Registered small businesses currently pay £0 business rates.

Charities granted discretionary exemption status by Stroud District Council, pay £0 business rates.

The Stroud District Council department that decides which charities are able to claim full exemptions is also the department that hears the appeals from charities, so there is no independent appeal or review process for decisions.

Wild Hogs Hedgehog Rescue is a small charity, running from a rented single room with a toilet. We do not have any paid employees and rely on 40 volunteers to help sick, injured and orphaned hedgehogs. Hedgehogs are vulnerable to extinction in the UK. Stroud District Council declared a climate emergency but is unwilling to support charities like ours that are at the front line of tackling the effects of the climate emergency and the effects it has on our native wildlife.

Stroud District Council has charged us over £800 in business rates this year, and these may increase next year. These rates are not charged to small businesses using a building of our size or to charities on the discretionary list. 

As a small charity, we rely on donations and small grants to help us pay our rent, electricity bills, and pay for vet bills and food for the hedgehogs. Our volunteers hold fundraising events to try to support us. £800 is a huge amount for us to find for business rates.

Stroud District Council claims we are not of benefit to the council taxpayer. We admit over 400 hedgehogs every year, many of them brought to us by residents of Stroud District Council. We do not charge residents for hedgehog admissions. We also carry out conservation awareness talks at local libraries, schools, brownies and scouts groups, and care homes. We have provided free of charge ecological advice to Stroud District Council and Gloucester City Council to help them carry out maintenance to green spaces and residential homes. We also provide work experience opportunities for local students from colleges, Young Gloucestershire and the Princes' Trust. 

We are asking Stroud District Council to exempt us from business rates and tackle the inequality in the system for small charities like ours.