Discretionary rate relief

As well as the mandatory rate relief awarded to charities or to other not-for-profit organisations, we can also award discretionary rate relief if you meet the following conditions:

• the ratepayer must be a charity or trustees for a charity, and the property must be wholly or mainly used for charitable purposes, or;
• all of or part of the property must be occupied by one or more institutions, all of which are not established or conducted for profit and each of whose main objects are charitable or are otherwise philanthropic or religious or concerned with education, social welfare, science, literature or the fine arts
• the property is wholly or mainly used for purposes of recreation, and all or part of it is occupied for the purpose of a club, society or other organisation not established or conducted for profit

If you wish to apply for discretionary relief, you should:

• read the discretionary rate relief policy ^{(PDF, 42kb)}
• check that your organisation meets the conditions in the policy
• fully complete the application form

We can only consider your application when you've completed the application form and provided supporting evidence. We'll make our decision using the information you provide in your application, so you'll need to fully demonstrate how your organisation meets the qualifying conditions.

Apply for discretionary rate relief

What to do while waiting for a decision

We may visit the property before we make our decision.

When a decision is made

If we award the relief, we'll send you a new bill and payment instructions. We'll take any payments you have made into account.

If we don't award the relief, we'll write to you explaining why you don't qualify.

Page last updated: 12 May 2021