Chamber
Plenary, 07 Mar 2007
07 Mar 2007 · S2 · Plenary
Item of business
Small Business
If the member listened to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which tells us that the rate will be about 3 per cent, he would perhaps copy our policy on that, just as he copied our small business policy.
We intend to give Scotland a unifying worthy aim that will link everyone in Scotland, including Scottish Water, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the rest of them. Our objective is to have an ever-increasing number of working people in fulfilling and rewarding work in Scotland. We think that that will unify Scotland, and the big token that we are putting down now is the practical step of our small business bonus scheme, which will take 120,000 businesses out of the rates net—those with a rateable value of less than £8,000—and give graduated relief for those with rateable values up to £15,000. It will invigorate the quiet parts of our towns and cities and provide a lifeline and an important sign of hope to rural Scotland.
That step, like our other practical steps on procurement and more cohesive support for small businesses, is a signal of what else we will do when the Scottish people enable the Parliament to claim more powers and roll back the adverse trends. We will adopt and customise good ideas from elsewhere. That will encourage co-operation and competitiveness in Scotland in pursuit of our worthy aim. After all, Jean-Philippe Cotis, the chief economist of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says that a failure to converge is a failure to learn. Scotland and its people have some rewarding and life-enhancing converging to do.
We will aim to achieve a 4 per cent growth rate. We will do that by being empowered. We will follow the lines of John Kay and his advice and we will make the Scotsman editorial come true by delivering enterprise and social democracy in taking Scotland forward.
I move,
That the Parliament recognises the need to make the Scottish economy and hence Scottish businesses increasingly competitive and therefore welcomes the SNP's Small Business Bonus Scheme, which will remove 120,000 small businesses from eligibility to pay business rates and reduce the rates burden on a further 30,000 small businesses by either 25% or 50%, thereby increasing small business viability and bringing increased vibrancy and job opportunity to cities, towns, villages and rural Scotland.
We intend to give Scotland a unifying worthy aim that will link everyone in Scotland, including Scottish Water, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the rest of them. Our objective is to have an ever-increasing number of working people in fulfilling and rewarding work in Scotland. We think that that will unify Scotland, and the big token that we are putting down now is the practical step of our small business bonus scheme, which will take 120,000 businesses out of the rates net—those with a rateable value of less than £8,000—and give graduated relief for those with rateable values up to £15,000. It will invigorate the quiet parts of our towns and cities and provide a lifeline and an important sign of hope to rural Scotland.
That step, like our other practical steps on procurement and more cohesive support for small businesses, is a signal of what else we will do when the Scottish people enable the Parliament to claim more powers and roll back the adverse trends. We will adopt and customise good ideas from elsewhere. That will encourage co-operation and competitiveness in Scotland in pursuit of our worthy aim. After all, Jean-Philippe Cotis, the chief economist of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says that a failure to converge is a failure to learn. Scotland and its people have some rewarding and life-enhancing converging to do.
We will aim to achieve a 4 per cent growth rate. We will do that by being empowered. We will follow the lines of John Kay and his advice and we will make the Scotsman editorial come true by delivering enterprise and social democracy in taking Scotland forward.
I move,
That the Parliament recognises the need to make the Scottish economy and hence Scottish businesses increasingly competitive and therefore welcomes the SNP's Small Business Bonus Scheme, which will remove 120,000 small businesses from eligibility to pay business rates and reduce the rates burden on a further 30,000 small businesses by either 25% or 50%, thereby increasing small business viability and bringing increased vibrancy and job opportunity to cities, towns, villages and rural Scotland.
In the same item of business
The Presiding Officer (Mr George Reid):
NPA
The next item of business is a debate on motion S2M-5690, in the name of Jim Mather, on the economy and small business.
Jim Mather (Highlands and Islands) (SNP):
SNP
Members will know that we in the Scottish National Party want to create the conditions that will make Scotland more populous and more prosperous. Members of ...
Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD):
LD
The problem is that people do not know which SNP to put into power. Is it the SNP of Jim Mather, who wants to cut taxes, or the socialist republic SNP of Chr...
Jim Mather:
SNP
We will raise taxes by growing the economy. The member should read his newspapers. If he had read The Scotsman five months ago, he would have seen the editor...
The Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Allan Wilson):
Lab
Jim Mather talks about raising taxes by growing the economy. By how much will he grow the economy to fill the £11 billion gap that is the differential betwee...
Jim Mather:
SNP
The minister wears his fantasy like a badge of pride, which it is not. If the calculations included our oil, a proper allocation of civil service jobs and de...
Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con):
Con
Will the member tell us how the SNP's plans for a local income tax of 6.5 per cent, which would be paid on the profits of every unincorporated small business...
Jim Mather:
SNP
If the member listened to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which tells us that the rate will be about 3 per cent, he would perhaps copy our policy on that, ...
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
I call Allan Wilson, to speak to and move amendment S2M-5690.3. Interruption.
The Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Allan Wilson):
Lab
The fact that I am being attacked before I have said anything is a badge of pride that I wear in the chamber.In the five minutes that are available to me, it...
Jim Mather:
SNP
We are in a global boom at the moment, but all Scotland can muster is 2.3 per cent, so yet again we are working on low growth. Does the minister equate low g...
Allan Wilson:
Lab
What I equate with stability are the fundamentals of economic growth. That view is held not simply by the Labour and Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive but,...
Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
Will the minister give way?
Allan Wilson:
Lab
No. I will carry on, if the member does not mind.We have almost the lowest unemployment since quarterly records began—the rate is below the UK rate for the f...
Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
The minister is fond of saying that Scotland is being subsidised by the rest of the UK to the tune of £11 billion. I do not accept that figure, but the minis...
Allan Wilson:
Lab
Unlike Mr Morgan, I am not a nationalist who thinks that the gap necessarily requires to be closed—Interruption. Members of the Scottish National Party are l...
Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con):
Con
I welcome this afternoon's opportunity to debate the future of the Scottish economy and, in particular, support for small businesses. The debate is timely as...
Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP):
SNP
If the Conservatives are so against quangos, why does Murdo Fraser's amendment propose a new quango—a dedicated skills agency? How much would it cost? How ma...
Murdo Fraser:
Con
It will have a budget of £170 million. We are proposing to transfer away from Scottish Enterprise—which is a largely discredited organisation that deals with...
Alex Neil rose—
SNP
Murdo Fraser:
Con
Mr Neil is now going to justify that outrageous tax grab against small businesses.
Alex Neil:
SNP
Not at all—Mr Neil is simply going to ask two straightforward questions. First, how are the Conservatives going to fund the council tax rebate to pensioners ...
Murdo Fraser:
Con
We have made it perfectly clear where the money to fund our pensioner council tax discount will come from. When we move Scottish Water out of the public sect...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD):
LD
Will the member give way?
Murdo Fraser:
Con
Do I have time, Presiding Officer?
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
You have a maximum of about two minutes.
Murdo Fraser:
Con
I will happily give way.
Jeremy Purvis:
LD
Have the policies that Mr Fraser is outlining been met by an explosion of indifference across the country because the Tories have said that they have no desi...
Murdo Fraser:
Con
Nobody can prejudge the outcome of the election. Who knows where we will be after it? The Conservatives may be sitting here with a much expanded group and—as...
Mr Andrew Arbuckle (Mid Scotland and Fife) (LD):
LD
I find it interesting that the SNP motion is on small businesses rather than the large business sector and that Jim Mather provided a pretty rosy-eyed romp t...