Potential savings after reliefs, before backdated payments
Your unit looks set above similar properties (about 23% above the median), but we had to widen the search beyond about 1 km to find enough comparables — treat this as indicative, not firm. A surveyor would want closer evidence before challenging. This is an estimate, not a formal valuation.
The one thing we can't see is your actual measured size. Rateable value is built from floor areas measured to a standard code — and overstated areas are the single most common error we find. Pace out your unit (or check the VOA's published measurements against reality). If the area they hold is bigger than your real floor space, that alone can cut your rateable value, whatever the rate says.
With a rateable value of £14,250, you likely qualify for Small Business Rate Relief — up to 100% off your bill if this is your only business property (under £12,000), tapering to nothing at £15,000. Relief isn't always applied automatically — check your bill and ask your council if it's missing. This is a discount on the bill, separate from whether your rateable value is right.
Your use looks like retail, hospitality or leisure, which pays a lower 2026/27 multiplier (5p in the pound less). Your council decides eligibility on how the property is used — if your bill is using the full multiplier, that's worth querying.
If something physical has changed around you — long-running roadworks, scaffolding, a nearby demolition or redevelopment, a shopping centre losing an anchor — that can be grounds for a temporary reduction called a Material Change of Circumstances, even if your rate is otherwise fair. It has to be a physical/locality change, not just a downturn in trade. If that's you, a surveyor can advise whether it's worth a case.
Check the property description the VOA holds (the 'SCat' — what they think your property is). If it's wrong — a café recorded as a shop, an office recorded as storage — it may have been valued on the wrong basis. Getting the description right can change the whole valuation.
We couldn't find enough matches within about 1 km, so we've widened the search to about 0.9 km. Treat this comparison as indicative, not firm — distant comparables carry less weight, and a surveyor would want closer evidence before challenging.
Comparable properties in your wider area, ranked by their value (£ per m²). A high £/m² value is what pushes your rateable value — and so your bill — up. Yours is highlighted in amber. This is a broad-brush screening check on the overall £/m² value — not a floor-by-floor valuation, since retail-style zoning (Zone A/B/C) doesn't apply to this property's use class.
We couldn't find enough comparable properties within about 1 km, so the search is widened to about 0.9 km— treat the comparison as indicative, since distant comparables carry less weight. Addresses are kept private by the Valuation OfficeThe government body that sets every property's Rateable Value. From April 2026 the VOA is part of HMRC (see below), but 'VOA' is still the common name for the valuation side of the work., so they appear by postcode and distance. Figures are estimated annual bills before any business-specific reliefs, so every property is compared on the same basis.
Your property is pinned on the left; the closest matches are shown here in full (the chart above ranks every comparable). Scroll sideways for more.
| Line item | Your propertyFY5 1AJ | Cafe And PremisesFY5 1BU · 230 m | Cafe And PremisesFY5 1BS · 210 m | Cafe And PremisesFY5 1LW · 860 m | Cafe And PremisesFY5 3LJ · 140 m | Shop And PremisesFY5 1DA · 310 m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business name | Not published | Cleveleys Cottagevia FSA — may be inaccurate | Not published | Not published | The Coffee Barnvia FSA — may be inaccurate | Not published |
| Address | 69A-71A, VICTORIA ROAD WEST, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 1AJ | 28, VICTORIA ROAD WEST, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 1BU | 9, VICTORIA ROAD WEST, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 1BS | THE NEW WAVE, PROMENADE NORTH, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 1LW | 3, CRESCENT EAST, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 3LJ | THE PLAZA CAFE AT 1-5, ROUGH LEA ROAD, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 1DA |
| Retail Zone A | — | £5,664 23.6 m² · £240 | £5,292 37.8 m² · £140 | — | £5,590 43 m² · £130 | — |
| Retail Zone B | — | £3,396 28.3 m² · £120 | £2,849 40.7 m² · £70 | — | £1,836 28.3 m² · £65 | — |
| Retail Zone C | — | £1,206 20.1 m² · £60 | £1,257 35.9 m² · £35 | — | — | — |
| Remaining Retail Zone | — | — | £256 14.6 m² · £18 | — | — | — |
| Restaurant | £10,584 88.2 m² · £120 | — | — | £10,477 91.1 m² · £115 | — | — |
| Public Toilets | £342 5.7 m² · £60 | — | £263 18.8 m² · £14 | — | — | — |
| Internal Storage | £2,054 54.8 m² · £38 | £106 4.4 m² · £24 | £263 18.8 m² · £14 | — | £464 35.7 m² · £13 | — |
| Mess/Staff Room | £336 8 m² · £42 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Staff Toilets | £0 0 m² · £0 | £0 0 m² · £0 | — | — | £0 0 m² · £0 | — |
| Kitchen | — | £266 11.1 m² · £24 | — | £1,546 19.2 m² · £81 | £127 9.8 m² · £13 | £1,124 29.2 m² · £38 |
| Garage | — | £315 27.6 m² · £11 | — | — | — | — |
| Canopy | — | £316 19.7 m² · £16 | — | — | — | — |
| Outdoor Display/Seating Area | — | £592 19.7 m² · £30 | — | £269 18.7 m² · £14 | — | £84 12.2 m² · £7 |
| Ground Floor Sales | — | — | — | — | — | £4,198 76.3 m² · £55 |
| Rateable value | £14,250 | £11,750 | £10,000 | £12,250 | £8,000 | £5,400 |
| Floor area | 156.7 m² | 154.5 m² | 166.6 m² | 129 m² | 116.7 m² | 117.8 m² |
| Zone A value (£/m²) | — | £240 /m² | £140 /m² | — | £130 /m² | — |
| Last known bill / yr | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Occupied | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Distance | — | 230 m | 210 m | 860 m | 140 m | 310 m |
| MatchHow closely a comparable property matches yours, based on property type, size and distance. A higher percentage means stronger evidence for a challenge — but even a 100% match is only ever supporting evidence, not a guarantee. | — | 99% | 94% | 82% | 75% | 75% |
| Reliefs | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Last known bill is the figure a council's own records show it charges (from Freedom of Information data) — shown only where we have it, like the Business name and Reliefs rows above. Where a council's response predates the April 2026 revaluation, this is its 2025/26 bill under the previous rating list. "Not published" means that council's FOI data doesn't cover this property, not that the bill is nil.
