Meeting of the Parliament 07 May 2025
Rent controls are an SNP Government policy; they are not supported by this party. We will not support the housing bill if rent controls are part of it. I give the cabinet secretary that absolute assurance, because the policy has driven away £3 billion of investment in Scotland—that £3 billion has gone elsewhere.
I looked forward to seeing whether the programme for government would signal a change of direction and whether the tax differential between Scotland and the rest of the UK would be addressed, given all the concern that we hear from industry about the difficulty that it presents in attracting skilled people to come here. I also thought that the programme for government might address the rates imbalance with Barnett consequentials not being passed on and that it might deal with the overregulation of business holding back sectors such as tourism. Sadly, I was disappointed.
What did we see instead? We saw a promise to publish an
“action and implementation plan based on an assessment of the regulatory controls which exist in key growth sectors”.
The SNP has been in power for 18 years, and it is talking about publishing more plans. What businesses need is action and not more bits of paper. There was also a promise to subject
“future Scottish Government regulation to scrutiny to ensure that its purpose, content and timing have regard to potential opportunities and impacts on business and investment”.