost of the transitional scheme is shown in Table 1. From 2023-24, this reflects only the revenue foregone because the bills of ratepayers are being phased down due to the transitional scheme. In earlier years authorities reported a net cost, as previously the cost of revenue foregone by delaying increases to bills was offset by additional income raised by delaying reductions to bills.

The previous transitional scheme lasted from the 2017 revaluation to March 2022. Therefore in 2022-23, there are only transitional arrangements figures in respect of previous years. However, in 2022-23, authorities could give the same support to businesses using the supporting small business relief (a discretionary relief), meaning that the supporting small business relief granted is slightly higher than usual in 2022-23.

Small business rates relief

Small business rates relief provides 100% relief to all businesses that have a rateable value of below £12,000, and a tapering relief for businesses with a rateable value between £12,000 and £15,000. The threshold at which a higher multiplier is applied is £51,000.

Multipliers

The Non-Domestic Rating (NDR) Act 2023 introduced a number of changes to the way business rates multipliers are calculated and applied. The Act de-coupled the small business rating and standard rating multipliers, allowing the government to treat the multipliers differently and the concept of a supplement to be removed.

Previously the standard multiplier was equal to the small business rating multiplier, plus a supplement figure (originally designed to recover the cost of small business rate relief), set at 1.3p above the small multiplier. The two multipliers therefore only changed when the small business rating multiplier changed and in recent years, the small business rates multiplier has either been frozen or capped below the CPI.

While both multipliers are independently linked to CPI as default, at the Autumn Budget in October 2024, the Chancellor announced that the small business rates multiplier would remain frozen at 49.9p for 2025-26 while the standard business rates multiplier would be uprated in line with September CPI from 54.6p to 55.5p.

Further details of the standard multiplier and small business rate multiplier and the new reliefs can be found in the technical notes accompanying this release.

2.2 Comparisons between years

The data presented in the tables are for the financial years 2021-22 to 2025-26 and are based on outturn data (actual data rather than forecast data). There have been a number of changes to non-domestic rates that affect the interpretation of data across multiple years.

Changes arising from the Non-Domestic Rating Act

There were a number of changes introduced in the Non-Domestic Rating Act that mean that the data from 2024-25 onwards are different to previous years. These changes are set out in the 2024-25 statistical release.

Revaluation

The latest revaluation before 2025-26 financial year, came into effect on the 1 April 2023 so there is a discontinuity between 2022-23 and 2023-24. Transitional arrangements are reduced in the years after the revaluation, so transitional relief will be lower in 2025-26.

Business rates multiplier

As well as the changes to the multiplier as described above, business rates multipliers were capped in each year from 2020-21. The compensation for this cap is included in Table 3 and is affected by both the cumulative effect of capping the multiplier for the last four consecutive years, and the level of inflation in September 2025.

2.3 Special factors affecting 2025-26

Additional reliefs

In the 2024 Autumn Budget, the government announced the continuation of the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief Scheme into 2025-26. In 2025-26, eligible properties received a 40% relief on business rates, up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business. This is a decrease from 75% in both 2023-24 and 2024-25. Prior to that, the relief in 2021-22 was 100% for the first three months, dropping to 66% in the remaining months with a cash cap and 50% relief with cash cap in 2022-23.

Other factors

In the 2024 Autumn Budget, the government announced that private schools in England would no longer be eligible for charitable rates relief, unless they were private schools which are ‘wholly or mainly’ concerned with providing full time education to pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This is not specifically identified in this data collection, but some authorities have reported this as a reason for a decrease in their data for this relief.

3. National non-domestic rates collected by local authorities in England 2025-26

Table 1 provides details of the total amount of national non-domestic rates local authorities collected in 2025-26 and the reliefs they granted. Until 2024-25, the national non-domestic multiplier included a 1.3p supplement to fund the Small Business Rate Relief scheme, and that additional yield was deducted from the cost of the relief. As described in the introduction, the multipliers have been decoupled and the supplement is no longer used, resulting in an increase to the reported total cost of mandatory relief. Table 1a provides details on the multipliers set and the rateable values in each year. Table 1b provides a breakdown of the losses in collection and appeals provision.

