Reliefs and Subsidy Control

Subsidy control rules under Subsidy Control Act 2022

The following reliefs will be subject to the subsidy rules under the above regulations -

  • Rural relief
  • Transitional relief for properties in parks
  • Transitional relief for small businesses
  • Day nursery relief
  • District heating relief
  • Renewable energy relief
  • Retail, hospitality and leisure relief (2022/23 only)

These reliefs may be offered as a Minimum Financial Assistance (MFA) subsidy under the Subsidy Control Act 2022.  MFA is capped at a maximum of £315,000 over a three-period – cumulated over the current and previous two financial years.  

To ensure that we comply with the subsidy regime, we may be required to cap relief at the MFA maximum limit. This may depend on:

  • the level of other public sector assistance received by your entity
  • whether or not you have an interest in any business with other properties, is in receipt, or eligible, for one of the existing rate relief schemes

You must consider whether you have already received support from any public sector body in the current financial year and the two financial years immediately preceding this.  We will determine this from the completed Subsidy Information Declaration Form that is part of your application.

A written record must be kept for at least three years beginning with the date on which the MFA was given. This will enable you to respond to future requests from public authorities on how much MFA you have received and whether you have reached the cumulative threshold.

Further information on this is available on the Scottish Government website State aid: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)