1. Executive summary
Part 6 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 ended the exemption from rating for shootings and deer forests, bringing these activities onto the valuation roll from April 2017, and aligning their treatment with other rateable non-domestic properties.
As of February 2026, there are 11,280 shooting-related entries on the valuation roll covering deer forests and shooting rights. The valuation base for shooting and deer forests is heavily concentrated at the lower end of the rateable value distribution. Of all entries, 99.4% have an annual rateable value below £12,000 and would typically qualify for 100% relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS), if held as single properties.
Only 63 properties have a rateable value above £12,000, and just 13 exceed £20,000. A small number of multiple-property owners exceed the £35,000 cumulative threshold for SBBS relief eligibility. The effective tax base is therefore narrow. Before factoring in reliefs, the total rateable value of shooting properties was approximately £13.5 million in 2024-25. Applying the poundage rates implies a potential gross business rates liability of around £6.7 million per annum across these properties.
The latest statistics for 2025 indicate that approximately £4.5 million of reliefs, which include the Small Business Bonus Scheme as well as other reliefs, were awarded to shooting properties, implying net revenue of around £2.2 million from sporting rates.
In context, total non-domestic rates income in Scotland was approximately £3.1 billion in 2024–25. Revenue from shooting properties, therefore, represents less than 0.1% of overall receipts.
Given the relatively small fiscal scale, material sector-wide economic effects – for example, on overall employment, tourism, or aggregate output – are unlikely to have been significant. However, stakeholders reported practical impacts. These included the complexity of valuing sporting rights, administrative effort for both assessors and estates, compliance costs, and cash flow pressures. In particular, rates are paid first, with relief applied later, which can create short-term financial strain.
Definitive conclusions regarding business viability, employment, tourism, or environmental management would require further research and are currently constrained by data limitations. Another important consideration for future research is to examine the trade-off between administrative effort and revenue yield.