The cost of transitional arrangements shown in the Table 1 since 2023-24 reflects only the revenue foregone because only increases in bills are phased down as a result of the transitional scheme. The previous scheme allowed the cost of revenue foregone by delaying increases to bills to be offset by additional income by delaying reductions to bills. This meant that a net cost of transitional arrangement was reported.

Chart 1 shows the flow from gross rates to net rates in 2025-26. Chart 2 shows how gross and net rates have changed since 2013-14.

• Local authorities reported that the non-domestic rating income for 2025-26 was £27.6 billion. This amount is what authorities collected after all reliefs, accounting adjustments and sums retained outside the rates retention scheme are taken into consideration.

• Local authorities reported that they granted a total of £7.7 billion of relief from business rates in 2025-26. This is lower than 2024-25 largely due to the lower rate of relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses.

• Local authorities reported that they had used £1.1 billion from their existing provision for appeals (amount charged in-year to appeals provision) and had added £835 million to their appeals provision (change in appeals provision). This means that local authorities reported a net decrease in the appeals provision of £224 million in 2025-26.

• Local authorities reported losses in collection of £295 million in 2025-26. This was composed mostly of changes in the allowance for losses in collection (£298 million), rather than the amount lost as written off bad debt in-year (£3 million).

Table 1: National non-domestic rates collected by local authorities, England, 2021-22 to 2025-26 (all figures £ million)

Year	2021 to 2022 [Note 11]		2022 to 2023 [Note 11]		2023 to 2024 [Note 12]		2024 to 2025		2025 to 2026
Gross rates payable in year	30,801		30,733	||	32,333	||	35,439		35,981
Total cost of reliefs	10,275		7,692		7,021	||	8,588		7,745
Of which mandatory relief [Note 1]	5,005		4,891		4,539	||	5,860		5,959
Of which discretionary relief [Note 2]	5,270	||	2,801	||	2,481	||	2,728	||	1,786
Gross Rates Payable in year less total cost of reliefs	20,526	||	23,041	||	25,312	||	26,852	||	28,236
Net cost of transitional arrangement [Note 3]	-182		-121	||	[z]		[z]		[z]
Cost of transitional arrangement [Note 4]	[z]		[z]		1,654		433		48
Of which additional revenue received in current year because reduction delayed [Note 3] [Note 4]	147		[z]		[z]		[z]		[z]
Of which additional revenue received in respect of previous years because reduction delayed [Note 4]	69		75		116		153		37
(Less) of which revenue foregone in current year because reduction delayed [Note 3] [Note 4]	84		[z]		1,811		630		162
(Less) of which revenue foregone in respect of previous years because reduction delayed [Note 3]	-50		-45		-42		-45		-77
Net Rates Yield (Gross Rates Payable minus net cost of Transition)	20,708	||	23,162	||	23,659	||	26,419	||	28,188
Total cost of accounting adjustments	-217		-199		-169		-30		135
Of which losses in collection [Note 5]	136		165		203		147		295
Of which net addition to appeals provision [Note 6]	-354		-364		-389		-222		-224
Of which interest payable [Note 7]	0	||	0	||	16		45		64
Other deductions from collectable rates [Note 8]	278		217	||	-1,557		-335		49
Of which transitional protection payments made to authorities [Note 4]	182		121	||	-1,654		-433		-48
Of which other deductions	96		96		97		97		98
Total Disregarded Amounts	199		220		305		387		412
Of which amounts retained in respect of Designated Areas [Note 9]	106		110		176		243		270
Of which amounts retained in respect of Renewable Energy schemes	93		109		129		143		143
Non-domestic rating income from rates retention scheme [Note 10]	20,448	||	22,924	||	25,079	||	26,397	||	27,591

[Note 1] Prior to 2024-25, the small business rates relief was partially funded through the small business rates supplement. This was set at 1.3p. In 2024-25, the small and standard multipliers were decoupled, and the concept of the supplement removed. Therefore the total mandatory relief will appear to be greater, because there is no additional yield from the small business rates supplement.

