SCOTLAND is losing out on “substantial revenue” by under-taxing owners of vacant and derelict land, according to new research by a prominent land reform campaigner.
Research conducted by Andy Wightman MSP shows that 2199 non-domestic properties were deemed derelict or vacant by the Scottish Assessors Association (SAA) in 2020, with a combined rateable value (RV) of £12,697,970.
Some 624 of these sites – more than a quarter – were in Glasgow. However, they were given a collective RV of just £8500. This is less than 0.07% of the total taxable value of all Scotland’s derelict land and an average of £14 per site.
Glasgow City Council said the prevalence of derelict land was “due to the sheer scale of industrial land and activity” from the city’s past and that some sites had been brought “back to productive use” over the last decade. Glasgow City Assessors said the 624 sites it had rated were currently “of little or no rateable value”.