Home » Scottish Government publish annual non-domestic rates relief stats

Scottish Government publish annual non-domestic rates relief stats

The Scottish Government has published its annual statistics for non-domestic rates relief. The statistics showed that:

  • Three types of relief (Charity, Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS), and Empty Property) accounted for 92% of all reliefs awarded, and 79% of the total value of reliefs
  • Charity relief made up 31% of the total value of reliefs awarded
  • Charity relief had the second highest value in both years (£232.4m), behind SBBS relief (£266.5m) in 2019, and Empty Property relief (£82.5m).

Table 2 (below) shows a breakdown of the proportion and value of reliefs, awarded by relief type:

Relief type 1 June 2018 31 May 2019
Number of reliefs awarded Reliefs awarded by type as proportion of all reliefs awarded Proportion of all properties on the Valuation Roll that receive relief Relief value1 (£m) Number of reliefs awarded Reliefs awarded by type as proportion of all reliefs awarded Proportion of all properties on the  Valuation Roll that  receive relief Relief value1 (£m)
Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) relief  113,940 70.5% 45.2%  248.2  120,420 70.9% 47.3%  266.5
Charity relief  20,320 12.6% 8.1%  226.9  20,630 12.2% 8.1%  232.4
of which mandatory Charity relief  11,840 7.3% 4.7%  199.2  12,030 7.1% 4.7%  203.1
of which discretionary Charity relief2  8,470 5.2% 3.4%  27.7  8,600 5.1% 3.4%  29.3
Empty Property relief  15,380 9.5% 6.1%  80.5  15,340 9.0% 6.0%  82.5
Religious Exemptions  4,810 3.0% 1.9%  27.0  4,760 2.8% 1.9%  27.6
Rural relief  2,280 1.4% 0.9%  4.2  2,280 1.3% 0.9%  4.2
of which mandatory Rural relief  380 0.2% 0.1%  0.8  390 0.2% 0.2%  0.8
of which discretionary Rural relief2  1,900 1.2% 0.8%  3.4  1,880 1.1% 0.7%  3.4
Disabled Rates relief  2,040 1.3% 0.8%  62.8  2,000 1.2% 0.8%  65.7
Sports Club relief  1,560 1.0% 0.6%  12.6  1,760 1.0% 0.7%  15.5
of which mandatory Sports Club relief  230 0.1% 0.1%  2.5  200 0.1% 0.1%  2.2
of which discretionary Sports Club relief2  1,320 0.8% 0.5%  10.1  1,560 0.9% 0.6%  13.4
Transitional relief3 unknown unknown unknown  unknown  850 0.5% 0.3%  4.3
Day Nursery relief3 unknown unknown unknown  unknown  700 0.4% 0.3%  9.2
Business Growth Accelerator (BGA) relief4 unknown unknown unknown  unknown  300 0.2% 0.1%  20.6
of which BGA (New occupied and improved) unknown unknown unknown  unknown  270 0.2% 0.1%  18.2
of which BGA (Unoccupied New build relief) unknown unknown unknown  unknown  30 0.0% 0.0%  2.4
Renewable Energy relief  110 0% 0%  2.1  290 0.2% 0.1%  6.2
Fresh Start relief  40 0% 0%  0.4  210 0.1% 0.1%  2.4
Enterprise Areas relief  100 0% 0%  0.7  80 0.0% 0.0%  0.6
Community Empowerment Act relief 5 unknown unknown unknown unknown  60 0.0% 0.0%  0.1
Lighthouse relief5 unknown unknown unknown unknown  60 0.0% 0.0%  0.1
Please see table footnotes on next page.

 

Table 2 (ctd): Number, proportion and value of reliefs awarded, by relief type, as at 1 June 2018 and 31 May 2019
Relief type 1 June 2018 31 May 2019
Number of reliefs awarded Reliefs awarded by type as proportion of all reliefs awarded Proportion of all properties on the Valuation Roll that receive relief Relief value1 (£m) Number of reliefs awarded Reliefs awarded by type as proportion of all reliefs awarded Proportion of all properties on the Valuation Roll that receive relief Relief value1 (£m)
New Fibre relief6  20 0.0% 0.0%  0.2
District Heating relief  10 0% 0%  0.3  10 0.0% 0.0%  0.2
New Start relief  10 0% 0%  0.6  – 0.0% 0.0%  0.0
Mobile Masts relief5 unknown unknown unknown unknown  – 0.0% 0.0%  0.0
Hardship relief2  –  –  –  –  –  –  –  –
Stud Farms relief2  –  –  –  –  –  –  –  –
Unknown relief7  650 0% 0% 5.3  –  –  –  –
All reliefs  161,220 100% 59.7%  671.6  169,760 100% 62.3%  738.2

Figures may not sum due to rounding. The number of reliefs awarded and of recipients/properties are rounded to the nearest 10. Table is arranged by decreasing number of reliefs awarded as at 31 May 2019.

The total number of reliefs awarded is more than the number of relief recipients as some recipients (properties) can receive more than one relief.

Reliefs reported as being awarded to zero-rated properties have been excluded from Table 2 (see Annex B).

“Properties” refers to subjects listed as separate entries in the Valuation Roll – and includes shops, offices, warehouses, but also properties that do not necessarily contain buildings such as shooting rights, self-catering properties, etc.

  1. The relief values are the awards given on the snapshot date, and do not necessarily reflect the cost of a given award over the full year – for example some reliefs will be awarded later in the year and will be backdated, while some may have been cancelled before the snapshot date – therefore the relief values as at the snapshot are likely to be an underestimate of total annual relief values. Rateable values may also change during the course of the year, which would affect final annual relief values. Final audited figures for 2018-19 will be published in the Local Government Finance Statistics in February 2020 – these are not directly comparable to total values in Table 2 as Local Government Finance Statistics only include the cost to the Scottish Government of providing relief, but exclude the discretionary element paid by councils (see footnote 2).
  2. For all discretionary reliefs, the value includes both the Scottish Government’s contribution and the councils’ own contribution to the cost. Other published data on reliefs (e.g. in Local Government Finance Statistics and in Scottish Fiscal Commission’s published tables) exclude councils’ contribution and reports only the contribution made by the Scottish Government. For example, the Scottish Government contributes to 75% of discretionary charity relief.
  3. The majority of councils were not able to report transitional relief and nursery relief recipients at the 2018 snapshot date, mainly because of software limitations. As only 2 councils, reporting 2 transitional relief recipients each, these figures have been excluded.
  4. Although BGA relief was introduced on 1 April 2018, no BGA recipients were reported in the 2018 snapshot. This is due to a combination of very few applications by 1 June 2018 and councils’ software systems not being ready to process those applications that had been received by then.
  5. In the 2018 snapshot, Community Empowerment Act reliefs, lighthouse reliefs and mobile mast reliefs were not separately identified and were all included within the unknown relief row.
  6. New Fibre relief was introduced on 1 April 2019
  7. In the 2018 snapshot some councils did not provide the required information to assign a relief type to some of the awards they reported, or the Scottish Govenrment did not request these separately. “Unknown relief” includes Community Empowerment Act reliefs, lighthouse reliefs, mobile masts reliefs and any other relief award that was not provided with the correct relief code.