[Note2] The discretionary section 31 funded reliefs include the retail, hospitality and leisure relief. In 2021-22 the relief gave a 100% discount for the first three months and then a 66% discount for the remaining months with a cap on the relief for each business. In 2022-23 it was a 50% discount with a cap on the relief, increasing to 75% in 2023-24 and remaining unchanged in 2024-25. In 2025-26 it is a 40% discount with a cap on the relief.

[Note 3] The transitional scheme for 2017-18 onwards expired in 2022-23. Therefore, for 2022-23, there are only transitional arrangements figures in respect of previous years. In 2022-23, authorities could give the same support to businesses using the supporting small business relief (a discretionary relief), and so what would normally be the cost of the transitional scheme is included in the Discretionary Reliefs figure.

[Note 4] Transitional relief schemes taper across the period between revaluations, and new schemes will be announced with each revaluation. The transitional relief scheme relating to the 2023 revaluation changed so that it was fully funded by central government. This means that the figures from 2023-24 show only the revenue foregone by delaying increases to bills. In previous years authorities reported a net cost with the cost of revenue foregone by delaying increases to bills offset by additional income by delaying reductions to bills. This is shown on a separate line. Figures are presented as positive figures as the cost of the relief is from Net Rates Yield.

[Note 5] 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 1b for more details.

[Note 6] 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 1b for more details.

[Note 7] Authorities have to account for interest on overpayments they have paid or credited to ratepayers following changes to rating lists. The rate of interest is set for any year at one percentage point below the standard rate at 15 March (or the next business day) in the preceding year. In 2021-22 and 2022-23, this was 0%.

[Note 8] 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.

[Note 9] Designated Areas comprises Enterprise Zones & New Development Deal areas.

[Note 10] Non-domestic rating income from the rates retention scheme is calculated as Net Rates Yield (gross rates less reliefs) less accounting adjustments, other deductions and disregarded amounts.

[Note 11] In 2021-22 and 2022-23 (although to a lesser extent when compared to 2020-21), the coronavirus pandemic caused some of the figures to be different from the norm. Discretionary reliefs were far higher than usual due to the level of retail, hospitality and leisure relief, and in 2022-23 by the COVID-19 additional relief paid in respect of 2021-22. The presence of those reliefs may also have affected the levels of other reliefs.

[Note 12] Revaluation applied from 1 April 2023 means that the data in this year is not comparable to previous years.

Table 1a: Multiplier and rateable values, England, 2021-22 to 2025-26

Year	2021 to 2022	2022 to 2023		2023 to 2024	2024 to 2025	2025 to 2026
Small business rate multiplier (pence)	49.9	49.9		49.9	49.9	49.9
Standard business rates multiplier (pence) [Note 1]	51.2	51.2		51.2	54.6	55.5
Number of hereditaments on rating list close to 30 September (`000s) [Note 2]	1,996	2,006		2,015	2,011	2,003
Total aggregate rateable value of all hereditaments on rating list close to 30 September (million pounds) [Note 2]	63,910	63,634	||	67,877	67,968	68,315

[Note 1] Prior to 2024-25 this was known as the Non-Domestic Rating Multiplier

[Note 2] 2021-22 VOA data is as at 7 October 2020 and 2022-23 data is at 15 October 2021. Both are based on the 2017 rating list. 2023-24 VOA data is the draft data published on 17 November 2022, 2024-25 data is at 4 October 2023, and the 2025-26 data is at 3 October 2024. All three years are based on the 2023 rating list.

Table 1b: Further details of accounting adjustments on national non-domestic rates, England, 2021-22 to 2025-26

Year	2021 to 2022	2022 to 2023	2023 to 2024 [Note 6]	2024 to 2025	2025 to 2026
Losses in collection	136	165	203	147	295
Of which losses in collection in excess of the allowance [Note 1]	-3	0	12	6	-3
Of which change in allowance for losses in collection [Note 2]	139	165	191	141	298
Net addition to appeals provision [Note 3]	-354	-364	-389	-222	-224
Of which amount charged in-year to appeals provision [Note 4]	-930	-1,095	-1,269	-1,118	-1,059
of which in relation to the 2010 ratings list	-168	-153	-69	-5	-3
of which in relation to the 2017 ratings list	-762	-942	-1,200	-795	-404
of which in relation to the 2023 ratings list	[z]	[z]	0	-318	-653
Of which change in appeals provision [Note 5]	577	731	880	896	835
of which in relation to the 2010 ratings list	-28	-71	-31	-7	-2
of which in relation to the 2017 ratings list	605	802	106	-93	-252
of which in relation to the 2023 ratings list	[z]	[z]	806	996	1,089

[Note 1] 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.

