A business leader and entrepreneur has called for tax support already funded by Westminster to be passed on to Scottish firms.
The company owner has urged that the SNP Government follow England’s lead to offer a 40 per cent discount in business rates to the retail, hospitality and leisure sector for next year.
Andrew McRae, chair of the Scotland Policy Unit at the Federation of Small Businesses, has written to Shona Robison, Scottish finance secretary, outlining aggravating factors including the energy crisis and severe cost increases as he updated on the New Deal for Business promised by the SNP.
“There are some tangible outcomes from this work that we can point to as having the potential to make a real difference for small businesses, such as the revision of the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment to include an extended assessment of the impact new policies will have on small businesses,” he wrote.
Mr McRae, founder of Elephant House International and Harry Potter collectibles retailer, said that FSB members said they “need to see a clear, more immediate, demonstration that there really is a New Deal for Business – and this December, that means a passing on of the non-domestic rates reliefs which have been extended yet again for retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) businesses in England”.
“When the relief for English RHL businesses was set at 75 per cent, we deliberately did not ask for the Scottish Government to pass on relief at the same rate, recognising that the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) offers greater relief to Scottish small businesses. However, given that the relief has been reduced to 40 per cent in England, and that changes to the SBBS two years ago have meant that some businesses have lost at least some of that relief, we believe that now is the time for the Scottish Government to pass on, in full, what is being extended to English RHL businesses.”
READ MORE:
- Scottish retailers reveal £3.1 billion sales gap
- New homes axed due to 'economic shift'
- 13 breweries closed in Scotland in the space of one year
I asked Ms Robson about this, and she said: “The 2024-25 Scottish Budget delivers a competitive non-domestic rates regime including the lowest poundage in the UK for the sixth year in a row, and a package of reliefs worth £727 million as at June 1, 2024. Our Small Business Bonus Scheme remains the most generous of its kind in the UK.
“Decisions on non-domestic rates for next year will be considered in the context of the Scottish Budget 2025-26.”
The Scottish Government also said: “The SBBS is available to businesses where the combined rateable value of their premises is £35,000 or less and the values of individual premises are £20,000 or less.
“We estimate around half of the properties in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in Scotland will be eligible for 100 per cent relief in 2024-25.”
The Fraser of Allander Institute said it estimates the cost of the 40 per cent discount would be £220m to the Scottish Government.
Rachel Reeves, Chancellor, said last month that the Scottish Government will get a £47.7 billion settlement next year, “the largest in real terms in the history of devolution”.
It includes a £3.4bn top-up through the Barnett formula, with £2.8bn for day-to-day spending and £610m for capital investment.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel