Business rates – how we calculate your bill
If you have signed up for online billing, you will not receive a new business rates bill for 2025/26 in the post. This bill will only be available for download and printing through your MyLewisham account from week commencing Monday, 3 March 2025.
We work out your business rates bill by multiplying the rateable value of the property by:
- the standard non-domestic rating multiplier – 0.555 (2025/26)
- and the small business non-domestic rating multiplier – 0.499 (2025/26)
National non-domestic rating multiplier
The current multipliers are shown on the front of your bill.
The Government sets these multipliers for each financial year for the whole of England and normally changes both multipliers every year in line with inflation.
By law, these multipliers cannot go up by more than the rate of inflation (apart from some minor adjustments to counteract losses from appeals and, in relation to the standard multiplier, to pay for small business rate relief).
Get in touch
Business rates
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 9am to 12 noon.
Closed on Wednesdays.
Crossrail Business Rates Supplement (BRS)
The Greater London Authority (GLA) charges a business rates supplement (BRS) to fund the Crossrail project, now known as the Elizabeth Line.
Your rates bill will state if you must pay the Crossrail Business Rates Supplement (BRS). The BRS is applied to business premises with a rateable value exceeding £75,000 on the local rating list.
For the 2025/2026 year, the Crossrail BRS multiplier stays at 2p per pound of rateable value. Any relief you get for Crossrail BRS will be the same as what you get for your business rates bill. There is no transitional relief for the BRS.
Pdf, 83.2KB
Contact
Greater London Authority
Rateable value
Apart from properties that are exempt from business rates, each non-domestic property has a rateable value which is set by the valuation officers of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), an Agency of Her Majesty's Revenues and Customs. It draws up and maintains a full list of all rateable values, which are available on their website.
The rateable value of your property will be shown on the front of your bill. This broadly represents the yearly rent the property could have been let for on the open market on a particular date. For the revaluation which came into effect on 1 April 2023, this date was set as 1 April 2021. The valuation officer may alter the value if the circumstances of the property have changed.
Appeals
The ratepayer (and certain others who have an interest in the property) can also appeal against the value shown in the list if they believe it is wrong. If you are concerned that your business rates may be incorrect, you can check and update your information using the VOA's Check and Challenge your business rates service.
Successful appeals against values shown in the rating list that came into force on 1 April 2023 will normally be backdated to that date, although there are exceptions to this.
You must continue to pay your business rates based on the existing rateable value of your property whilst the VOA are considering your appeal. If your appeal is successful, we will send you a refund for any overpayment that you have made.