A STUDY has shown that local authorities including Trafford Council, are not doing enough to inform many firms about claiming Small Business Rate Relief(SBRR),.

The study, which was carried out by. the Federation of Small Businesses, polled members on the subject and discovered 49 per cent did not know it was their local authority with the power to grant the relief, which can run in to thousands of pounds. While 29 per cent of respondents said they were aware of this, only 22 per cent were actually in receipt of SBRR.

Under the current relief arrangements, eligible ratepayers pay no rates on properties with rateable values up to £6,000, with a tapered relief up to 100 per cent for properties with rateable values between £6,001 and £12,000. The relief is, however, not applied automatically and has to be applied for individually.

The FSB submitted Freedom of Information requests with local authorities in Greater Manchester and North Cheshire to get a better understanding of how councils were managing SBRR.

According to the FSB, only Bury Council was able to answer all the questions submitted as part of the request. Other councils either did not record the data, or said it was exempt from FOI on cost grounds.

These authorities included Trafford Council, which said it would cost too much money to supply an answer to the FSB on the number of business applying for the relief between Jan and September 2014..

Richard Gregg, the FSB’s regional chairman for Manchester & North Cheshire, said: “If almost half the of the businesses we polled are unaware councils can grant SBRR, then the authorities need to up their game when it comes to promoting it, especially as businesses have to apply for it.

“If all eligible firms in the region were applying and getting the relief they are entitled to, that would be a huge saving for many small business owners to invest back in other areas.”

The federation also sought to discover how local authorities were promoting the relief scheme to businesses in their area. All said they were doing this, with the most common promotional **methods cited as either posting details on council websites and/or issuing guidance leaflets with annual bills.

Mr Gregg added: “While all the local authorities we asked claimed to be ‘promoting’ rate relief, it seems mostly to be low key, low impact methods being used. Our own research tends to suggest the SBRR message is not getting through loud and clear to small businesses.

"The FSB would urge councils to take a more active approach on this.”