COUNCILS should be permitted to use a £50 million fund set up to help Scotland’s struggling high streets to cut business rates, according to retailers.
The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) has said local authorities should be allowed to use the town centre fund, which was announced by Finance Secretary Derek Mackay in his draft 2019-20 Budget, to reduce the businesses’ financial burden. The group sent a submission to Mackay and MSPs on Holyrood’s finance and economy committees ahead of more detailed scrutiny of the Budget proposals by the Parliament.
In his Budget statement to MSPs, Mackay said the £50m capital fund would “support our town centres to diversify and develop, ensuring our town centres are thriving, sustainable places where people choose to spend their time”. The SRC described this as a “promising move” which should help high streets with their “reinvention into modern and diverse retail destinations”.
But it argued “councils should be allowed to use this fund to cut business rates in their area” – as well as calling for the Scottish Government to reduce the large business rates supplement which is charged on “many” town centre businesses.
While councils already have the power to cut business rates in their area, the SRC said none of Scotland’s 32 local authorities had done so in 2018-19. Just three councils have previously reduced the charges on businesses since being granted the power to do so three years ago.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here