[Note 2] 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.

[Note 3] The net addition to the appeals provision reflects the amount charged in-year against the provision and the amount newly added in the provision. A negative figure reflects that more money has been charged (taken out of the provision) than has been added to it (change to the provision).

[Note 4] 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. Charges against the provision start in the second financial year after revaluation. The figures are shown as negative figures as this is money coming out of the provision.

[Note 5] Amounts added to the provision reduce an authority’s income for the year. The amounts added reflect authorities’ views of how much they need 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. Positive figures indicate the amount added to the provision and negative figures indicate the amount taken out of the provision.

[Note 6] Revaluation applied from 1 April 2023 means that the data in this year is not comparable to previous years.

3.1 Chart 1: Breakdown of Gross Rates Payable for local authorities in England, 2025-26

Chart 1 shows how reliefs and other adjustments are deducted from gross rates payable to arrive at the net business rates income for 2025-26.

Footnote for chart 1

[Note a] Values are in £ millions.

3.2 Chart 2: Change in gross and net business rates in England between 2013-14 and 2025-26

Chart 2 shows that gross rates payable and net rates income were steadily increasing until the pandemic. Gross rates payable were stable from 2019-20 to 2022-23 because the business rates multiplier and number of businesses subject to rates remained broadly stable. Revaluation in 2023 contributed to slight increase in gross rates in 2023-24. Net income fell sharply in 2020-21 due to the retail, hospitality and leisure relief introduced in response to the pandemic but has increased in the last four years due to changes in those reliefs.

Footnotes for chart 2

[Note a] The dashed lines indicate breaks in the series resulting from the 2014, 2017 and 2023 revaluations and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

3.3 Map 1: Net Rates Income in England

Data on the amount of business rates income and reliefs granted for each local authority in England are in the tables accompanying this release. Map 1 provides an overview of how net business rates income in 2025-26 differs across England. Authorities have been split into five ranges of net business rates income with an equal number of authorities in each group.

3.4 Map 2: Net Rates Income in London

Map 2 provides an overview of how net business rates income in 2025-26 differs between local authorities in London. Authorities have been split into the same 5 ranges as in Map 1.

4. National non-domestic rate reliefs granted by local authorities in England 2025-26

Table 2 shows the amount of mandatory 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 or are temporary. Chart 3 shows how the largest reliefs have changed since 2021-22.

• Of the £7.7 billion relief granted from business rates, £6.0 billion was mandatory relief (including small business rate relief).

• Local authorities granted a total of £1.8 billion of discretionary relief in 2025-26. Of this £1.7 billion was funded through Section 31 grants, primarily the retail, hospitality and leisure relief.

• Total relief provided to charitable occupations amounted to £2.4 billion in respect of 2025-26, of which £2.3 billion was mandatory relief.

• Authorities granted £2.2 billion of relief under the Small Business Rate relief scheme for 2025-26.

• The amount of relief granted to empty premises in 2025-26 was £1.3 billion.

• The amount of retail, hospitality and leisure relief granted in 2025-26 was £1.4 billion. This was lower than the previous year due to the relief reducing from 75% to 40%.

