Scotland's non-domestic rates review has lost its chair, and nobody in the business community is pretending that does not matter. The review, established by the Scottish Government to modernise a rates system that critics have long described as unfit for the modern high street and post-pandemic economy, is now without its lead figure at a critical point in the process. Opposition politicians have been quick to call it chaos, but the more important question is a practical one: what happens to the businesses that have been sitting on their hands, waiting for this review to deliver?
Non-domestic rates are, for many Scottish SMEs, the second or third biggest fixed cost after rent and wages. According to the Scottish Fiscal Commission, non-domestic rates generate around £2.8 billion annually for the Scottish budget. That money comes overwhelmingly from businesses that cannot relocate, cannot pass the cost on easily, and cannot wait indefinitely for a system redesign that has been promised and postponed through multiple parliamentary sessions. Retail, hospitality, and leisure operators in particular have been vocal about rates burdens since the pandemic exposed how badly the current system responds to economic shock.
The review was supposed to address the structural problems. Scotland already operates a different rates regime from England, including the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which according to Scottish Government figures provides relief to around 100,000 properties. But relief schemes and fundamental reform are different things. The review was tasked with looking at the valuation cycle, the appeals process, and the overall fairness of how rateable values are set and updated. Without a chair, that work stalls or slows at minimum, and independent reviews without confident leadership tend to produce diluted recommendations even when they do complete.
The Scottish Retail Consortium, which has consistently made the case for rates reform, has argued that Scotland's high streets need structural change rather than patch-and-mend relief. Their annual retail monitor data has shown sustained pressure on physical retail, with rates cited repeatedly as a barrier to investment in Scottish town centres. Edinburgh's own business community, carrying the cost of one of the most expensive commercial property markets in Scotland, has particular skin in this game. A review that loses momentum now is a review that delivers less, later.
To be fair to the Scottish Government, the review's existence is itself a commitment that Westminster has not matched with comparable ambition for England's equivalent system. The political will to reform is not absent. But the governance of that reform now has a visible gap at the top, and the businesses most affected are not in a position to wait for internal appointment processes to resolve themselves on their own timeline. A replacement chair needs to be named quickly, the scope of the review needs to be reconfirmed publicly, and a delivery date needs to be put back on the table with some credibility attached to it.