Business rates datasets

We regularly receive Freedom of Information requests throughout the year regarding business rates. As most of these requests are for similar information, we will usually publish data sets regarding occupied commercial properties including new businesses paying business rates.

Now we have finished paying business grants, we will start to publish business rates information again. We will not provide individual responses to requests during the year for information that is available on this page. If you request information between updates, you will be referred to this page. Requests for updated information in advance of the next update will normally be refused under Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, on the grounds that it is information that we hold with the intention of publishing it at a later date.

The data will be updated in January, April, July and October and will include information relating to the previous quarter.

Accounts with Credits/Write on

Credit bill notices have been sent to all ratepayers with a credit on their account. Following the Information Commissioner's Office decision notice in February 2017 and a further decision notice in April 2020, we will no longer publish Business Rates credits and will exempt these requests under section 31(1)(a) of FOIA.

Restrictions on the information

• Personal information - In accordance with section 40(2) of the Act, where the ‘liable party name’ is that of an individual rather than a company, the information will be removed.
• Information already in the public domain and information intended for future publication - In accordance with section 21 and 22 of the Act, we will not provide individual responses to requests during the year for similar information but we will re-direct requests to our published list of reports held on this webpage which will be updated on a quarterly basis.
• We will not include email addresses or telephone numbers and will rely upon the exemption provided by Section 21 of the FOI Act as such information is reasonably available by another means for exemption through internet searches of companies house records, websites for the business concerned or by contacting the business by telephone using public telephone records.
• The ratepayer is the person liable to pay the charge. In many cases this is a leaseholder and not the owner of the property. It is not possible to identify the owners from our records. You can find out who owns the property from http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/
• The property reference is the number used by the Valuation office Agency. You can find out more information about the valuation of a property, including previous rateable values using the property reference number on the http://www.voa.gov.uk/
• The information is a snapshot taken on the day we created the report. We cannot guarantee the ongoing accuracy of the data as accounts are updated daily.