Non-Domestic Rates Relief Statistics 2020

Coronavirus reliefs

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government introduced two new reliefs in 2020-21: the 1.6% universal relief, and RHL relief.

Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) relief

RHL relief awards a 100%^[11] relief to eligible RHL properties, the use of which is listed in legislation, as well as specified airports and aviation-related subjects listed in legislation.^[12] The value of this relief as at 1 July was £904m, awarded to 28,400 properties. However, as has been noted already, in some instances this relief would have displaced other relief, and the net benefit to ratepayers will be slightly lower than this total.

Table 8 shows the number of properties receiving RHL relief, and its value, by local authority. The proportion of properties on the Valuation Roll receiving RHL relief ranged between 4% in the Shetland Islands and Na h-Eileanan Siar, to 15% in Midlothian. Overall, RHL relief accounted for 54% of the value of all reliefs, and for over 60% of the value of all reliefs in Aberdeen City, Renfrewshire, and the City of Edinburgh.

Figures may not sum due to rounding. Numbers of reliefs awarded and number of recipients/properties rounded to the nearest 10.
"Properties" refers to subjects listed as separate entries in the Valuation Roll, and includes shops, offices, warehouses, but also self-catering properties, properties that do not necessarily contain buildings, etc. Reliefs reported as being awarded to zero-rated properties have been excluded from the table.
1. '100% relief' is effectively a 98.4% relief, combined with the 1.6% universal relief awarded to every property.
2. The relief values are the awards given as at the snapshot date, and do not necessarily reflect the cost of a given award over the full year, for example some reliefs may be awarded later in the year and backdated, while some may have been cancelled before the snapshot date, or may be cancelled before the end of the year.

Most recipients of RHL relief are properties which would likely not be eligible for any other relief. However, as already noted, some properties may have otherwise been eligible for another relief, for example SBBS relief or Transitional relief. For these properties, the additional value of RHL relief (i.e. the amount that they would have to pay in absence of RHL relief) would be lower than the value of RHL awarded, or even nil. For instance, in some cases 100% RHL relief could have been awarded instead of 100% SBBS relief where a property was eligible for both reliefs. To estimate this difference, Table 9 shows a breakdown of RHL recipients by relief status as at 31 May 2019 and the value of all reliefs awarded to these properties in May 2019 and July 2020.

Care should be taken in interpreting the figures in Table 9 due to the various ways in which local authorities have applied RHL relief. There are several scenarios:

• RHL relief is a new relief to a property which did not receive any relief previously
• RHL relief tops up previous reliefs of less than 100%
• RHL relief is awarded instead of all the relief a property was previously receiving
• RHL relief is awarded instead of some relief a property was previously receiving (e.g. awarding RHL relief instead of discretionary Charity relief but leaving the 80% mandatory Charity relief in place)

It is also possible that changes occurred between the 2019 and 2020 snapshot dates to properties and occupiers which have resulted in some properties previously ineligible for relief becoming eligible for a relief other than RHL relief. Conversely, some properties previously receiving 100% relief may have become ineligible and would not be receiving 100% relief in 2020-21 had RHL relief not been introduced.

A large majority (21,190, or 75%) of properties receiving RHL relief were on the Valuation Roll as at 31 May 2019, but were not receiving any relief. Around 4,550 properties were receiving less than 100% relief, while 1,820 were receiving 100% due to a different relief or combination of reliefs in 2019. 840 properties currently receiving RHL relief were not on the Valuation Roll as at 31 May 2019.^[13]

Table 9 shows that those properties receiving RHL relief as at 1 July 2020 were receiving reliefs totalling £949m in value. Of this, £904m was RHL relief, while the remaining £45m was made up of other reliefs including the 1.6% universal relief. This is an additional £887m over and above the £50m in reliefs awarded to these properties on the Valuation Roll as at 31 May 2019, and an additional £12m awarded to the 'new entry' properties.

Figures may not sum due to rounding. Numbers of reliefs awarded and number of recipients/properties rounded to the nearest 10. "Properties" refers to subjects listed as separate entries in the Valuation Roll, and includes shops, offices, warehouses, but also self-catering properties, properties that do not necessarily contain buildings, etc. Reliefs reported as being awarded to zero-rated properties have been excluded from the table. The relief values are the awards given as at the snapshot date, and do not necessarily reflect the cost of a given award over the full year, for example some reliefs may be awarded later in the year and backdated, while some may have been cancelled before the snapshot date, or may be cancelled before the end of the year. Care should be taken in interpreting the figures in this table due to the various ways in which local authorities have applied RHL relief. There are several scenarios:

• RHL relief is a new relief to a property which did not receive any relief previously
• RHL relief tops up previous reliefs of less than 100%
• RHL relief is awarded instead of all the relief a property was previously receiving
• RHL relief is awarded instead of some relief a property was previously receiving (e.g. awarding RHL relief instead of discretionary Charity relief but leaving the 80% mandatory Charity relief in place)

Note that this table provides a comparison of the relief status at two points in time, which are over a year apart. It is not possible from the information here to deduce the gain in relief that RHL relief has contributed to, as relief status of the properties was not known immediately prior to the introduction of RHL relief. In particular some of the properties which were not on the Valuation Roll at 31 May 2019 will have come on to the roll in advance of 1 April 2020 and some will have been receiving other reliefs prior to that time.

1.6% Universal relief

The 1.6% universal relief was automatically made available to all properties in Scotland.

This relief was typically awarded so that the gross bill was reduced before any other relief was applied. For example, a property getting 100% SBBS would first be awarded a 1.6% relief, and then effectively receive 100% SBBS on the 98.4% balance to deliver 100% relief in total. A property receiving 25% SBBS would first be awarded 1.6% relief, and then receive 25% SBBS on the reduced bill – so in effect would receive 24.6% SBBS and 26.2% relief in total.

The total value of the 1.6% universal relief as at 1 July was £61m, awarded to all 250,940 properties in Scotland. 174,730 of these were properties receiving a total of 100% relief, 11,870 received a relief other than the 1.6% universal relief but less than 100% total relief, while the remaining 64,350 received only this relief. A total of 76,220 properties therefore saw a net benefit of £34.4m from the 1.6% universal relief, of which properties receiving no other reliefs benefitted by £32.7m, and those receiving another relief but less than 100% in total benefitted by £1.7m (see footnotes 2 and 3 to Table 10).

Figures may not sum due to rounding. Numbers of reliefs awarded and number of recipients/properties rounded to the nearest 10. "Properties" refers to subjects listed as separate entries in the Valuation Roll, and includes shops, offices, warehouses, but also self-catering properties, properties that do not necessarily contain buildings, etc. Reliefs reported as being awarded to zero-rated properties have been excluded from the table.
1. The relief values are the awards given as at the snapshot date, and do not necessarily reflect the cost of a given award over the full year, as properties may be added to or removed from the Valuation Roll throughout the year.
2. As councils have applied other reliefs to the gross bill after the 1.6% relief, in absence of the 1.6% relief these properties would still receive 100% relief, meaning they see no additional benefit of this relief.
3. As other reliefs are applied to the gross bill after the 1.6% relief, the 1.6% relief will have partly displaced them. For example, a 25% SBBS relief will be applied to a reduced gross bill (i.e. to 98.4% of the gross bill), so SBBS will in effect be only 24.6% of the total gross bill. Combined with the 1.6% universal relief this is a total of 26.2% relief, meaning the additional value of the universal relief is only 1.2%. So while the value of the 1.6% relief for all these properties is £3.4m, because the other reliefs have been reduced slightly, the net additional value of the 1.6% universal relief to these is only £1.7m.