Traders have called on the Scottish Government to set a date for when they can reopen for business.
The Scottish Retail Consortium wants a provisional reopening date so shops can prepare to open their doors to customers again.
Non-essential shops have been shut since lockdown began on March 23 and many are facing a battle to survive the longer their doors remain closed.
In England, clothes stores and bookshops are starting to open again from tomorrow but there is no date yet when this might happen in Scotland.
Ewan MacDonald-Russell of the Scottish Retail Consortium said: “We really need an indicative timetable so we can put the right measures in place so we’re ready to trade and customers can have a bit of confidence when they can come back to shops and get the products we’re all hoping they’ll want to buy.”
The Scottish Government has produced a route map out of lockdown with different measures occurring at different stages but no dates are attached to the phases.
A spokesman said: “We have a review point on Thursday at which time we will consider further, safe progression through the route map.
“Our total package for businesses during this unprecedented economic crisis now exceeds £2.3 billion. This support, which is under constant review, includes almost £900m of non-domestic rates relief and a £1.3bn business grants scheme.
“Importantly, we have extended the eligibility criteria for our small business and retail, hospitality and leisure grants, and we have extended the upper threshold for retail, hospitality or leisure properties with individual rateable values of up to £18,000 each. We have also published workplace guidance to support the retail sector’s return to trading.”
The national clinical director, Professor Jason Leitch, told BBC Scotland he was hopeful there could be good news for retailers soon. He said: “Shops will be part of our conversation this week as we move towards hopefully phase two of the route map on Thursday and Friday and conversations around next weekend.”
Retailers say they need a provisional date to help prepare shops for social distancing measures, bringing back staff and planning sales promotions.
They also fear that the longer they are closed, the more people will shop on the internet, and perhaps continue to do so in the long term.
Meanwhile, the Higher Education Minister has warned that Scottish universities could suffer long-term damage caused by the Covid-19 outbreak as well as losing access to European funds as Britain leaves the EU.
The Scottish Funding Council’s recent analysis suggests the country’s universities will lose around £72m this year and between £384m and £651m next year Richad has written to the UK Science Minister Amanda Solloway: “It’s vital both for Scotland’s economic recovery and to protect the nation’s global reputation for science and research excellence that the UK Treasury signals substantial support for our universities in the coming days.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here