Islington Retail Relief 2024/25

We consider shops, restaurants, cafes and drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues to mean:

• Hereditaments that are being used for the sale of goods to visiting members of the public
  • Shops (such as: florists, bakers, butchers, grocers, greengrocers, jewellers, stationers,
  • Art galleries (where art is for sale/hire)
  • Car/caravan show rooms
  • Charity shops
  • Furnishing shops/display rooms (such as: carpet shops, double glazing, garage doors)
  • Garden centres
  • Markets
  • Opticians
  • Petrol stations
  • Post offices
  • Second-hand car lots
• Hereditaments that are being used for the provision of the following services to visiting members of the public.
  • Car hire
  • Dry cleaners
  • Funeral directors
  • Hair and beauty services (such as: hair dressers, nail bars, beauty salons, tanning shops, etc)
  • Launderettes
  • PC/TV/domestic appliance repair
  • Photo processing
  • Shoe repairs/key cutting
  • Ticket offices, for example for theatre
  • Travel agents
  • Tool hire
• Hereditaments that are being used for the sale of food and/or drink to visiting members of the public
  • Bars
  • Coffee shops
  • Pubs
  • Restaurants
  • Sandwich shops
  • Takeaways
• Hereditaments which are being used as cinemas

• Hereditaments that are being used as live music venues
  • live music venues are hereditaments wholly or mainly used for the performance of live music for the purpose of entertaining an audience. Hereditaments cannot be considered a live music venue for the purpose of business rates relief where a venue is wholly or mainly used as a nightclub or a theatre, for the purposes of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended).
  • Hereditaments can be a live music venue even if used for other activities, but only if those other activities (i) are merely ancillary or incidental to the performance of live music (for example, the sale/supply of alcohol to audience members) or (ii) do not affect the fact that the primary activity for the premises is the performance of live music (for example, because those other activities are insufficiently regular or frequent, such as a polling station or a fortnightly community event).
  • There may be circumstances in which it is difficult to tell whether an activity is a performance of live music or, instead, the playing of recorded music. Although we would expect this would be clear in most circumstances, guidance on this may be found in Chapter 16 of the statutory guidance issued in April 2018 under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003.

We consider assembly and leisure to mean:

• Hereditaments that are being used for the provision of sport, leisure and facilities to visiting members of the public (including for the viewing of such activities).
  • Sports grounds and clubs
  • Museums and art galleries
  • Nightclubs
  • Sport and leisure facilities
  • Stately homes and historic houses
  • Theatres
  • Tourist attractions
  • Gyms
  • Wellness centres, spas, massage parlours
  • Casinos, gambling clubs and bingo halls
• Hereditaments that are being used for the assembly of visiting members of the public.
  • Public halls
  • Clubhouses, clubs and institutions

We consider hotels, guest and boarding premises and self-catering accommodation to mean:

• Hereditaments where the non-domestic part is being used for the provision of living accommodation as a business
  • Hotels, Guest and Boarding Houses
  • Holiday homes
  • Caravan parks and sites

To qualify for the relief the hereditament should be wholly or mainly being used for the above qualifying purposes. In a similar way to other reliefs (such as charity relief), this is a test on use rather than occupation. Therefore, hereditaments which are occupied but not wholly or mainly used for the qualifying purpose will not qualify for the relief.

The list set out above is not intended to be exhaustive as it would be impossible to list the many and varied uses that exist within the qualifying purposes. There will also be mixed uses. However, it is intended to be a guide for businesses as to the types of uses that the council considers for this purpose to be eligible for relief. The council will determine whether particular properties not listed are broadly similar in nature to those above and, if so, to consider them eligible for the relief. Conversely, properties that are not broadly similar in nature to those listed above should not be eligible for the relief.

Property types not eligible for this relief

The list below sets out the types of uses that the council does not consider to be an eligible use for the purpose of this relief. The council will determine whether particular properties are broadly similar in nature to those below and, if so, to consider them not eligible for the relief under their local scheme.

• Hereditaments that are being used for the provision of the following services to visiting members of the public
  • builders merchants, timber yards, plumbers merchants
  • Financial services (eg. banks, building societies, cash points, bureaux de change, short term loan providers, betting shops, pawn brokers)
  • Medical services (eg. vets, dentists, doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors)
  • Post office sorting offices
  • Professional services (e.g. solicitors, accountants, insurance agents/ financial advisers, employment agencies, estate agents, letting agents)
  • Businesses whose main function is to rent out rooms or office space, conference centres, training facilities, remote working facilities
  • Businesses whose main function is to provide services or goods to the building industry,

• In line with the legal restrictions in section 47(8A) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, billing authorities may not grant the discount to themselves, a precepting authority, or a functional body, within the meaning of the Greater London Authority Act 1999.
• State Aid (De Minimis Regulations) and Subsidy Allowance rules will apply when granting Retail Relief and ratepayers will be required to declare any such Aid or Allowance either at the application stage or after the award is made if it is made proactively.
• An appeal against a refusal to award on the grounds of whether it is occupied and is being wholly or mainly being used for one of the qualifying purposes in 6.2 can be made to the council within one month of the council’s notification to the rate payer of this refusal. Any appeal will be considered by the Head of Revenues and Technical Services within a reasonable time period of its submission.
• Retail Relief will be calculated in the same format as Business Rate charges and apportioned accordingly, if the occupation, other reliefs or rateable value of a premises, changes. Any award will be credited to the business rates account that is maintained by the council.
• Any award made in error, or applied for by the ratepayer or his representative fraudulently, may be recovered by the council.