Business Rates Improvement Relief (England)

Description

Stops you being punished with a higher business rates bill for the first year after improving your own premises — the long-standing complaint that extending a workshop or fitting air conditioning immediately raises your rateable value. For qualifying improvements completed on or after 1 April 2024 and before 1 April 2028, the increase in rateable value is effectively ignored for 12 months. Qualifying means either increasing the size of the property or adding new features or equipment to it (heating, air conditioning, CCTV are the examples gov.uk gives); upgrading or replacing features or equipment you already had does not qualify. You must have occupied the property throughout the works and afterwards, which rules out landlords improving an empty unit between tenants. There's nothing to apply for: you report the change through your business rates valuation account, the Valuation Office Agency issues a certificate if the works qualify and tells your council, and the council applies the relief to your bill.

Eligibility summary

• Available in: England.
• Applicant must be a registered business.

Notes

Improvements to existing features or equipment do not qualify — it has to be genuinely new or additional. Relief runs for one year from completion of the works. No application is needed; report the change via your business rates valuation account and the VOA certifies it. End date RESOLVED 25 Oct 2026: the Non-Domestic Rating (Improvement Relief) (England) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/1357, in force 1 April 2024) define qualifying improvement works as works 'completed before 1st April 2028' (regulation 4) and require completion on or after 1 April 2024 (regulation 5), so the scheme covers works finished between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2028; legislation.gov.uk lists no amendments to the regulations. The one-year relief period is in paragraph 3 of Schedule 4ZA to the Local Government Finance Act 1988 ('the period of one year beginning with the day on which qualifying improvement works are completed'), and regulation 3 sets the same-occupier condition. GOV.UK's improvement relief page (apply-for-business-rate-relief/improvement-relief) confirms the rules above, the report-through-your-valuation-account process and that the council applies the relief, but gives no scheme end date, which is why the end date is taken from the regulations. No extension beyond 31 March 2028 was found.

Requirement

The improvement must either increase the size of the property or add new features or equipment to it, and must have been completed on or after 1 April 2024.

Occupation condition

You must have occupied the property during the improvement works and after they were completed.