This relief has been provided by the Government to support the businesses that make our high streets and town centres a success and help them to evolve and adapt to changing consumer demands.
The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) Relief Scheme 2023-2024 will provide eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a 75 per cent relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business.
We have applied RHL relief automatically to accounts where our records suggest that the business will qualify. Each business needs to check all of the award conditions and tell us if it should not receive RHL relief.
If you think that your business qualifies for RHL relief but it is not shown on your business rates bill, please email us at business.rates@dacorum.gov.uk.
Eligible properties
These are properties that are occupied, and wholly or mainly used:
- as a shop, restaurant, café, drinking establishment, cinema or live music venue
- for assembly or leisure (including sports clubs, nightclubs, theatres, sport and leisure facilities, gyms, public halls, clubhouses)
- as a hotel, guest and boarding premises or self-catering accommodation.
For more information about what property uses are eligible, please see the guidance on the
Government website.
Please note: the Government does not consider provision of the following or similar services to be eligible uses for the purposes of this relief:
- Financial services (for example: banks, building societies, cash points, bureaux de change, short-term loan providers, betting shops)
- Medical services (for example: vets, dentists, doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors)
- Professional services (for example: solicitors, accountants, insurance agents/ financial advisers, employment agencies, estate agents, letting agents)
- Post office sorting offices.
Limits on relief
Cash cap - a ratepayer can only claim up to £110,000 of RHL relief for all eligible hereditaments in England. This cash cap applies at a Group company level (so holding companies and subsidiaries cannot claim up to the
cash cap for each company) and also to organisations which, although not a company, have such an interest in a company that they would, if they were a company, result in its being the holding company.
Subsidy (state aid) - RHL relief is subject to the subsidies chapter within the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). This chapter only applies to subsidies over the value of approximately £315,000 per beneficiary
over a three-year period (consisting of the current financial year and the two previous financial years) (the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit). Extended Retail Discounts granted in 2021-2022 do not count towards the limit. COVID
business grants received from local government and any other subsidy claimed under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance limit over the three-year period should be counted.
Multiple property declaration
If your business (or another company in your Group) receives RHL relief for other properties, but the total is below the £110,000 cash cap and you have not received more than the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance of
£315,000 over three years (including 2023-2024) then you need to download and complete the declaration form below. You will need to list all the RHL relief being received for other properties, and if appropriate list all the other subsidies
you have received.
After you have completed the form, please email it to us at business.rates@dacorum.gov.uk.
Opting out of relief
A business can opt out of RHL relief for the period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 for one or all properties it occupies. If you want to do this, please email us at business.rates@dacorum.gov.uk confirming
the account numbers and property addresses for which you are opting out. You must also confirm that you are authorised to do this on behalf of the ratepayer. You can do this at any time until 30 April 2024, and we will then remove the relief from
your account and send you a new bill.
Please note: if you do opt out of these reliefs you will not be able to change your mind and opt back in again at a later date.