Charity and registered community sports club relief

Charities and registered Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) are entitled to 80% mandatory relief where the property is occupied by the charity or club and is wholly or mainly used for charitable purposes as a registered Community Amateur Sports Club.

We have discretion to give further relief on the remaining bill.

Community Amateur Sports Clubs

Amateur sports clubs who do not want to apply for charitable status can apply for a package of tax reliefs. They're available from HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC). You can find more information about Community Amateur Sports clubs on GOV.UK.

To qualify for the mandatory 80% Business Rates Relief your club needs to be registered with HMRC. The property you occupy must also wholly or mainly be used for the purposes of your club.

To qualify for a further 20% discretionary relief, your club must meet all of the following criteria. You must:

  • have an affiliation to Stockport Active (formerly Sport Stockport)
  • have reasonable membership rates. They should not exclude the general community
  • have facilities that can be made available to people other than members. For example; schools, casual public sessions, subject to licensing requirements
  • open memberships to all members of the community, regardless of ability, subject to the physical capacity of the premises
  • make sure at least 51% of the membership is made up of Stockport residents
  • encourage membership from groups. For example; young people, older age groups, people with a disability or ethnic minorities. Encouragement can be demonstrated by either:
    • differential fee structures
    • a provision of schemes of training, education or membership which consists of at least 25% of people from such groups
  • make sure that where sports clubs run a commercially operated bar serving food and drink, this is incidental to the main purpose of the organisation to qualify for relief. Running a bar in itself is not a reason for declining relief, but a club which is primarily a commercial bar is unlikely to qualify. Bar receipts and income from venue hire will be taken into account

Relief is granted for 12 months at a time. An annual review will be carried out to make sure that you continue to meet the criteria for relief.

If you do not respond to this review we'll advise you that your relief will come to an end and issue you a revised Business Rates bill.

Charity Relief

Registered charities can apply for a mandatory relief of 80%.

To qualify for the relief your charity must occupy a property and use it wholly or mainly for charitable purposes.

The council does not normally offer discretionary rate relief to top up mandatory awards for charities. However, in exceptional circumstances, organisations recognised within the council's priorities will be considered for additional support under section 13 of our discretionary relief policy.

Requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

How to apply

To apply for CASC Business rates relief or mandatory rate relief as a charity, please download the relevant application form below:

You can email your completed form to business.rates@stockport.gov.uk, or post it to:

Business Rates Section
Stockport Council
Town Hall
Stockport
SK1 3XE

Last updated 13 June 2025