Hansard

If that person owns a home in another country, the charge will apply. People will have to weigh up all the different issues. Many individual circumstances could be applied in the debate but the ones that we have just discussed will apply in the scenario that Jackie Baillie proposes.

Jackie Baillie, Lesley Brennan and Gavin Brown all made reference to the grace period, which I want to address. I have weighed up the evidence and I am not satisfied that the bill does not provide sufficient flexibility to address the issue. However, I am happy to have further discussions about it in the run-up to stages 2 and 3 to enable me to consider further some of the issues that are involved. There is, of course, provision in the bill for ministers to introduce a relief from the supplement, so we can make such provision in due course. That would not ordinarily require to be undertaken as part of stage 2 or stage 3. As I have said, I want a period for us to monitor the issue—until 30 October. We will at that point have a better impression of what is involved.

Jackie Baillie mentioned a possible delay to the UK legislation. I have no information about that, but I certainly have no intention of delaying legislation in Scotland. We took the decision that was prompted by the decision of the UK Government because I could foresee market distortion as a consequence of its decision. We have established the approach and it supports our general policy approach of wishing to protect individuals’ opportunities to access the property market. It is important that that is reflected in the bill.

One of the other issues that came up in the debate was raised by the convener of the Finance Committee and by Mark McDonald, relating to arrangements that we will increasingly have to consider. Of course, we will have to consider them for ever more, now that it is clear that we will have the powers that were envisaged under the Smith commission and the associated tax powers that will come from that. We will have to consider, in our own budgeting and financial process, how we make timeous changes to our legislation to ensure that we have in place appropriate tax arrangements. I cannot pretend that it is ideal that we have made the changes in such a short time, but we have given them a lot of thought and I am committed to further consideration of the detail during stage 2 and stage 3 to ensure that we cover any circumstances and scenarios that may arise that would require us to make more changes to legislation.

I am confident that the Government has listened carefully to stakeholders’ feedback to ensure that we are properly prepared and equipped to address further issues. However, it would be helpful for the Government—and for the incoming Government after the election in May—to have the benefit of the reflections of the Finance Committee on processes and procedures for Parliament to ensure that we can scrutinise as effectively as possible.

Mark McDonald also talked about the wider question of reliefs that would be envisaged under the legislation. I have set out some of my thinking and am committed to reflecting further on that as the bill takes its course through Parliament.

Jackie Baillie also mentioned a number of points and scenarios in respect of the detail and complexity of the legislation. I accept that there is complexity, but I think that it is incumbent on the Government to ensure that we explore as many scenarios as we can, and I am satisfied that we have in place the processes to enable that.

Mention has been made of the Government’s revenue estimates. We had what were, essentially, headline estimates of between £45 million and £70 million of expected revenue from the supplement. I have settled on £23 million—a mid-range estimate that takes into account the effects of forestalling and of behaviour changes. I believe that it is a prudent assessment for the Government to have made and one that is relevant to the budget that we have set out.

I reaffirm to Parliament the willingness of the Government to engage in detailed scrutiny on those questions and to ensure that the issues that are raised with us by stakeholders are fully and adequately addressed as we take the bill through its remaining stages.