Non Domestic Rates and Reliefs For 2022/23 Confirmed

21st December 2021

The 2022-23 Non-Domestic Basic Property Rate (‘poundage') is provisionally set at 49.8 pence. Two additional rates are levied on properties with a rateable value over £51,000 (51.1 pence) and £95,000 (52.4 pence) respectively.

The Scottish Budget 2022‑23 also introduces the following policies:

50% Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief for the first three months of 2022-23, capped at £27,500 per ratepayer
Business Growth Accelerator relief will be expanded by making increases in rateable value due to the installation of solar panels a qualifying improvement eligible for relief from 1 April 2022
Enterprise Areas relief will be extended for one year to 31 March 2023
The Scottish Budget 2022‑23 maintains the following reliefs which are set annually:

Small Business Bonus Scheme relief, which lifts over 111,000 properties out of rates altogether as at 1 June 2021 and
Transitional Relief, which caps annual rates bill increases at 12.5% in real terms for Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire offices and for all but the very largest hospitality properties across Scotland
The following reliefs will also be maintained: day nursery relief, disabled rates relief, district heating relief, empty property relief, Fresh Start relief, hardship relief, hydro relief, mobile masts relief, new fibre relief, renewable energy relief, renewable heat networks relief, reverse vending machine relief, rural relief, sports club relief and stud farms relief. Charitable rates relief will also be maintained, however from 1 April 2022 mainstream independent schools will no longer be eligible for this relief, as recommended by the independent Barclay Review of Non-Domestic Rates in 2017.

The Barclay Review also recommended that: "To counter a known avoidance tactic for second homes, owners or occupiers of self-catering properties must prove an intention let for 140 days in the year and evidence of actual letting for 70 days." This policy will be implemented 1 April 2022, from which point self-catering premises will be required to meet these criteria. Councils will have discretion in the event of exceptional circumstances, which lead to the criteria not being met, to determine that a property can continue to be treated as a self-catering premises.

We will lay legislation to help local authorities tackle a known avoidance tactic on empty non-domestic properties. This policy will provide local authorities with the discretion, in prescribed circumstances, to restrict the awarding of 100% empty property rates relief where the occupier has entered insolvency, compulsorily (by the court) or voluntarily. This will deliver greater fiscal empowerment for councils in advance of the devolution of empty property relief in April 2023.

NDR reliefs, like other subsidy or support measures, may be subject to the conditions set out in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which in certain cases limits sectoral public subsidisation to 325,000 Special Drawing Rights (equivalent to approximately £335,000) over any period of three fiscal years.

Councils may also offer their own local reliefs under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.