The Scottish Government unveiled its Budget 2020-2021 on Thursday. As part of the Budget the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator was set a budget of £3.3m for 2019-20 and 2020-21, an increase of £0.3m on 2018-19’s budget. The Third Sector budget was increased to £24.9m in 2019-20 compared to 2018-19’s budget of £24.5m, but then decreases to £24.6m in 2020-21. The Scottish Housing Regulator’s budget decreases from £4.7m in 2018-19, to £4.5m in 2019-20, and £4.3m in 2020-21.

The Scottish Budget 2020‑21 also introduces the following policies:

• properties with a rateable value (RV) above £95,000 will continue to be charged the Higher Property Rate (formerly the poundage plus the Large Business Supplement) of 2.6p plus the poundage
• properties with an RV of between £51,000 and £95,000 will now be charged an additional 1.3p on rates on top of the standard poundage
• an amendment to the reset period for Empty Property Relief from 6 weeks to 6 months
• the introduction of a 70‑day requirement of actual letting for a self‑catering property in order to be considered non-domestic and liable for non-domestic rates, rather than council tax
• the introduction of a new 100 per cent relief for Reverse Vending Machines from 1 April 2020
• introducing a district heating relief guaranteed until 2032.

The Scottish Budget 2020‑21 also maintains:

• the Small Business Bonus Scheme
• the Business Growth Accelerator
• Transitional Relief
• Day Nursery Relief for all standalone nurseries in the public, private and charitable sectors
• Fresh Start Relief, which offers 100 per cent relief for all reoccupied properties that have been empty for six months.