By Steve Farrell2021-01-29T18:30:00+00:00
Tesco paid back £585m last year, including £60m to the Scottish government
An extension of the business rates holiday in Scotland will be application-based to avoid major supermarkets automatically receiving it.
The three-month extension, taking the relief to 30 June, was announced yesterday in the Scottish Budget.
With no mention of an exclusion for supermarkets, the prospect had been raised of retailers who refunded business rates relief for the current financial year again receiving an automatic holiday for the extension period.
However, a Scottish government spokeswoman told The Grocer: “To ensure the relief only goes to those businesses who require it, we plan to make the retail, hospitality, leisure and aviation non-domestic rates relief application-based in 2021-22.” The change is to be set out in secondary legislation.