Meeting of the Parliament 19 June 2024
The benefit with regard to income tax is a few pennies a week and it makes no substantial difference to people’s household incomes. Anybody who earns more than £28,000 a year is paying more tax and anybody who is on an income of more than £50,000 is paying substantially more.
I will give Mr Brown a real-life example of where the problem hits. When members of the Parliament’s Economy and Fair Work Committee visited Prestwick airport at the end of April, we were told by Ryanair, which has a substantial repair and maintenance facility at the airport, that it is unable to attract qualified aircraft engineers to come to Scotland because of the tax differential. Those individuals are paid £77,000 a year and they tell Ryanair that they will not move to Scotland because of the income tax differential and the higher LBTT when it comes to purchasing a house. That opportunity is lost to Scotland, where Ryanair wants to expand but cannot, and that is the reason that it is giving.
The recent HMRC figures show a loss of high earners, not necessarily involving people moving out of Scotland, but perhaps involving people deciding that they will work fewer hours because it is no longer worth their while to do more. That applies as much in the public sector as it does in the private sector.
It is no wonder that so many organisations have criticised the widening tax differentials for undermining their ability to recruit and retain skilled staff. The Confederation of British Industry, the Scottish Retail Consortium, the British Dental Association, the Scottish Tourism Alliance, UKHospitality Scotland, the Scottish Beer & Pub Association, the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and the British Medical Association all say that that is making it more difficult for them to recruit and retain skilled or experienced professionals in their sectors.
We want to see greater migration into Scotland to help to grow our economy, but that ambition is being held back by the choices that this Government is making.