Charity or community amateur sports club

Mandatory and Discretionary Rate Relief for Charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs

Mandatory relief

Mandatory relief allows 80 per cent relief from rate liability. This will normally be awarded where an organisation is a charity or is exempt from charitable status, and the property is mainly used for charitable purposes.

Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) registered with HM Revenue & Customs are also eligible for mandatory rate relief where the property is occupied by the CASC and is wholly or mainly used as a sports club. More information on how to register as a CASC can be found on this page of the GOV.UK website and the CASCInfo website.

Please note, following national changes introduced in April 2015, to retain Community Amateur Sports Club status you now need to prove that more than 50 per cent of members are active participants (rather than just social members). For some clubs this might mean needing to introduce a registration system to record usage or offering incentives to ensure participation reaches the required level. For more details on the changes please see the CASC information sheet .

Discretionary relief

Discretionary relief is split into two parts. `Top-up- relief of up to the remaining 20 per cent may be awarded to those organisations with mandatory relief. The council may also award relief of up to 100 per cent to organisations not established or conducted for profit. These organisations should be charitable or otherwise philanthropic or religious, or be concerned with education, social welfare, science, literature or the fine arts. Relief may also be awarded when a property is used for recreation and is occupied by a club, society, or other organisation not established or conducted for profit.

There is no automatic right to discretionary relief.

For further information please contact the business rates team. Calls will cost you 2 pence per minute plus your phone company’s access charge.

For more information, look at our guidance notes.

To apply, please complete our application form.