Business Rates Datasets

1. All business properties in Worcester City
2. Empty Properties
3. Properties receiving Charitable or Rural Rate Relief
4. Properties receiving Small Business Rate Relief
5. Properties receiving Retail Relief
6. New accounts in the previous 3 months
7. Accounts with credit balances

Each set of data will be updated in January, April, July and October each year.

Notes about the data

• The ratepayers name and correspondence address will only be shown for companies and other organisations. If the ratepayer is a person those fields will be blank as required by Data Protection rules.
• The ratepayer is responsible for paying the rates but may not be the owner of the property. You can find out who owns a property from the Land Registry
• Our property reference number is also used by the Valuation Office  Agency (VOA) which values property for rating purposes on behalf of the government. You can find more information about the valuation of a property, including previous rateable values, by using the property reference number on the VOA website
• We do not disclose account reference numbers as they are personal to the ratepayer and are used to confirm identity.

All Business Properties

This list includes all properties in the Worcester City Council area that are subject to business rates. The data includes property reference and address, ratepayers name and correspondence address, date the ratepayer became liable, rateable value and description.

This list also contains an indicator showing whether the property appears in any of the other lists.

Empty Properties

This list includes all business properties that are empty. The data includes the date the property became empty and the exemption type (if applicable). Business rates are not charged for the first 3 months that a property is empty or the first 6 months if it is industrial. After that full rates are payable unless the property is exempt.

Charitable and Rural Rate Relief

This list includes properties where the ratepayer is receiving mandatory or discretionary charitable rate relief or rural rate relief. The data includes the type of relief and the percentage awarded.

Small Business Rate Relief

This list includes all properties where the ratepayer receives small business rate relief. The data includes the amount of relief awarded.

New accounts per quarter

This list includes all properties where the ratepayer became liable from a date in the previous quarter. For example, the data published in July will include properties where the ratepayer became liable in April, May or June. The data includes the liability start date.

Accounts in Credit

This list includes accounts that have a credit balance. The data includes the credit amount and the financial year it relates to. If you think you are entitled to an amount in this list you will need to provide proof of your entitlement and your bank account details to enable a refund to be made.

Further to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Decision Notices FS50619844 and FS50643256, Worcester City Council is no longer publishing information in respect of credit balances on Business Rate accounts. In line with these decisions, information is being withheld under Section 31(1)(a) Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoIA), which states that:

“Information which is not exempt under Section 30 is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice - (a) the prevention or detection of crime “

Write Ons

This list includes accounts with credits added. Write Ons are credits that have been ‘written on’ to the system if we’ve not received bank details, or have had no previous contact from Business Rate payer.

Retail Relief

This list includes all properties where the ratepayer receives retail relief. This relief can be given to properties with a rateable value of £50,000 or less that are used for retail purposes. The data includes the amount of relief awarded.

Please note - we no longer offer retail relief from Quarter 1 2016-2017.