Since the launch of the Scottish Hospitality Group’s campaign to stop the planned hospitality rates hike, the situation facing Scotland’s restaurants, pubs, bars and hotels has only become more urgent.
Since our initial call for action, the economic pressures on the sector have intensified, there is no cap on commercial energy prices, and the devastating fire in Glasgow this week has served as a stark reminder of just how fragile hospitality businesses can be. At a time when operators are already battling rising wage costs, soaring energy bills and persistent inflation, the prospect of dramatic non-domestic rates increases arriving in April is simply untenable.
The Scottish Government still has time to act. Even at this late stage, it can intervene to delay or halt the revaluation increases until the conclusion of the Gill Review – the very review it commissioned to examine whether the current valuation methodology for licensed premises is fair.
Hospitality businesses across Scotland are not asking for special treatment; they are asking for fairness and for the time to survive an extraordinarily difficult economic moment. Pressing ahead with unprecedented rate rises while the system itself is under review risks pushing viable, long-established businesses closer to the brink.
The message from the sector is clear: pause the increases, complete the Gill Review, and ensure the system is fit for purpose before imposing changes that could have lasting consequences for jobs, investment and communities across Scotland.
And this week, BJ Gill KC, Chair of the Independent Review of the Valuation of Licensed Hospitality has issued a call for evidence to help inform its work. Licensed trade operators in Scotland only have until the 20th April to submit evidence to the Gill Review, the body set up to look at the evaluation methodology licensed trade rates.
Mr Gill said, “This Review represents a crucial reconsideration of how the licensed hospitality sector in Scotland is valued for the purposes of business rates. If there are issues with the way that licensed properties are currently valued, this is the sector’s opportunity to demonstrate that.
The main question for the Review is the best way to get to an estimate of the annual rental value of a licensed hospitality property. By law, that is the basis for its rateable value.
The work of the Review will be entirely driven by the evidence available to us. We will only be able to consider how to estimate a property’s annual rental value if we have reliable evidence of actual market rents.
So I implore anyone interested in the outcome of the Review to engage with us. This is your chance to influence the work of the Review. Please give us any rental evidence that you have: without it, we won’t be able to reach any meaningful conclusions.”
The Scottish Government set up the Gill Review to consider the valuation methodology for properties in the licensed hospitality sector for the purposes of non-domestic rates in response to calls from the trade bodies representing Scotland’s licensed trade operators.
Commenting on the independent Gill Review’s call for evidence to consider the valuation methodology for licensed hospitality sector properties for non-domestic rates, Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee said, “The Scottish Government commissioned this review, under BJ Gill KC as Chair, in response to concerns raised by the licensed hospitality sector on the valuation methodology used for non-domestic rates.
“Responses to the call for evidence will help the Gill Review to consider all relevant information and I would encourage everyone who is able to provide evidence to do so.”
The Review will report its findings by the end of 2026 and the Scottish Government will consider those findings before the 2029 revaluation cycle.
However the trade is also concerned about the recent rates assessors re-evaluations and have called on the Scottish Government to intervene and ‘Stop the Rates Hike,’ which is set to come into force in April, until after the findings of the Gill Review, which they believe would be a fairer situation for all licensed trade non-domestic ratepayers.
Further information about the call for evidence can be found on the Call for Evidence webpage: Licensed hospitality valuation methodology: Gill review-call for evidence-gov.scot.
Procedures have been put in place to ensure the protection of any confidential material received.
The Review Group will:
- consider the methodology for the valuation of licensed hospitality properties in Scotland in accordance with the statutory rating hypothesis, including with reference to the approaches taken in other jurisdictions where properties are valued for the purpose of business rates on the basis of a hypothetical rental value
- consider what information is relevant and necessary to value licensed hospitality properties in accordance with the statutory rating hypothesis, the extent to which that information is currently available to Assessors (including the questions of return rates for, and the quality of the information provided in response to, Assessor Information Notices) and any other ways in which relevant information may be obtained
- consider in particular whether the current approach in valuation practice to the question of over (or under) performance should be re-examined
- based on the evidence, make findings and any recommendations that it considers appropriate (including, if appropriate, recommendations for legislative reform) about the above matters, having regard to financial, technical or any other considerations (including the revaluation cycle)
The Review Group will not consider the questions of the poundage rate or reliefs applicable to licensed hospitality properties, or mechanisms for the payment of rates.
The Review Group will give due consideration to ensuring fairness among all ratepayers and to ensuring that non-domestic rates revenue supports the delivery of local services upon which businesses and communities rely.
The call for evidence runs until 5pm on Monday, 20 April.
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