The retail discount, which is available for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 tax years, currently allows qualifying businesses with a rateable value of less than £51,000 a third off their business rates bills on top of any other reliefs for which they are eligible.
The government has confirmed that it will increase the discount to 50% from 1st April 2020. Andrew Goodacre, CEO of bira said: “This is good news for independent retailers and is what we have been campaigning for. We now need to ensure it becomes permanent!”.