The existing mandatory relief scheme for charities applies equally to any organisation that is a charity. Therefore, sports organisations that are charities and use their premises wholly or mainly for charitable purposes are entitled to 80% mandatory relief.
Click on the link to see the current guidance
Sports Clubs - Mandatory relief for CASCs
The issue of discretionary rate relief is matter for individual local authorities.
In considering whether a non-profit making sports club which does not have charity status should receive discretionary relief, we consider the following issues.
The following are determined to be recognised sports
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Aikido American Football Angling Archery Arm Wrestling Association Football Athletics Australian Rules Football Badminton Ballooning Baseball Basketball Baton Twirling Biathlon Bicycle Polo Billiards and Snooker Bobsleigh Boccia Bowls Boxing Camogie Canoeing Caving Chinese Martial Arts Cricket |
Croquet Crossbow Curling Cycling Disability Sport Dragon Boat Racing Equestrian Fencing Fives Flying Gaelic Football Gliding Golf Gymnastics Handball Hang/Para Gliding Highland Games Hockey Horse Racing Hovering Hurling Ice Hockey Ice Skating Jet Skiing Ju Jitsu Judo |
Kabaddi Karate Kendo Korfball Lacrosse Lawn Tennis Life Saving Luge Modern Pentathlon Motor Cycling Motor Sports Mountaineering Movement, Dance, Exercise & Fitness Netball Orienteering Parachuting Petanque Polo Pony Trekking Pool Quoits Racketball Rackets Raquetball Rambling |
Real Tennis Roller Hockey Roller Skating Rounders Rowing Rugby League Rugby Union Sailing Sand/Land Yachting Shinty Shooting Skateboarding Skiing Skipping Snowboarding Softball Sombo Wrestling Squash Skater/Street Hockey Sub-Aqua Surf Life Saving Surfing Swimming & Diving Table Tennis Taekwondo |
Tang Soo Do Tenpin Bowling Trampolining Triathlon Tug of War Unihoc Volleyball Water Skiing Weightlifting Wrestling Yoga |
Membership should be open to all sections of the community.
There may be legitimate restrictions placed on membership which relate for example to ability in sport or to the achievement of a standard in the field covered by the organisation or where the capacity of the facility is limited, but in general membership should not be exclusive or restrictive.
Membership rates should not be set at such a high level as to exclude the general community. However, membership fees may be payable at different rates that distinguish the different classes of membership such as juniors, adults, students, pensioners, players, non-players, employed and unemployed.
In general, the club or organisation must be prepared to show that the criteria by which it considers applications for membership are consistent with the principle of open access.
Does the organisation actively encourage membership from particular groups in the community e.g. young people, women, older age groups, persons with disability, ethnic minorities' etc?
An organisation which encouraged such membership might expect more sympathetic consideration than one which made no effort to attract members from groups which the authority considered to be particularly deserving of support.
Are the facilities made available to people other than members e.g. schools, casual public sessions etc?
The wider use of facilities should be encouraged and rate relief might be one form of recognition that an organisation was promoting its facilities more widely.
Does the organisation provide training or education for its members? Are there schemes for particular groups to develop their skills e.g. young people, the disabled, retired people?
An organisation providing such facilities might deserve more support than one that did not.
Have the facilities available been provided by self-help or grant aid?
The fact that a club uses or has used self-help for construction or maintenance or had facilities funded by grant aid might be an indicator that they were more deserving of relief.
Does the organisation run a bar?
The mere existence of a bar should not in itself be a reason for not granting relief. The authority should look at the main purpose of the organisation.
In sports clubs for example the balance between playing and non-playing members might provide a useful guide as to whether the main purpose of the club is sporting or social activities.
A social club whose main aim is to bring together people with similar interests should not be excluded from relief just because of the existence of a licensed bar.
Some authorities already include in their decision making criteria how much in percentage terms they would deduct from the overall relief granted to clubs with bar facilities based on how much additional revenue the facility raises.
Does the organisation provide facilities that indirectly relieve the authority of the need to do so, or enhance and supplement those that it does provide?
Authorities should not refuse relief on the grounds that an organisation is in competition with the authority itself, but should look at the broader context of the needs of the community as a whole.
A new need,not being provided by the authority itself but identified as a priority for action, might be particularly deserving of support.
Is the organisation affiliated to local or national organisations' e.g. local sports or arts councils, national representative bodies? i.e. are they actively involved in local/national development of their interests?
Is the membership drawn from people mainly resident in the billing authority's area?
Although authorities will have in mind that 25% of the cost of any relief given will be borne by the council taxpayers in their area, particular difficulties may arise with hereditaments which straddle or are close to local authority boundaries.
In these cases, a proportion of the membership may come from another local authority area. Also, for geographical reasons, or because of the nature of the terrain, particular facilities may be the only ones available for a wide area.
In such cases the joint use of facilities by one or more similar organisations is not uncommon.
In most cases there will be a measure of reciprocity between the membership of organisations from different areas.
Are members paid to participate?
Authorities should consider whether to grant relief where payments or other significant benefits are provided to players. Exceptions could include for example, the reimbursement of reasonable travel expenses for players or officials and reasonable provision and maintenance of club owned equipment necessary for playing the sport.
Authorities may wish to consider the extent to which the activities of the organisation contribute to a local or regional community strategy and/or authority objectives for building neighbourhood identity, community building or social inclusion.
Authorities may wish to add further criteria or substitute relevant alternative criteria that are appropriate to the furthering of their policies and the needs of the community such as development programmes.
They should also bear in mind the need to encourage new activities in the wide range of organisations for which relief from rates is available.
Authorities may wish to consider using a points system for the granting of relief which might give greater weight to any particular aspect of the role of community clubs authorities wish to promote.
The amount of relief given need not be 100% in all cases, but might be lower if some but not all criteria are met.
Indeed, some local authorities already operate a points system in considering applications.
To assist sports clubs with their long term planning, authorities may wish to indicate in their decisions the possibility of granting rate relief in future years.
