Small business rate relief
This has been doubled and made permanent from 1 April 2017. There will be 100% relief for eligible properties with rateable values up to £12,000 with the relief tapering to 0% for eligible properties with rateable values up to £15,000. This means 600,000 small businesses will pay no business rates at all i.e. one-third of all business properties will benefit. A further 50,000 businesses will benefit from tapered relief.
Rise in business rates threshold multiplier
The standard multiplier threshold will increase from £18,000 to £51,000 for business properties outside of Greater London. This total is multiplied by the current standard multiplier supplement. This is then adjusted to reflect future years inflation which will use the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) from April 2020 rather than the current Retail Price Index (RPI).
Rateable values are based on a ratings list from 2010 which is due to be updated in 2017.