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The Scottish Government is determined to support businesses during this time, and we are delivering a package of support worth £2.3 billion for businesses who can now claim rates relief and apply for grants to help them deal with the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Estate agents will be able to benefit from the 1.6% universal rates relief in 2020-21, which will apply automatically to their non-domestic rates bills.

Estate agents may also be eligible for the Small Business Grant scheme for premises in receipt of the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS), or eligible for the SBBS but in receipt of a range of other reliefs.

In addition, the Business Support Grant scheme guidance provides an element of discretion which local authorities may use to ensure that the grant reaches those business ratepayers in need and directly affected by COVID-19. This includes the discretion to award a grant to a property if they are satisfied that it is engaged solely or mainly in the marketing of property and not the provision of financial and/or legal services, and provided other qualifying criteria are met for the grant. This is subject to the local authority being satisfied with the validity and eligibility of individual cases.

Businesses in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure sectors, operating in a premises with a rateable value between £18,001 and £51,000, will be eligible for a £25,000 grant on their first eligible property.

Following my announcement of Phase 2 of the Business Grants Funding Scheme on 15 April, grants of £18,750 will be available on any additional qualifying properties that a ratepayer may have. The expanded scheme opened for applications on 5 May.

The estimated total cost of the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant is £275 million - this includes an estimated £30 million to extend the support and provide grants of £18,750 to any additional qualifying Retail, Hospitality and Leisure properties that a ratepayer may have.

According to data from the valuation roll as at 1 January 2020, we estimate that the cost of providing a £25,000 Retail, Hospitality Leisure Grant, per property, for multiple properties would be an additional £10 million.

The valuation of all non-domestic property is a matter for the independent assessors, and local authorities are responsible for administering the system and the awarding of the grant schemes. Billing information is held by local authorities, and they provide this to the Scottish Government on a periodical basis for statistical purposes. This information, and property data extracted from the assessors portal, has been used to estimate the number of unique ratepayers. However, it is recognised that there are limitations in the analysis, and that individual property details may have changed since the data was provided or that different local authorities may have different contact details for the same multi-site businesses.

According to data from the valuation roll as at 1 January 2020, we estimate that there are up to 800 unique ratepayers eligible for more than one Retail, Hospitality Leisure Grant (RHL Grant). The average number of qualifying premises per multi-site business is estimated to be 3 with a maximum of 21. The grant scheme is subject to compliance with EU State Aid Rules .

The Scottish Government has received a large volume of correspondence on a range of topics in relation to the package of support for business in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The correspondence system does not categorise individual cases in a way which would allow us to distinguish those ‘regarding the payment of support grants on a per-property basis during the COVID-19 outbreak’. In addition, few correspondents write to the Scottish Government on a single issue and it would therefore not be possible to manually categorise them all.

The administration of the scheme, and the awarding of grants, is being managed by local authorities. Queries in relation to the eligibility of additional properties should be raised with them directly.

The number of applications to the COVID-19 Business Support Fund which have been received in each local authority area is available at: . We understand councils are dealing with a large volume of invalid applications, which for example omit vital information such as bank details or addresses. As such, councils cannot robustly report the number of outstanding applications at this stage.

The number of COVID-19 Business Support Fund grants which have been paid, and their value, by local authority area, is available at: .

As part of the final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), published on 16 March 2020, we carried out an analysis of the potential for DRS to affect consumer choice. The BRIA can be viewed here: . It concludes that any shift towards larger containers is likely to be small.

The final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) for Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), published alongside the final DRS Regulations, sets out the strong economic case for proceeding with DRS. We do not intend to review the BRIA at this stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, we will continue to monitor closely the impact of COVID-19 on industry’s ability to progress the steps that are needed to bring the scheme into operation.

We recognise the significant pressures COVID-19 is placing on industry, including the businesses which will be responsible for implementing Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). We will continue to monitor closely the impact of COVID-19 on industry’s ability to progress the steps that are needed to bring the scheme into operation.

The Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government wrote to local authorities on 20th March committing additional resources of £50 million for a Hardship Fund with no restrictions. Local authorities have flexibility in how they use the funding as part of their overall response to COVID-19, including any additional costs they incur in administering the Business Support Grant fund.