The lowest value in each row is highlighted green; your property is in amber. All figures are estimates until agreed with the Valuation Office.
Median comparable value ≈ £69/m². Your unit is assessed at £85/m² — about 23% higher.
Some of these properties may also qualify for Small Business Rate Relief, but that depends on each occupier's circumstances (mainly whether it's their only property), which isn't shown in public rating data. We compare bills before relief to keep the comparison fair.
Retail is valued zone by zone — the frontage (Zone AIn shops, the first 6.1 metres of depth from the shop front — the most valuable trading space, and the benchmark rate (£ per m²) used to value the whole unit.) carries the full value, halving back through B and C. We compare on the Zone A value (£/m²), not the blended average.
Part of your rateable value sits outside the floor space — the Valuation Office prices things like car parking, plant and land separately. Our comparison uses the floor-space value only, because that is the part measured in £ per m² and the only part that can be compared with other properties.
| Zone / use | Area | Value £/m² | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant | 88.2 m² | £120 | £10,584 |
| Public Toilets | 5.7 m² | £60 | £342 |
| Internal Storage | 30.8 m² | £42 | £1,294 |
| Mess/Staff Room | 8 m² | £42 | £336 |
| Internal Storage | 17.4 m² | £21 | £364 |
| Staff Toilets | — | £0 | £0 |
| Internal Storage | 6.6 m² | £60 | £396 |
| Floor space | 156.6 m² | blended £91 | £13,316 |
| Air Conditioning System | 149 m² | £7 | £1,043 |
| Rounding by the Valuation Office | — | — | −£109 |
| Rateable value | £14,250 |
What's not included above: reliefs not yet loaded for your council — charitable, empty-property, rural, hardship or transitional — could lower this further. They depend on your business and circumstances, not just the property, so check your council bill for your final figure.
Retail/Hospitality/Leisure rate: we've used the lower 2026/27 RHL multiplier (38.2p, 5p below the national rate) because this property's use class looks like a qualifying retail, hospitality or leisure use. Final eligibility is set by your council and depends on the property being wholly or mainly used for a qualifying purpose — if it doesn't qualify, the national multiplier applies and the bill (and any saving) would be a little higher.
We compared the floor area on this property's Energy Performance Certificate against the Valuation Office's measured area. They're measured slightly differently, so we only flag a gap when it's big enough to matter.
An EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) records the building's total useful floor area, generally measured to the outside face of the external walls and including internal circulation such as stairwells and corridors. The Valuation Office measures the usable space to the inside of the walls, and for shops it further "zones" the space — the frontage counts fully, then halves back into the store. Because of this, the EPC figure is usually a little larger, and differences up to around 20% are routine. We hide this check entirely when the gap is so large that the certificate is almost certainly for a different footprint — for example one EPC covering a whole building rather than your single unit.
How this property's rateable value has moved across the last three rating lists, and whether the entry has been altered mid-list following a proposal or appeal.
| Rating listThe public register listing every business property's Rateable Value. The current list is the '2026 list', based on rental values from 1 April 2024. | Rateable value | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 list (current) | £14,250 | In force |
| 2023 list | — | Previous |
| 2017 list | — | Previous |
Appeal / settlement: not yet checked for this property.
How your rateable value has moved across the last two revaluations. RV only changes when a new rating list takes effect — 2017, 2023 and 2026 — not year to year, so the bars step rather than drift.
No bar shown for 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26 — the rateable value for that rating list isn't held for this property yet, so we've left those years out rather than estimate them.
Every week we read the Valuation Office's own change files and record what moved. This is that record for this property — checked against VOA data published 5 Aug 2026.
