Business Growth Accelerator questions: FOI release

Information requested

1. Since its launch in April 2018, how much has the Business Growth Accelerator non-domestic rates relief scheme cost the Scottish Government in terms of rates revenue?

2. Since its launch in April 2018, please confirm details (business, address) of all properties/land/heritages that have benefited from the Business Growth Accelerator.

Response

1. The value of the Business Growth Accelerator since 2018-19 is available in the table below.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
	Audited	Notified	Mid-Year Estimate
BGA - Unoccupied New Build	5,660.14	3,468.24	2,054.95
BGA - New Occupied and Improved	11,206.55	31,712.99	8,258.31

Figures shown as £’000.

The 2018-19 Audited totals are presented in Table 2.17 of Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics, available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-local-government-finance-statisticsslgfs-2018-19/.

The notified figure is provisional outturn and subject to revision. The final audited figures for 2019-20 are expected to be available in early 2021.

The mid-year estimate (MYE) is an estimate of relief values provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government half way through the year, and has historically understated the final amounts. The provisional outturn for 2020-21 will be available after the end of the financial year.

2. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government is not responsible for the subject matter.

Local authorities collect and administer non-domestic rates and reliefs. You may wish to contact Local Authorities to request the information under the terms of your request.

You may be interested to know that some Local Authorities already publish information regarding nondomestic rates relief recipients on their websites.

Where the Scottish Government is aware of specific individuals or companies falling under the terms of your request, we would consider such information to be exempt under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA. This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’ but taking account of the circumstances of the request, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information would outweigh the public interest in applying the exemption. In this case we have considered that it would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to share this third party information. There is no way in which the information could be reliably redacted to protect the personal information of third parties. Local authorities will have fuller information with regards to this request and you may wish to contact them to request this information.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.