Discretionary business rates relief for private schools
Case reference FOI2026/00023
Received 7 January 2026
Published 13 April 2026
Request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I request the following information relating to discretionary business rates relief for private schools in your council area:
1. Your Council’s policy on granting discretionary business rates relief to private schools, including relevant internal guidance documents, criteria, and any published policy documents as at the most recent financial year.
2. How many private schools have applied to your Council for additional discretionary business rates relief following the Government’s withdrawal of the 80% mandatory business rates relief for private schools.
3. Of those applications, how many were granted discretionary relief in part or whole (i.e., awarded amounts above the no-longer-mandated 80% relief). Please provide numbers of awards and, where available, the value of relief awarded in total and, if possible, broken down per school.
4. How much additional business rates has your Council collected since the abolition of the mandatory 80% business rates relief for private schools (i.e., additional net business rates income received in the relevant period).
Response
We have considered your request for information, and our responses to your questions are as follows:
1. Your Council’s policy on granting discretionary business rates relief to private schools, including relevant internal guidance documents, criteria, and any published policy documents as at the most recent financial year.
Our Discretionary Rate Relief guidance is published on our website at www.guildford.gov.uk/discretionaryrelief.
A copy of our guidance is attached for clarity, and I would like to confirm that we will not normally grant discretionary rate relief to an organisation that has lost entitlement to mandatory relief.
2. How many private schools have applied to your Council for additional discretionary business rates relief following the Government’s withdrawal of the 80% mandatory business rates relief for private schools.
Since the removal of their entitlement to mandatory rate relief, we have received requests for discretionary rate relief from three educational organisations.
3. Of those applications, how many were granted discretionary relief in part or whole (i.e., awarded amounts above the no-longer-mandated 80% relief). Please provide numbers of awards and, where available, the value of relief awarded in total and, if possible, broken down per school.
We have not applied discretionary rate relief to any educational organisations that have requested it.
4. How much additional business rates has your Council collected since the abolition of the mandatory 80% business rates relief for private schools (i.e., additional net business rates income received in the relevant period).
The removal of mandatory rate relief incurred an additional total of £1,512,264.00 in 2025, this being the total value of mandatory rate relief in that year that would otherwise have applied to relevant educational organisations.
Documents
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