The following open letter to Ivan McKee MSP and Members of the Scottish Parliament has been published by a member of the ASSC in response to mounting concern across Scotland’s hospitality and tourism sector over the 2026 Non-Domestic Rates Revaluation.
Small accommodation providers and tourism businesses throughout Scotland are reporting proposed rate increases of between 120% and over 300%, despite no corresponding change in turnover, capacity or profitability. These are not isolated cases, they reflect a systemic issue that threatens business viability, rural employment, and Scotland’s competitiveness as a visitor destination.
ASSC and affected businesses have made repeated attempts to raise these concerns privately with MSPs and Ministers. With limited engagement to date, this open letter is now being shared publicly to highlight the real and immediate risks facing the sector, and to call for meaningful intervention on fundamentally inflated rateable values.
The letter below is published in full.
Open Letter to Ivan McKee MSP and Members of the Scottish Parliament
Non-Domestic Rates Revaluation: A Systemic Failure Threatening Scotland’s Tourism Economy
To Ivan McKee MSP, Minister for Public Finance, and Members of the Scottish Parliament,
This is an open letter because private correspondence has, for the most part, gone unanswered.
Across Scotland, small hospitality and tourism businesses are facing extraordinary increases in Non-Domestic Rates as a result of the 2026 revaluation: increases of 120%, 200%, and in some cases over 300%.
These increases are not the result of business expansion, higher turnover, improved facilities, or increased profitability. In many cases, nothing has changed at all.
To the wider public, this requires explanation.
Non-Domestic Rates are based on an assessed “market value” of a property, not on profit. This means that businesses can be presented with massive tax increases regardless of whether they can actually afford them. For seasonal, rural and tourism-dependent businesses, this disconnect is particularly dangerous.
The Scottish Government’s response so far has relied heavily on temporary reliefs, including a widely cited 15% reduction. These measures are being presented as meaningful support. They are not.
A modest relief applied to a fundamentally inflated valuation does not fix the problem. It simply delays the consequences. When the base figure is wrong, the entire system is wrong.
By choosing to accept these revaluations without intervention, the Scottish Government is making a political decision — not a neutral one.
The consequences will be severe.
As rates rise, accommodation providers will be forced to increase nightly prices simply to remain viable. This will make Scotland — already an expensive destination due to operating costs, regulation and taxation — even less accessible to visitors. The impact will not stop with accommodation providers, but will cascade through local cafés, shops, attractions and rural communities that depend on tourism.
Yet what has been notably absent from Government response is any serious consideration of:
Instead, businesses are told to engage with a slow appeals process while facing potentially ruinous bills in the meantime.
Many will not survive this.
The frequent reassurance that the valuation process is “independent” does not absolve Government of responsibility. Independence does not remove the power (or the duty) to intervene when outcomes are clearly disproportionate and economically damaging.
Scotland’s tourism sector is not asking for special treatment. It is asking for fairness, realism and accountability.
At this stage, polite letters and closed-door correspondence have proven insufficient. That is why this issue must be addressed publicly.
If the Scottish Government truly values small businesses, rural communities and Scotland’s long-term tourism economy, then allowing this revaluation to proceed unchecked is indefensible.
Silence is not neutrality.
It is a choice — and one that will cost Scotland dearly.”