Committee
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 24 March 2026 [Draft]
24 Mar 2026 · S6 · Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Item of business
Subordinate Legislation
Non-Domestic Rates (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2026 (SSI 2026/135)
The previous panel was very complimentary about this year’s package of reliefs for the sector, but raised issues around the complexity of the system and understanding how its various different parts are implemented and understood. The Scottish Government’s tax framework says:“People and businesses should be able to understand the tax system.”We have a worked example of how the various reliefs operate in practice, so I will run through that. A self-catering property with a new rateable value of £15,000—pushing it over the small business bonus threshold—gets a revaluation transitional relief of 15 per cent. It then qualifies for another 25 per cent relief through the small business bonus scheme and another 15 per cent through the retail, hospitality and leisure relief scheme. It also qualifies for a further reduction from the small business transitional relief. That seems at odds with the Government’s ambition that people and businesses should understand the tax system. Has the Government given any thought to how it could simplify all those very welcome reliefs, as the sector has set out, and make it clearer and easier for businesses to access them?
In the same item of business
10:15
The Convener
Green
The next item is consideration of the Non-Domestic Rates (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2026. I remind those watching that this is a negati...
Leon Thompson (UKHospitality)
Thank you for the invitation to come here today. Business rates are an on-going concern for the hospitality sector. Every time there is a revaluation, it see...
The Convener
Green
My question was whether you have a sense of the number of businesses that will benefit from the regulations.
Leon Thompson
I do not. With the instrument being laid, more businesses will come into scope, but the key thing is that a lot of businesses will not receive any support at...
The Convener
Green
We can ask the minister about that later. Fiona, do you have a sense of the number of your businesses that will benefit?
Fiona Campbell (Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers)
First of all, I want to express our huge appreciation for the rates relief that has been delivered for the self-catering sector by the Scottish Government an...
The Convener
Green
That is great. Thanks. Do you want to comment, Garry?
Garry Clark (Federation of Small Businesses Scotland)
I echo the general welcome for this particular set of amendments, which provide a bit of additional support that was not there following the revaluation and ...
Fiona Campbell
I just want to come back in and say that, although the reliefs are incredibly welcome, many businesses are now just below the threshold for the small busines...
The Convener
Green
It is probably good to put the Government—whoever will govern in the next session—on notice that the matter will need to be looked at before 2029.Meghan Gall...
Meghan Gallacher (Central Scotland) (Con)
Con
Good morning. I will start with the revaluation and its disproportionate impact on hospitality, premises and self-catering properties. Fiona, do you think th...
Fiona Campbell
I think that there is a general assumption that tourism and hospitality just happen, but, unless we support the sector, we are not going to see it just happe...
Meghan Gallacher
Con
Let us move to the process and the methods of revaluation itself. What needs to change about the process and the methodology of conducting valuations? What w...
Fiona Campbell
I will leave my colleagues to talk about other sectors, but there has been a complete change in methodology for the 2026 revaluation of the self-catering sec...
Meghan Gallacher
Con
That is helpful. Thank you.
Garry Clark
I would agree with that as far as the self-catering sector is concerned. There is a much wider issue as well, because you see winners and losers in any reval...
Meghan Gallacher
Con
Do you think that political parties or the Parliament as a whole have heard that message?
Garry Clark
We have been discussing the matter with all the political parties, going into the election. As Fiona Campbell and Leon Thompson have said, we have a very cum...
Meghan Gallacher
Con
No, it is not right.10:30
Leon Thompson
The issue comes from having the assessors on one side and the Scottish Government on the other. Who is responsible for arriving at a fair outcome?UKHospitali...
Meghan Gallacher
Con
That is helpful. It is good to have that on the record, so that the next Parliament can pick up on your comments and, I hope, do something positive.
Evelyn Tweed (Stirling) (SNP)
SNP
It is good to see the panel members here again.Garry, you discussed the 100 per cent small business bonus scheme and said that some businesses are falling ou...
Garry Clark
The Scottish Government has said that about 100,000 businesses will receive some kind of support under the small business bonus scheme. In the current small ...
Evelyn Tweed
SNP
You gave the example of the business that had fallen just outwith eligibility for the small business bonus scheme. Is that normal? Are businesses falling jus...
Garry Clark
There are three different pillars to the way that non-domestic rates work. The assessors set the rateable value; the Government sets the poundage rate; and t...
Evelyn Tweed
SNP
It must be pretty scary for a business to have had that relief but then just miss it and, as Leon Thompson said, go through a myriad of different relief form...
Garry Clark
That is a difficult question. I gave the example of the retailer in Bathgate. It has gone from having complete support—peace of mind, being able to plan and ...
Evelyn Tweed
SNP
Until things are looked at again, it certainly sounds as though good guidance and education for businesses about what they can get, and in what way, will be ...
Garry Clark
Absolutely. All we business representative organisations and trade bodies will try to make sure that our members know as much as possible. However, unfortuna...