Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 09 December 2020
I welcome the chance to take part in the debate. I doubt that it will come as a huge surprise to members in the chamber that the Greens do not back everything that the Conservatives had in mind in bringing this motion to the chamber.
The Conservatives repeat their call for a business advisory council, for example. That is a well-rehearsed argument by now and I put on record once again my concern that what it would turn into, if the Government agreed to it, would not be a group of people advising on how best to implement public health measures but a group of people lobbying within Government against implementing such measures. I fear that that is how it would go if that council was created, and I am sorry to see that the Labour Party is now echoing a Tory talking-point.
On extending rates relief, I agree that there is no doubt that many businesses need that support, but others do not. Supermarkets, for example, have seen high profits during the pandemic. This year has been awful for so many of us to live through, but it has been good for the profits of some big businesses. It is important that our tax policy seeks not only to protect those who really need support but to redress the inequality that has been exacerbated by Covid. The difference between small, independent businesses and giant multinationals is one example. Simply continuing with rates relief without taking a different approach is not something that I would support.
As for grant eligibility, I would be fine with carrying out a review, but I suspect that my purpose for that review would be different from that of Maurice Golden and the Conservatives. I have consistently made the case that the Government should use conditionality in its grant support, with incentives for ethical practices such as payment of the living wage and support for those employers who were already doing the right thing before the pandemic; we do not want them to be the ones most likely to be tipped over the edge and forced to fold. Too often, when we discuss the economy, we only see narrow metrics such as overall economic activity without asking who benefits from it, who bears the harmful impact of generating that activity and in whose interests our economy operates.
When we debate business support, too often we only see support going to business owners without ensuring that it gets directly to the people who do the work in our economy. The Scottish Government certainly does not have everything right on this issue, although its amendment is preferable to the Conservative motion. Ministers place an emphasis on the fair work agenda but, during the pandemic, just as was the case before it, they have been far too reluctant to place robust conditions on publicly funded business support to ensure that it goes to ethical practices and truly sustainable industries. If they begin to do better, we have a chance to ensure that the economy that emerges from the trauma of 2020 is a better one than the low-pay, low-tax, low-regulation, exploitative, unsustainable and unhealthy one that came before.
16:53