Shadow Finance Secretary, Donald Cameron, has warned that continued differences in providing financial support between Scotland and the rest of the UK are putting Scottish businesses at a disadvantage.
Firms across Scotland are getting less financial support than England, and in some cases no help at all, because of SNP loopholes in coronavirus grants. Despite an intervention last week to address the main disparity between Scottish firms and their UK counterparts, businesses say major problems still remain.
Mr Cameron, a Highlands and Islands MSP, said:
“We have received feedback from worried business representatives that the Scottish government is providing significantly less support for the retail, hospitality and leisure industry than other parts of the UK."
“This is of very great concern, not least because those sectors are particularly important to the economy of the Highlands and Islands. Our businesses want a level playing field across the UK and we cannot give the impression that Scotland is a less attractive place to set up and run a business."
“The SNP Government needs to resist its instinct to do things differently when there is no need, especially when we are responding to a national emergency.”
HCUA Comment:
Across Scotland, business leaders have identified three crucial issues where the SNP government is providing significantly less support than in the rest of the UK, primarily affecting the retail, hospitality and leisure industries.
They say premises with a rateable value of between £15,000 and £18,000 are getting either £15,000 less than those in the rest of the UK, or worse, nothing at all. This is because the £25,000 funding provided by the UK Government kicks in at properties rated at £15,000 or above in the rest of the UK, but in Scotland it is not being offered until the £18,000 rateable value level.
The situation is particularly dire for small businesses, like shops, who don’t qualify for the Small Business Bonus Scheme – which tends to rule out businesses who have several outlets: where properties fall under the £18,000 mark, there is no help at all. Businesses with more than one property are only getting 75 per cent of the support they would do were they based in England. For companies with numerous small properties, that can leave them tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket.
The failure of the SNP to pass on the full value of the emergency support measures - money coming from the UK Government and not having to be raised in Scotland - is a scandal.
The SNP leadership's first thought seems to be how it can manufacture false divisions between Scotland and the rest of the UK, divisions it is creating for purely ideological political reasons: it does not seem to care about the damage being done to Scottish businesses as a result of its failure to pass on the full value of the UK Government support packages.
