Covid-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF)

The government has provided funding to help support businesses affected by the pandemic that are not eligible for existing support linked to business rates, such as the expanded retail discount. The effect of the one-off payment will be to reduce the amount of business rates otherwise payable for the 2021/22 financial year.

Businesses that are eligible

To be eligible for the relief:

• The property is treated as occupied by the council.
• The property falls within the local non-domestic rating list.
• The business must have been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and been unable to adequately adapt.
• The business is not excluded in the list below.

Exclusions from CARF scheme

Exclusions include:

• Businesses that have received or would have been eligible to receive the Expanded Retail Discount or Nursery Discount during the 2021/22 financial year for any of their properties.
• The business is not entitled to Small Business Rate Relief granted at 100%.
• The business is not entitled to mandatory relief (80%) topped up with 20%.
• The business is not subject to subsidy controls.
• Properties / businesses that are banks, building societies, schools, properties occupied by public bodies, health centres and hospitals.
• Businesses that were vacant for any period during the financial year 2021/22.

How much you will receive

Where a business meets all the relevant criteria, relief will be awarded as shown in the table below. The relief will be granted for the financial year 2021/22 after any other reliefs and reductions have been applied:

Apply for this relief

We have identified eligible businesses for this relief and will automatically apply the relief to your business rates account. Businesses that receive the relief will receive a revised bill showing your reduced business rates payable.

If you have automatically received this relief and wish to opt out of the scheme, then please contact us. 

If you have not received this relief and believe that your business meets the above eligibility criteria please contact us.

Subsidy control

The EU State Aid rules no longer apply to subsidies granted in the UK following the end of the transition period, which ended on 31 December 2020.

There are three subsidy allowances for the Covid-19 Business Grant Schemes: Small Amounts of Financial Assistance, the Covid-19 Business Grant Allowance and Covid-19 Business Grant Special Allowance.

Further details of subsidy control can be found at Gov.uk: Covid-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF): local authority guidance.