Meeting of the Parliament 05 February 2026 [Draft]
That is not what the Government is doing. The Government is decreasing the basic, intermediate and higher property rates to deliver a broadly revenue-neutral revaluation over the revaluation cycle. That will mean the lowest basic property rate for properties with a rateable value up to and including £51,000. What I said earlier about the small business bonus scheme applies in many cases, and that is part of an overall package worth an estimated £864 million.
To reassure Mr Findlay about those issues, I can say that the Scottish Government has made a commitment: once we are clear on the consequential funding—if any comes to us from the changes to pub and hospitality relief that the United Kingdom Labour Government has announced in the past couple of weeks—we will allocate those funds in full to safeguard the future of the hospitality sector. We will do that once we are clear about the amount of money that is involved and the financial implications.