It was interesting to hear the take of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive on the current state of the relationship between the Scottish Government and business last week.
Before anyone gets carried away, it should be emphasised Stuart Patrick was not talking about a new age of harmony having dawned. Rather, what he was flagging was a willingness to give Humza Yousaf’s administration a chance to deliver on its promises.
What made Mr Patrick’s observations on the attitude of business to the Scottish Government right now so interesting was that they were so very different to the perceptions he offered in the later years of Nicola Sturgeon’s period as First Minister.
He declared in December 2020 that Ms Sturgeon must recognise there had been a significant deterioration in the relationship between the Scottish Government and the business community since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and address this.
Mr Patrick said then: “I think the Scottish Government has a challenge in that a lot of the business community are concerned the Scottish Government doesn’t trust the business community. That attitude is reaching a level of being reciprocated.”
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Noting he spent much time speaking to business leaders, he added: “There is a raw anger at times with the way business perspectives are dismissed in the debate in Scotland.”
Asked in December 2020 to what extent the attitude of business towards the Scottish Government had changed over the nine months since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Patrick replied: “Significantly.”
He added: “I think there was a degree of modest respect between business and government. I don’t think this government has been anti-business per se. It doesn’t automatically talk about the economic and business issues as its highest priority.”
While acknowledging at that stage that the economy and business could not have been confirmed as the highest priority through the pandemic, he declared: “There has been a tendency to [see] it as the lowest priority.”
An absence of trust, “raw anger” and “lowest priority” - all in all it was something of a no holds barred description by Mr Patrick of his perception of the attitude of business towards the Scottish Government at that time.
And that was not all.
In December 2022, Mr Patrick declared the business community had a sense of “moderated hostility” towards it from the Scottish Government.
Reflecting on the political backdrop at that time, Mr Patrick said: “There is a combined sense of instability at a UK Government level and I am calling it ‘moderated hostility’ at a Scottish Government level.”
He flagged views in the business community at that point that the Scottish Government is “not really on our side” and, regarding the Conservatives at Westminster, that the “ones down south” are too focused on their own political issues.
Mr Patrick also highlighted a perception among company chiefs of a “raised eyebrow” from the Scottish Government about the role of businesses and “whether we are contributing enough”.
Elaborating on the business community’s take on the political backdrop, he said: “I think with the UK Government, obviously the instability has damaged confidence in it…I mean, who are you dealing with because there is ministerial changes? Confidence cannot be anything other than damaged by having such an about-turn on policy decisions between the Liz Truss government and the arrival of Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt. The hope is that will settle down, for so long as that Government remains in office.”
He added: “I think the challenge with the Scottish Government is more complex. It is partly down to the understanding of how you create a relationship. It isn’t just about warm words and pleasant meetings and listening sessions. It is about what comes out at the end, and what policies are being pursued.”
Mr Yousaf appears to have put considerable effort into building a relationship with the business community since his elevation to First Minister in the spring.
To this end, he has set up the New Deal for Business Group.
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Mr Yousaf seems to recognise the scale of the challenge in winning business over.
Much around the establishment and early activity of the New Deal for Business Group has involved talking - and hopefully listening on the part of all of those involved.
However, Mr Yousaf has already taken some concrete action, albeit this has been about suspending and going back to the drawing board on impending legislation which was causing some in the Scottish business community angst.
He has delayed the controversial deposit return scheme from this summer until at least October 2025, which is undoubtedly a good thing given the degree of uncertainty over this project and the scale of the practical problems identified by those affected, not to mention the UK Government having waded in on the issue.
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And he has asked officials to go back to the drawing board on proposals for restrictions on alcohol advertising and promotion, with the previous plans having looked huge on the unintended consequences front and having understandably alarmed the alcoholic drinks and retail sectors.
Colin Borland, director of devolved nations for the Federation of Small Businesses, noted in the spring that Mr Yousaf had “given himself some early breathing space by consigning a number of well-intentioned but poorly thought through Scottish Government proposals to the drawing board, or at least the long grass”.
So what did Mr Patrick have to say last week about the current state of the relationship between business and the Scottish Government.
He highlighted his view, in the context of the New Deal for Business Group, that “of all the topics the group is exploring, the review of business regulation is the most immediately significant”.
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Writing in The Herald, Mr Patrick said: “The…group is proposing a system for assessing the impact on business for every new piece of proposed legislation. The pressure on small businesses is to be given particular emphasis. That is sensible given the limited resources smaller firms have for responding to new legal requirements and the rising costs they are having to cope with already.”
And he emphasised his hope that the effect on business investment would be given “some prominence” in such assessments.
Mr Patrick noted “the uncomfortably low rate of business investment” in Scotland and the UK as a whole.
He wrote: “The main message I now hear from members is one of relief that many - though by no means all - of the measures affecting business have been paused. There is a willingness to give the new administration a chance to deliver on its promises. We will be watching how effectively the New Deal for Business recommendations are implemented.”
Mr Patrick’s observations might give Mr Yousaf hope that there is at least a real opportunity for a major change in the relationship between the Scottish Government and business, even if this will take time.
Patience will be required from everyone. The “willingness to give the new administration a chance to deliver” observation is a particularly encouraging one, given that too often in Scotland’s political goldfish bowl storms seem to whip up out of nowhere and then develop a momentum of their own, sometimes regardless of the substance of a situation. This tends to occur as various political interests and preferences take hold.
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