SNP ministers have been warned that Scottish firms will go to the wall unless they immediately halt their business rates revaluation.
The Scottish Conservatives will today (Wednesday) join forces with business groups to call on the Nationalist government to pause the proposed changes to non-domestic rates (NDR), which will impose a “crippling” rise in bills for sectors including hospitality, self-catering and retail.
Leader Russell Findlay, deputy Rachael Hamilton and shadow finance secretary Craig Hoy will visit an Edinburgh hospitality venue to highlight the damage the changes pose to businesses and call on the SNP government to return to the drawing board.
Some firms face increases of 300 per cent on their rateable value, at a time when they face increasing costs from short-term lets licensing, planning constraints and soaring energy and supply costs.
To add insult to injury, the changes will make many smaller businesses, particularly in rural areas, ineligible for the Small Business Bonus Scheme.
Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Craig Hoy said: “These revaluations pose an existential threat to many small and medium-sized firms, if the SNP are reckless enough to press ahead with them.
“Ministers must immediately pause these crippling bill rises and go back to the drawing board.
“For years, Scottish businesses have had to contend with the SNP’s failure to pass on the business relief they would have received in other parts of the UK.
“These new valuations could tip many over the edge. Hotels, self-catering businesses and retail and hospitality operators are absolutely terrified about the impact it will have on them.
“The Scottish Conservatives stand shoulder to shoulder with businesses who face ever-rising bills and increased red tape from an SNP Government that doesn’t understand their plight.
“If Scotland is ever to achieve the economic growth that’s essential to create jobs, fund public services and let workers keep more of their hard-earned income, there must be an immediate rethink of the damaging left-wing policies being imposed by both of Scotland’s governments.”
Notes to editors
Many businesses have seen their rateable values rise dramatically. On 30 November, assessors contacted businesses across Scotland with proposed new values that will take effect on 1 April 2026. For some, the increase is several-fold. For example, one restaurant in central Glasgow has risen from £58,000 in the 2023 list to a proposed £140,000. (Scottish Conservative Source, 4 December 2025, available upon request).
Rateable values are updated every three years. The last revaluation took effect on 1 April 2023, and the next will take effect on 1 April 2026. Assessors base each valuation on the estimated rental value of the property at the tone date, which is one year before the new list comes into force. Revaluations used to occur every five years but were shortened to a three-year cycle following the Barclay Review. (Revaluation of rateable value, 1 April 2025, link).
Most properties are valued using open-market rental evidence. Where rental evidence is limited or not appropriate, other valuation methods are used. Pubs, hotels and certain visitor attractions, for example, are valued using a receipts and expenditure method, which estimates the rent that a reasonably efficient operator could afford to pay based on fair maintainable turnover. Public infrastructure and similar assets use a cost-based approach. (Scottish Assessors, accessed 4 December 2025, link).
The reasons for individual large increases vary by property type and location and currently have a high degree of unknowns. Across many sectors, rental evidence between the 2022 and 2025 tone dates shows higher achievable rents. However, much of the detailed rental analysis and valuation modelling used by assessors is not published, which limits external scrutiny of the scale of some increases. (Ryden, accessed 4 December 2025, link)
The Scottish commercial rental market contains distortions that limit its reliability as a basis for non-domestic rates. In many towns rental evidence is thin, meaning tone levels may be driven by a small number of lettings. Where leases are signed, headline rents often include incentives such as extended rent-free periods, which property market analyses show can significantly inflate the apparent rental value, these incentives are discounted by assessors. (Ryden, accessed 4 December 2025, link; Scottish Assessors, accessed 4 December 2025, link).
Market conditions are also highly uneven across Scotland. Prime city-centre locations have largely recovered post-pandemic, while many secondary high streets remain weak creating a two-tier system. (Ryden, accessed 4 December 2025, link; Fraser of Allander, accessed 5 December 2025, link).