Section 49 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 gives the council a discretionary power to reduce or remit the payment of rates by granting hardship relief. A quarter of the cost of any hardship relief granted falls directly on local council tax payers so the council must ensure that granting hardship relief benefits the wider community as well as the ratepayer concerned. You can make an application for the hardship relief using this form.

Privacy statement

We will use the information you provide to administer and collect business rates.

Where the law permits, we will share this information with other council departments, Government departments, public bodies and private organisations. We will do so for the assessment and collection of taxes, to prevent and detect fraud and to undertake statutory public functions.

More information on how we handle personal information and your rights under the data protection legislation can be found in our Privacy Notice.