Nothing has changed. The Valuation Office has not altered this entry since the 2026 rating list came into force, which is true of the large majority of properties — a rateable value normally only moves at a revaluation, or after someone asks for it to be looked at. We keep checking every week, and anything that does change will appear here.
This is an estimate, not a guaranteed saving. Business Rate Checker compares your property against similar ones in the official rating list to flag where your rateable value looks high. The figures shown — including any suggested rateable value, annual saving or backdated refund — are indicative and depend on the evidence the Valuation Office Agency (VOA, now part of HMRC) accepts. The actual outcome could be higher, lower, or nil, and in rare cases a review can leave a value unchanged or increased. Nothing here is a valuation, financial or legal advice; it's information to help you decide whether to look into your bill further.
You've got the full picture on your rateable value — the next step is making your claim. See how to challenge it yourself for free, or with a chartered surveyor.
Evidence: HMRC/VOA 2026 rating list. Comparables matched on use class and locality. Figures are estimates until agreed by the VOA — outcomes aren't guaranteed and can go down as well as up. A formal Check/Challenge is a separate step we don't perform here. Business Rate Checker is independent and is not endorsed by the VOA/HMRC.
Every zone, area & £/m² value for the closest comparables, side by side. Your property is pinned on the left.
| Line item | Your propertyFY5 1AJ | Cafe And PremisesFY5 1BU · 230 m | Cafe And PremisesFY5 1BS · 210 m | Cafe And PremisesFY5 1LW · 860 m | Cafe And PremisesFY5 3LJ · 140 m | Shop And PremisesFY5 1DA · 310 m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business name | Not published | Cleveleys Cottagevia FSA — may be inaccurate | Not published | Not published | The Coffee Barnvia FSA — may be inaccurate | Not published |
| Address | 69A-71A, VICTORIA ROAD WEST, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 1AJ | 28, VICTORIA ROAD WEST, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 1BU | 9, VICTORIA ROAD WEST, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 1BS | THE NEW WAVE, PROMENADE NORTH, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 1LW | 3, CRESCENT EAST, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 3LJ | THE PLAZA CAFE AT 1-5, ROUGH LEA ROAD, THORNTON CLEVELEYS FY5 1DA |
| Retail Zone A | — | £5,664 23.6 m² · £240 | £5,292 37.8 m² · £140 | — | £5,590 43 m² · £130 | — |
| Retail Zone B | — | £3,396 28.3 m² · £120 | £2,849 40.7 m² · £70 | — | £1,836 28.3 m² · £65 | — |
| Retail Zone C | — | £1,206 20.1 m² · £60 | £1,257 35.9 m² · £35 | — | — | — |
| Remaining Retail Zone | — | — | £256 14.6 m² · £18 | — | — | — |
| Restaurant | £10,584 88.2 m² · £120 | — | — | £10,477 91.1 m² · £115 | — | — |
| Public Toilets | £342 5.7 m² · £60 | — | £263 18.8 m² · £14 | — | — | — |
| Internal Storage | £2,054 54.8 m² · £38 | £106 4.4 m² · £24 | £263 18.8 m² · £14 | — | £464 35.7 m² · £13 | — |
| Mess/Staff Room | £336 8 m² · £42 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Staff Toilets | £0 0 m² · £0 | £0 0 m² · £0 | — | — | £0 0 m² · £0 | — |
| Kitchen | — | £266 11.1 m² · £24 | — | £1,546 19.2 m² · £81 | £127 9.8 m² · £13 | £1,124 29.2 m² · £38 |
| Garage | — | £315 27.6 m² · £11 | — | — | — | — |
| Canopy | — | £316 19.7 m² · £16 | — | — | — | — |
| Outdoor Display/Seating Area | — | £592 19.7 m² · £30 | — | £269 18.7 m² · £14 | — | £84 12.2 m² · £7 |
| Ground Floor Sales | — | — | — | — | — | £4,198 76.3 m² · £55 |
| Rateable value | £14,250 | £11,750 | £10,000 | £12,250 | £8,000 | £5,400 |
| Floor area | 156.7 m² | 154.5 m² | 166.6 m² | 129 m² | 116.7 m² | 117.8 m² |
| Zone A value (£/m²) | — | £240 /m² | £140 /m² | — | £130 /m² | — |
| Last known bill / yr | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Occupied | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Distance | — | 230 m | 210 m | 860 m | 140 m | 310 m |
| MatchHow closely a comparable property matches yours, based on property type, size and distance. A higher percentage means stronger evidence for a challenge — but even a 100% match is only ever supporting evidence, not a guarantee. | — | 99% | 94% | 82% | 75% | 75% |
| Reliefs | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Last known bill is the figure a council's own records show it charges (Freedom of Information data), shown only where published — responses that predate the April 2026 revaluation are 2025/26 bills. The lowest value in each row is highlighted green; your property is in amber. All figures are estimates until agreed with the Valuation Office.