Table 2: Cost of reliefs from national non-domestic rates, England, 2021-22 to 2025-26 (all figures £ million) [Note 1]

Year	2021 to 2022 [Note 10]		2022 to 2023 [Note 10]		2023 to 2024 [Note 11]		2024 to 2025		2025 to 2026
Total cost of mandatory relief [note 2]	5,005		4,891		4,539	||	5,860		5,959
Of which total mandatory relief in respect of current year [note 2]	4,811		4,806		4,695	||	5,785		5,873
Of which small business relief provided in year	2,161		2,211		1,947		2,056		2,178
Of which relief on existing properties where a second property is occupied	5		5		4		4		4
Of which additional yield generated from the small business supplement [note 2]	-626		-626		-674		[z]		[z]
Of which charitable occupation	2,040		2,036		2,191		2,387		2,317
Of which community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs)	22		22		21		21		21
Of which rural rate relief [note 3]	4		4		3		6		6
Of which telecomms relief	2		[z]		[z]		[z]		[z]
Of which public lavatories relief	5		5		4		4		4
Of which partially occupied hereditaments	16		13		15		19		13
Of which empty premises	1,187		1,141		1,188		1,276		1,296
Of which low carbon heat networks	[z]		[z]		[z]		3		4
Of which improvement relief	[z]		[z]		[z]		13		34
Of which other mandatory relief in respect of previous years [Note 4]	194		85		-156		75		85
Total cost of discretionary relief	5,270	||	2,801	||	2,481	||	2,728	||	1,786
Of which total discretionary relief unfunded through section 31 grants	107		109		99		116		129
Of which total cost of unfunded discretionary relief in respect of current year	101		103		100		110		123
Of which charitable occupation	45		48		48		49		49
Of which non-profit making bodies	33		36		37		39		41
Of which Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs)	1		1		2		1		1
Of which rural shops etc	0		0		0		[z]		[z]
Of which small rural businesses	1		1		1		1		0
Of which other ratepayers under s47	20		16		12		19		29
Of which hardship relief	1		0		1		1		2
Of which unfunded discretionary relief in respect of previous years	6		5		-1		6		6
Of which total discretionary reliefs funded through Section 31 grants	5,163		2,692		2,383		2,612		1,657
Of which total cost of discretionary reliefs funded through S31 grant in respect of current year [Note 5]	5,188	||	1,726	||	2,557	||	2,701	||	1,655
Of which flooding relief	0		0		1		0		0
Of which rural rate relief	4		4		3		[z]		[z]
Of which local newspaper temporary relief	0		0		0		0		[z]
Of which supporting small businesses relief [Note 6] [Note 7]	11		20		237		198		190
Of which retail, hospitality and leisure relief [Note 8]	4,940	||	1,701	||	2,314	||	2,498	||	1,443
Of which nursery relief	63		[z]		[z]		[z]		[z]
Of which COVID-19 additional relief [Note 9]	171		[z]		[z]		[z]		[z]
Of which low carbon heat network relief	[z]		1		2		[z]		[z]
Of which film studio relief	[z]		[z]		[z]		4		22
Of which discretionary reliefs funded through S31 grant in respect of previous years [Note 4]	-25		966		-175		-88		2
Of which COVID-19 additional relief [Note 9]	0		1,062		-21		-8		-3
Of which all other discretionary reliefs funded through S31 grant	-25		-96		-154		-81		5
TOTAL COST OF ALL RELIEFS	10,275	||	7,692	||	7,021	||	8,588	||	7,745

[Note 1] 0 values are below £0.5 million.

[Note 2] Prior to 2024-25, the small business rates relief was partially funded through the small business supplement. This was set at 1.3p. The amount raised was reported as additional yield generated from the small business supplement. In 2024-25 the small and standard multipliers were decoupled and the concept of the supplement was removed. Therefore the total cost of mandatory relief will appear to be greater, because there is no additional yield to deduct.

[Note 3] In 2024-25, mandatory rural rate relief increased from 50% to 100% and so discretionary rural rate relief (both funded and unfunded) has not been required.

[Note 4] In 2021-22, the majority of the mandatory relief granted in respect of previous years was empty property relief. Since 2023-24, the majority has been in relation to charity relief. For discretionary relief granted in respect of previous years, the largest category in 2022–23 was COVID-19 additional relief, which is reported separately due to its size. The majority of discretionary relief granted in respect of previous year was related to charity relief in 2023-24, discretionary scheme relief in 2024-25, and film studio relief in 2025-26.

[Note 5] 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.

[Note 6] In 2022-23, authorities could give support to businesses in lieu of transitional relief using the supporting small business relief (a discretionary relief), and so what would normally be the cost of the transitional scheme is included in the Discretionary Reliefs figure.

