Meeting of the Parliament 04 February 2026
I will start with a quote:
“We welcome the move from five-year to three-year revaluations, which is supported by the business community.”
That is a quote by Murdo Fraser from the stage 1 debate on the Non-Domestic Rates (Scotland) Bill. He also said that
“There is much in the bill that we welcome”.—[Official Report, 10 October 2019; c 114.]
At that point, the bill was also widely welcomed by the business community.
As members of this Parliament will be aware, the revaluation process is administered by Scottish assessors, which are independent of the Scottish Government and local government. It is right that that is the case and that we maintain the process as it operates.
The Scottish budget 2026-27 will respond to the expected outcome of the revaluation by decreasing the basic, intermediate and higher property rates for 2026-27, which will ensure the lowest level of basic property rates since 2018-19. We are also introducing a package of reliefs to business in 2026-27, which are worth an estimated £864 million, to reduce the very bills that Murdo Fraser talked about.
As a result of the decisions that we have taken in the budget, the revenues that will be raised—