The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will conclude its work this Parliament in March 2026 ahead of the next Scottish Parliament election. So the Committee has time to complete its work, it has agreed not to consider petitions submitted after 10 October.
The Committee will continue to meet but given the volume of petitions and agreed work programme it is unlikely that the Committee would be able to meaningfully progress work on petitions submitted after 10 October ahead of the election. Petitions lodged after this date will not fall when the Parliament is dissolved and will be for the successor committee to consider in the new session.
If you are seeking urgent action or policy change please contact one of your 8 MSPs or the Scottish Government directly.
Closed petition PE2019: Withdraw rates relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme from Holiday Let Accommodation
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to prevent all owners of self-catering holiday accommodation from obtaining rates relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme.
Previous action taken
I have engaged with Highland Council and my local MSP.
Background information
All owners of “Self-catering holiday accommodation” should be refused the Small Business Bonus. All of us. This would mean that we would all be paying our way. This is only fair if we are all in this mess together. It would put us all onto a level playing field. Those operators who could not survive a rates bill should be eliminated from the market so that those of us who can survive can flourish and improve our quality and market price earned.
We should be net contributors to the Scottish economy. All of us; not just a few of us. By setting arbitrary sales targets of 70 days, the State is effectively redistributing rates from elite, high value, low volume operators to those inefficient operators applying for and receiving rates relief. This is not a legitimate Pareto Redistribution and therefore strikes at the heart of what the World Trade Organisation defines as Market Efficiency. The State should completely withdraw from this sector and ask us all to pay our rates.
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
21 signatures