[Note 7] From 2023-24, supporting small business relief capped bill increases at £600 per year for businesses for businesses that lost eligibility for, or saw reductions in Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) or Rural Rate Relief (RRR) as a result of the 2023 business rates revaluation. This means there is a large increase in 2023-24 as the scheme applied from the 2023 revaluation.

[Note 8] The discretionary section 31 funded reliefs include the retail, hospitality and leisure relief which has changed in scope and amount of relief granted between years. In 2021-22 the relief gave a 100% discount for the first three months and then a 66% discount for the remaining months with a cap on the relief. In 2022-23 it was a 50% discount with a cap, which increased to a 75% discount with the same cash cap in 2023-24 and 2024-25. In 2025-26 it reduced to a 40% discount with a cap on the relief. This change in coverage and amount of relief means that the retail, hospitality and leisure relief is not comparable across years.

[Note 9] The COVID-19 additional relief fund (CARF) was a discretionary relief scheme for 2021-22 only. The amount granted in 2021-22 is the amount granted up to the end of March 2022. The majority of the relief was granted in 2022-23 in respect of 2021-22 and is reported under reliefs in respect of previous years.

[Note 10] In 2021-22 and 2022-23 (although to a lesser extent when compared to 2020-21), the coronavirus pandemic caused parts of the figures to be different from the normdue to the level of retail, hospitality and leisure relief., and in 2022-23 by the COVID-19 additional relief paid in respect of 2021-22. The presence of those reliefs may also have affected the levels of other reliefs.

[Note 11] Revaluation applied from 1 April 2023 means that the data in this year is not comparable to previous years.

4.1 Chart 3: Breakdown of business rates reliefby year, 2021-22 to 2025-26

Chart 3 shows that business rates reliefs decreased year-on-year between 2021-22 and 2023-24, mainly reflecting changes to the level of retail, hospitality and leisure relief and the CARF relief. Business rates reliefs increased in 2024-25, although partly this is because of the decoupling of the multiplier and an increase in the standard multiplier. It is lower in 2025-26 because of a lower rate for retail, hospitality and leisure relief.

Footnotes for Chart 3

[Note a] Bars are labelled with amounts in £ billions. 0 values are below £0.5 billion.

[Note b] The dashed line indicates a break in the series resulting from the 2023 revaluation.

[Note c] In 2021-22 to 2023-24 the cost of the SBRR was partially offset by yield from the SBRR supplement. This has not been included in the chart.

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 2021-22 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, which varies between 50% and 100%.

As a result of the decoupling of the small and standard rating multiplier in 2024-25, authorities were asked to disaggregate the reliefs between those on the small and standard multiplier.

The disaggregation of the data allows the compensation to be calculated more accurately for each relief than prior to 2024-25. This means that a proportion of compensation that would previously have been calculated for the individual reliefs is now showing within the figure for the cost of compensation for the capping of the multiplier. This has resulted in decreases to the reported compensation for all other reliefs and a corresponding larger increase to the reported cost of capping the increase in the small business rates multiplier since 2024-25.

• Local authorities were due a total of £5.8 billion in Section 31 grant in 2025-26, of which £3.7 billion related to compensation for capping the increase of the Small Business Rates multiplier, £985 million related to compensation for doubling of the Small Business Rates relief and changes of eligibility thresholds, and £893 million related to the retail, hospitality and leisure relief.

Table 3: National non-domestic rates measures funded by Section 31 grants, England, 2021-22 to 2025-26 (all figures £ million) [Note 1,2]

