What immediate measures it is considering to reduce the impact of rising business rates on hospitality and town centre businesses that are …

The 2026 Scottish Budget supports businesses and communities with a decrease to the three property rates and a package of reliefs forecast to save ratepayers over £870 million, in 2026-27. This includes the Small Business Bonus Scheme which remains the most generous of its kind in the UK.Recognising the distinct challenges of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, 15% relief is available for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure premises liable for the Basic or Intermediate Property Rate in mainland Scotland (excluding specified remote areas). An additional 25% relief is available for eligible licensed hospitality premises and music venues liable for the Basic or Intermediate Property Rates, taking their relief to 40%. These reliefs are capped at £110,000 per business per year.Further, 100% relief is available to eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses on islands and in specified remote areas, capped at £110,000 per business per year.Acknowledging the impact of the 2026 revaluation, the Budget introduced a Revaluation Transitional Relief to protect those seeing the most significant increases in rateable values, ensuring that the gross bills of around 60,000 properties are lower in 2026-27 than they otherwise would have been. Small Business Transitional Relief also ensures that properties losing or seeing a reduction in Small Business Bonus Scheme relief, rural rates relief, hospitality relief or 2023 Small Business Transitional Relief on 1 April 2026, do so in a phased manner.We estimate that 96% of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses could benefit from some form of relief in 2026-27.As a result of the decisions in the budget and the additional relief announced at Stage One of the Budget Bill, the revenues raised from non-domestic rates are estimated to be 7% lower in real terms (using CPI) in 2026-27 than pre-COVID, despite the number of non-domestic properties increasing in that time.