Hospitality bosses across the north-east breathed a sigh of relief last night after learning they are in line to share a business rates reprieve.
The Scottish Government’s recent announcement of a 12.5% cap on business rate rises appeared to be limited to a minority of tourist operators while others feared a doubling of their rates.
However the confusion has now been clarified following persistent lobbying from tourism chiefs.
Tourism Secretary Fiona Hyslop confirmed yesterday that the relief would extend to guest houses, B&Bs, self-catering and timeshares – benefiting about 8,500 premises.
And in a statement, finance secretary Derek Mackay said: “From April, more than half of Scottish businesses will pay no rates and seven out of ten will pay either no, or less, rates than they do currently.
“We’ve already committed £660million of business rates relief next year, including capping rates increases at 12.5% for certain businesses in the hospitality sector.
“I’m pleased to confirm this will apply to businesses including self-catering, guesthouses, B&Bs and timeshare units, further positive measures in this ‘Scottish tourism week’ to support a key growth sector.”
Ms Hyslop made the assurance to the Scottish Tourism Alliance conference in Glasgow.
The alliance’s chief executive Marc Crothall was delighted at the news – describing it as a lifeline to the “60%-plus” of businesses that feared having to make redundancies or cease trading.
Innkeepers across Aberdeenshire were also celebrating last night, and said the announcement would safeguard jobs.
Lesley Leslie, co-owner of Arduthie House B&B in Stonehaven, said: “We were delighted to get the news it had been capped at 12.5%. At the moment, we are very relieved.
“There was just no clarity for us, it came as a shock. We were going to be going up 250%. We are just a new business and so we didn’t make a profit last year.
“We didn’t understand why, it was a bit arbitrary. Our B&B has six rooms and we noted that other places with similar rooms weren’t being clobbered by the same rates.
“That was a problem for us, properties the same size of our own didn’t get the rise and we did.”
Mrs Leslie, who still plans to proceed with an appeal on the changes to rateable values, added the “strong” reaction to the changes in Stonehaven by its business community had helped raise awareness of the situation.
James Bream, chief executive of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, said: “Our campaign has secured savings of around £13million for a range of organisations in city and shire on their 2017-18 non-domestic rates bills.
“We’re meeting Ken Barclay (head of the Barclay Review on behalf of Scottish Government) on March 20 to help to shape a better and fairer system of business rates, moving forward.”
Mr Crothall, of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, said: “With Brexit looming, the worst thing that could have happened would have been if we’d walked into the summer season with an industry in a state of despair because there was no movement on this rates issue.
“We could have risked not delivering a particularly pleasant experience. That’s now not the case this year, which is great. But it is only one year.”
