Meeting of the Parliament 19 June 2024
Mr Ewing makes an important point. I do not like making off-the-cuff responses to ideas that I have not heard before, but I think that he identifies correctly that there is an issue. We see that, for example, with the Berwick Bank renewable project, which involves a large wind farm, in relation to which there have been substantial delays in consenting.
However, it is not just in planning that there have been issues with barriers. The Government has introduced a host of new laws, all of which are actively hampering our ability to grow the economy. The introduction of the regulation of short-term lets has already led to a loss of visitor accommodation and to bed and breakfasts closing down across Scotland in large numbers. B and Bs were, it seems, inadvertently caught up in those rules, even though they were never part of the problem.
The introduction of the visitor levy could take millions of pounds from Scottish residents who want to holiday here and could make Scottish tourism even less competitive than tourism elsewhere.
We had the ruinous deposit return scheme that was hated by business and which now seems to be the subject of a £200 million litigation by Biffa.
We also had the rent cap, and we now have the proposed introduction of rent controls, which is a policy that has already meant that we have lost out on hundreds of millions of pounds of investment in the rental sector and has contributed to a shortage of available properties and a spike in homelessness. I remind members of my entry in the register of members’ interests: I am the owner of a property that is let on a long-term basis. However, many other landlords are selling up, which is creating shortages. All of that is contributing to the housing emergency that the Government accepts that we are in.
An issue that is dear to the Deputy First Minister’s heart is the proposed ban on wood-burning stoves in new-build properties. This Government introduced each of those measures that actively hamper economic growth.
Our amendment talks about taxation. Despite this Government’s protests, it has extensive powers over taxation, with complete control over non-domestic rates and control over non-savings, non-dividend income tax and land and buildings transaction tax. We know that the Scottish Government chose not to pass on the 75 per cent rates relief that is available to retail, hospitality and leisure businesses south of the border in the previous year and this year, thereby putting businesses here at a competitive disadvantage.
We also know—there is ample evidence that this is the case—that the differential rates of income tax and LBTT are having an impact on economic growth. Writing in The Herald a couple of weeks ago, the chief executive of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce referred to the fact that businesses here have had to start to pay a Scotland weighting—a higher salary to take account of the fact that everybody who earns more than £28,000 a year pays higher tax in Scotland. I have heard that from many other people in business.