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The government has announced that small businesses will no longer have to make a special claim for Small Business Rate Relief, but will soon see it included automatically in their business rates calculation, where eligible.

This will be well received by businesses - many of which have either been unaware of the relief, or that it was (up to now) necessary to apply for it every financial year.

Eligible small businesses are those with properties which have rateable values below £6,000 for 'full relief' - usually a 50% discount, or between £6,000 and £18,000 for a tapered amount of relief. (The upper threshold is £25,500 in London).

Note that the Relief is doubled for the period 1 October 2010 to 30 September 2011, so some businesses will pay no rates at all during that period.

For further information see Eric Pickles - Help to Lift Small Business Tax Break Take Up