Chamber
Plenary, 07 Mar 2007
07 Mar 2007 · S2 · Plenary
Item of business
Small Business
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, only on Monday, I launched our Scottish Conservative business manifesto, which proposes a range of measures to benefit small businesses in particular. We have produced a fully costed package for annual business rates reductions of £150 million, aimed at small businesses. A small business with a rateable value of £7,000 or less would receive a 100 per cent discount on its rates. It would pay nothing at all. There would be a sliding scale of discounts for businesses with rateable values up to £15,000.
I know that such measures would deliver a real saving to more than 100,000 small businesses across Scotland. Small businesses have been struggling with the weight of business rates, water charges and overregulation over the past 10 years of Labour government at Westminster and over the past eight years of the Lib-Lab pact in Edinburgh. We should never forget that it was Jack McConnell who, when he was Minister for Finance, raised the business rate in Scotland above the rate that was payable south of the border—a measure that has cost Scottish businesses more than £900 million in additional taxation.
Our proposals do not stop there. We are also planning a £20 million annual town centre regeneration fund, which would be available for local communities throughout Scotland to bid into to pay for much needed improvements to, for example, car parking, signage or toilet facilities—or to pay for a shop-front scheme, for instance. We all know that many of our traditional town centres are suffering because of the growth in out-of-town retail parks and the construction of many new supermarkets, which are cheap and convenient and have free parking on their doorstep. We have to start levelling the playing field and breathing life back into our traditional town centres. That is exactly what our policies will do.
There are many communities in my region—towns such as Kinross, Crieff, Blairgowrie, Brechin and Kirriemuir—where a package of business rates cuts for small businesses and a town centre regeneration fund would go a long way to reduce the number of empty properties and "to let" signs, which seem to be a feature of too many small town centres.
Our proposals go even further. We are determined to tackle red tape and to bring in sunset clauses on new legislation. We will charge all quangos such as SEPA and Scottish Natural Heritage with an overriding obligation to promote economic growth. All too often, it is the actions of those quangos that hold up and hinder businesses that are trying to grow.
I know that such measures would deliver a real saving to more than 100,000 small businesses across Scotland. Small businesses have been struggling with the weight of business rates, water charges and overregulation over the past 10 years of Labour government at Westminster and over the past eight years of the Lib-Lab pact in Edinburgh. We should never forget that it was Jack McConnell who, when he was Minister for Finance, raised the business rate in Scotland above the rate that was payable south of the border—a measure that has cost Scottish businesses more than £900 million in additional taxation.
Our proposals do not stop there. We are also planning a £20 million annual town centre regeneration fund, which would be available for local communities throughout Scotland to bid into to pay for much needed improvements to, for example, car parking, signage or toilet facilities—or to pay for a shop-front scheme, for instance. We all know that many of our traditional town centres are suffering because of the growth in out-of-town retail parks and the construction of many new supermarkets, which are cheap and convenient and have free parking on their doorstep. We have to start levelling the playing field and breathing life back into our traditional town centres. That is exactly what our policies will do.
There are many communities in my region—towns such as Kinross, Crieff, Blairgowrie, Brechin and Kirriemuir—where a package of business rates cuts for small businesses and a town centre regeneration fund would go a long way to reduce the number of empty properties and "to let" signs, which seem to be a feature of too many small town centres.
Our proposals go even further. We are determined to tackle red tape and to bring in sunset clauses on new legislation. We will charge all quangos such as SEPA and Scottish Natural Heritage with an overriding obligation to promote economic growth. All too often, it is the actions of those quangos that hold up and hinder businesses that are trying to grow.
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...