Meeting of the Parliament 25 November 2025
I am not in possession of the exact detail. What I can say is that a local authority raised the query with the Scottish Government. That is the detail that I can offer the member at the moment. I hope that that is of some help to him.
The process that we are following will ensure that there is a clear and certain legal basis for local authorities to collect non-domestic rates from the owners of unoccupied properties. It will bring the statute book into line with the position as understood by local authorities and ratepayers, as applied by local authorities and as voted on by the Parliament in 2019. Without this bill, local authorities might decide that the rates that have been paid by owners of unoccupied properties since 1 April 2023 need to be refunded and that rates can no longer be collected on unoccupied properties in future.
The bill seeks to protect revenue that is already collected in line with the Scottish Parliament vote and in subsequent budget bills. If the bill is not passed, those who paid rates on unoccupied properties will likely receive an unexpected and unjustified refund of rates paid since 1 April 2023. That could require cuts to public spending and a significant future rates increase to make up for that loss. The sums at stake would fall to the Scottish Government and would be estimated at more than £100 million a year if local authorities decided that they had to repay the rates collected on those properties and cease future collection.
There will be no change to rates bills as a result of this legislation, and if the bill passes, it will not introduce any additional new costs to businesses or individuals compared with the Scottish Parliament’s original intended policy.
I therefore seek the chamber’s support today for the bill to be taken as an emergency piece of primary legislation that is subject to that support. Stage 1 would take place tomorrow afternoon, and stages 2 and 3 would take place on Thursday afternoon.
I move,
That the Parliament agrees that the Non-Domestic Rates (Liability for Unoccupied Properties) (Scotland) Bill be treated as an Emergency Bill.
16:36