Year	2021 to 2022 [Note 8]		2022 to 2023 [Note 8]		2023 to 2024 [Note 9],[Note 10]		2024 to 2025		2025 to 2026
Capping the increase in the small business rates multiplier [Note 3]	669		1,467		2,687		3,599		3,735
Doubling of the small business rates multiplier and changes of eligibility thresholds	1,030		1,102		1,032		932		985
Public lavatories relief	5		3		3		3		3
Maintaining small business rates relief on “first” properties	4		4		3		3		3
Relief to newly built properties	0		0		0		0		0
Relief awarded on the occupation of “long-term empty” properties	0		0		0		0		0
Retail relief	4		-1		-6		-6		-2
Flooding relief	0		0		1		0		0
In Lieu of Transitional relief	0		1		0		0		0
Rural Rate relief	2		2		2		2		2
Local Newspaper Temporary relief	0		0		0		0		0
Supporting Small Businesses relief [Note 4] [Note 7]	7		13		167		120		113
Discretionary Scheme relief	-1		-1		-1		2		0
Pub relief	0		0		0		0		0
Enterprise Zone relief provided in 100% Pilot Areas	3		2		1		1		0
Telecomms relief	3		0		0		0		0
Retail, hospitality and leisure relief [Note 5]	3,212	||	1,091	||	1,563	||	1,497	||	893
Nursery relief	42		1		0		0		0
COVID-19 additional relief [Note 6]	101		752		-16		-5		-2
Low carbon heat networks relief	[z]		1		2		2		3
Freeports relief	[z]		0		1		13		19
Additional growth in non-designated Freeports	[z]		0		1		[z]		[z]
Investment Zones relief	[z]		[z]		[z]		0		1
Improvement relief	[z]		[z]		[z]		9		29
Film studio relief	[z]		[z]		[z]		2		19
Total amount of reliefs funded by Section 31 grants	5,079		4,436		5,441		6,172		5,800

[Note 1] Zero values are less than 0.5 million.

[Note 2] Amounts of Section 31 grant include amounts due in respect of reliefs granted in-year in respect of previous years. Once a relief has expired, amounts in this table relate only to relief granted in respect of previous years.

[Note 3] The relief in respect of capping the small business rates multiplier is particularly high in 2022-23 and 2023-24 as inflation was higher than the levels seen in earlier years. The cap was at the same level of 49.9p in 2022-23 and 2023-24 as in previous years. This means the difference between the multiplier and what it would have been without the cap increased more than usual in those years.

[Note 4] The transitional relief scheme from the 2017-18 revaluation expired in 2021-22. In 2022-23, authorities could give support to businesses in lieu of transitional relief using the supporting small business relief (a discretionary relief), and so what would normally be the cost of the transitional scheme is compensated for as a section 31 payment in respect of the supporting small business relief.

[Note 5] In 2021-22 the relief gave a 100% discount for the first three months and then a 66% discount for the remaining months with a cap on the relief. In 2022-23 it was a 50% discount with a different caps, which increased to a 75% discount with the same cash cap in 2023-24 and 2024-25. In 2025-26 it is a 40% discount with a cap on the relief. This change in coverage and amount of relief means that the retail, hospitality and leisure relief is not comparable across years.

[Note 6] The COVID-19 additional relief fund (CARF) was a discretionary relief scheme for 2021-22 only. The amount granted in 2021-22 is the amount granted up to the end of March 2022. However, the majority of the relief was granted in 2022-23 in respect of 2021-22, which was compensated for by Section 31 grant in 2022-23.

[Note 7] From 2023-24, supporting small business relief capped bill increases at £600 per year for businesses that lost eligibility for, or saw reductions in Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) or Rural Rate Relief (RRR) as a result of the 2023 business rates revaluation. This increased the amount of support that had previously been given.

[Note 8] In 2021-22 and 2022-23 (although to a lesser extent when compared to 2020-21), the coronavirus pandemic caused parts of the figures to be different from the norm. due to the level of retail, hospitality and leisure relief, and in 2022-23 by the COVID-19 additional relief paid in respect of 2021-22. The presence of those reliefs may also have affected the levels of other reliefs and hence the Section 31 grants due.

[Note 9] Revaluation applied from 1 April 2023 means that the data in this year is not comparable to previous years.

[Note 10] As a result of the decoupling of the small and standard multiplier, a proportion of compensation that, prior to 2024-25, would have been calculated for the individual reliefs are now showing within the figure for the cost of compensation for the capping of the multiplier.

6. Accompanying tables and open data

6.1 Symbols used

[r] = revised since the original publication of this data
[z] = not relevant
0 = zero or negligible (below £0.5 million)
|| = a discontinuity in data between years

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 and local authority-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 MHCLG is available via the Department’s website.