A HOST of business leaders have joined forces to condemn the Scottish Government’s plans to scrap a tax relief on property owners ahead of a final vote in parliament this week.
The Scottish Parliament will vote for the final time on a bill which it is claimed will increase business rates paid by firms in Scotland by £18 million per year. The bill will see the level of rates relief available to firms with empty commercial properties reduced in what has been branded a “tax on distress”.
Garry Clark, head of policy and public affairs at the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said: “This proposal by the Scottish Government to take resource out of our town centres at the very time when we need to stimulate regeneration runs contrary to common sense and to the government’s stated policy objective. The Scottish Parliament needs to consider carefully the effects that this measure would have on businesses and communities across the length and breadth of Scotland. We all want to see vacant premises brought back into use, but this is not the way to go about it.”
Fiona Moriarty, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “The retail sector already pays more in business rates than any other sector in Scotland and this cut in empty property relief will come on the back of punitive increases in business rates and a windfall tax in the form of the large retailer levy which is costing the sector an additional £95m.”