FINANCE Minister Kate Forbes has said that she is “willing to consider” a change in policy after an outcry at newspapers being omitted from business rates relief in the Scottish Budget.
The current 100 per cent relief for the retail, hospitality, leisure and aviation sectors is due to be extended for at least three months from April at a cost of £185 million.
Giving the rates relief to newspapers for another three months would cost just over £1m.
However, when Forbes announced the move in the draft Scottish budget for 2021/22 last week, she left out newspapers, which are also covered at present.
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said it seemed “unfair” that the newspaper industry would be left out while the Scottish Newspaper Society warned the current plans created an “immediate crisis for Scottish journalism”.
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Forbes last night confirmed she was against extending it past March, but said that “if other parties wish to make changes to the Budget, then I am willing to consider proposals to secure its passage”.
The Government and the other Holyrood parties are due to hold talks on the draft budget before it goes to a final vote on March 9.
The Government was forced to extend full rates relief to newspapers last May when MSPs amended the Coronavirus Scotland (No2) Bill as it went through parliament.
The opposition said newspapers were a vital source of information in the pandemic, and needed support to keep going after lockdown caused a sharp fall in advertising revenue.
The Government opposed the move, saying it was already giving the industry some £3m in increased advertising as a result of Covid.
However the Tory proposal passed with 41 votes to 38, with only the SNP against, and “premises for the production of newspapers, and related news platforms” were granted 100 per cent rates relief for the year to March 31, 2021.
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Ministers are suggesting that there may be more funding after a working-group on supporting public interest journalism reports this summer. However opposition parties seem united in calling for immediate, concrete help, and dismissing focus on long-term aspirations.
Harvie said: “Quality journalism is a vital part of stopping misinformation and holding government to account and this is more important now than ever.
“As always, we will defend the ability of the press to operate. If the working group isn’t due to report till summer, it does seem unfair that every other sector will be supported at least till then, with the exception of the newspaper industry.”
Scottish Labour’s acting leader Jackie Baillie (above) said a cut to the relief would be “unacceptable”. The Scottish Tories also attacked the plans, saying Scotland should be “supporting trusted news sources more than ever”.
The LibDems’ leader Willie Rennie said his MSPs “will oppose any efforts by the Scottish Government to cut support to the media industry”.
John McLellan, director of the Scottish Newspaper Society, said: “It is very disappointing to say the least that the Scottish Government is singling out news publishing for the withdrawal of emergency business rates relief, a vital financial support agreed by the Scottish Parliament, when the pandemic is far from over. This is in sharp contrast with the Northern Ireland government which has just extended rates relief for its news publishers.
“Further, the Scottish Government has not renewed its commitment to invest in news publishing to communicate important public information about its pandemic response and its vaccine roll-out, at a time when private sector advertising in Scotland has collapsed because of lockdown.
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“There is no doubt this creates an immediate crisis for Scottish journalism, and if these decisions are not reconsidered, it could leave Scotland as one of the few, if not the only, democratic European nations to effectively abandon independent news publishing.”
A Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government has invested £3m in the Scottish newspaper industry through increased advertising over the course of the pandemic.
“We continue to value high-quality journalism and have established a short-life working group to consider how to support public interest journalism. It is expected to make recommendations at the end of the summer.
“Details of the rates relief package for next year were announced in the Scottish Budget 2021-22. If other parties wish to make changes then we are willing to consider proposals to secure passage of the Budget.”
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