§ (1) with effect from 1 April 1990 the threshold for relief will be reduced from £3 per week to £2 per week.
§ (2) the scheme will be extended by two years.
§ (3) relief paid under the scheme to an individual will not reduce until the fourth and fifth years.
§ Those proposals will take effect from the beginning of the second year of the scheme in Scotland. The lowering of the threshold for relief will give £52 more relief than would otherwise have been the case to each household that qualified for it, provided they have not moved. Pensioners and the disabled who were not former ratepayers and who qualified for extra relief will also receive an increase of £52 of relief. On top of this, postponing the withdrawal of relief will be worth up to £13 in 1990–91 to everybody already entitled to relief in respect of 1989–90. Many couples will be £78 a year better off than they would otherwise have been as a result of these changes. It is estimated also that the number of people benefiting may increase by more than 50 per cent. as a result. The amount of relief paid out is expected to increase by more than this proportion, reflecting the increase in relief that existing recipients of relief will receive as well as relief being paid for the first time to new recipients. The implementation of these changes will be subject to discussion with local authorities before regulations bringing them into effect are made.
| Local Authority and Financial Year | Number of CPOs received | Number of CPOs confirmed | Number of CPOs subject to Public Local Inquiry |
| 1986–87 | |||
| Aberdeen | — | 1 | — |
| Angus | — | — | 1 |
| Annandale and Eskdale | — | 1 | — |
| Argyll and Bute | 9 | 5 | 1 |
| Banff and Buchan | 3 | 3 | — |
| Clackmannan | 1 | 1 | — |
| Cunninghame | 2 | 1 | — |
| Dundee | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Dunfermline | 1 | 1 | — |
| East Kilbride | — | 1 | — |
| Edinburgh | 6 | 5 | — |
| Glasgow | 34 | 20 | 3 |
| Gordon | 3 | — | — |
| Hamilton | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Kilmarnock | — | 1 | — |
| Kirkcaldy | 1 | 1 | — |
| Kyle and Carrick | 1 | 1 | — |
| Moray | — | 1 | — |
| Motherwell | 3 | 3 | — |
§ My proposals to exempt small bed-and-breakfast establishments from non-domestic rating have been widely welcomed in Scotland: in consultations, there was general agreement that a limit of six bed spaces would be appropriate, and that it would not be desirable also to extend the exemption to establishments available for 100 days or less. Accordingly, I intend to lay regulations very shortly to exempt bed-and-breakfast establishments providing accommodation for no more than six people from non-domestic rates, by prescribing that they shall be treated as domestic property.
§ A number of specific classes with maximum multipliers have already been prescribed. These include empty manses, properties empty as a result of a person's death, property whose owner is being cared for elsewhere, empty homes belonging to students, and empty property belonging to prisoners. It is my intention now to prescribe additional classes of premises and the maximum multipliers which will apply to them. I will consult with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and with community charge registration officers with regard to the details before making the appropriate regulations. My intention is to make provisions relating to property owned by people who live in tied accommodation, property which has been repossessed by a mortgage lender and, subject to views which are expressed during consultation, property which forms a self-contained part of either the main residence of a charge payer or of a non-domestic property owned by him.