Published data - business rates

Freedom of information requests have shown that there is a demand for a variety of data from Guildford Borough Council's business rate records.

What information is available

This page provides access to the following information as at 1 April 2020 for all properties that are currently rated:

Property reference. Used by the Valuation Office Agency of HMRC.
Property address
Property description
31/03/2010 Rateable Value (where it exists this is the last rateable value on the 2005 Rating List)
2010 Rateable Value as at 31 March 2017
Current Rateable Value as at 31 March 2019
Annual charge after any transitional adjustments and the addition of the small business supplement
Amount of supplement included in the annual charge
Whether a property is empty or occupied, where the ratepayer is not an individual or individuals (Y/N or N/A where an individual)
If empty the date the property fell vacant
If empty whether an exemption applies (either under the rateable value threshold, 3 months, 6 months, listed, or other)
Whether small business rate relief applies (Y/N)
Whether mandatory or discretionary relief applies (Y/N)
The percentage of mandatory or discretionary relief, where appropriate
Whether Rural Rate Relief applies (Y/N)
Ratepayer's name, where they are not an individual or individuals
Ratepayer's correspondence address where they are not an individual or individuals.

Find out more about business rates.

For information on credits, please see overpaid (credit) accounts - business rates.

Viewing the data

The data has been provided in two different ways:

In a comma separated file (.csv) format. It should be possible to download and open the file with a variety of different software products,including a basic word processing package or a more sophisticated spreadsheet where sort and filter options can be used to find records and create subsets of data. Please note the property reference is a 9 digit number, but the leading zero gets lost in this format resulting in an 8 digit number.
In a portable document (.pdf) format. It should be possible to download and view this data on a computer where the document can be enlarged. However, the volume of data makes it unsuitable for printing.

Limitations

Ratepayer names and correspondence addresses are provided where the account is not in an individual's name. Data Protection prevents the publication of individual names.

The ratepayer is the person liable to pay the charge. In many cases this is a leaseholder and not an owner. It is not possible to identify the owners from our records.

Account references are not included as these are personal to the account, and are used to ensure that a ratepayer is actually the account holder when they contact the Council.

Freedom of Information requests have been received for mandatory and discretionary rate relief start dates. The start date is not a separate item of information on our records, and so is unavailable. However where an organisation has charitable status, relief will normally start from the later of either the date that they gained that status, or the date that they became liable for business rates.

If you are buying or leasing a property

If you are looking to move into a property in the borough this information will provide a guide to costs, but please check the details before making a decision. Rate reliefs require specific criteria to be met before they apply, and rateable values are subject to amendment as a result of appeals and changes to premises. The information provided on this page is a snapshot only.