As I highlighted to the cabinet secretary at the Economy and Fair
Work Committee this morning, the tourism and hospitality sectors
are facing severe pressure at the moment, but the budget provides
little comfort.
As suggested, businesses in the
sector south of the border will receive a 75 per cent discount on
their rates next year, while—despite receiving hundreds of
millions of pounds of Barnett consequentials to deliver the
same—the Scottish Government has chosen not to do that. The
Scottish Beer and Pub Association says that that puts Scottish
pubs at a “significant disadvantage”; the Scottish Hospitality
Group said that the budget offered “nowhere near enough to see
the sector through” and that “many small businesses won’t
survive”; and the Scottish Tourism Alliance expressed the
disappointment of its members and warned that 23 per cent of
Scotland’s tourism businesses were in “survival mode”.
If the cabinet secretary will not offer the same arrangement to
Scotland’s sector, will he at least lobby his ministerial
colleagues to roll back some of the extra unnecessary regulatory
burdens, such as the delayed short-term lets licensing and
Deposit return
schemes, that it intends to push on this already
struggling sector?
The Deputy First Minister
and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery ()
In a sense, answers his own
question. The Government has already delayed the introduction of
the short-term licensing scheme to provide more time for the
sector to adjust to it.
Earlier in the session, in response to , the Minister for Public
Finance, Planning and Community Wealth set out the fact that
about half of the retail, tourism and hospitality businesses will
benefit from 100 per cent rates relief because Scotland has a
different small business bonus scheme from that which operates in
the rest of the United Kingdom. Rather than just tell us that we
should replicate what goes on in England, should think about
the fact that, if we did so, lots of companies would have to
start paying business rates, and he is not suggesting that that
should happen.
Finally—this is the real point—according to the figures that Mr
Arthur put on the record, is asking me to
commit to spending another £78 million on business rates relief.
If he wants me to spend that money on that, he has to have the
honesty to come to Parliament and explain where the money is
coming from. Already, his colleagues are opposing the tax changes
that I have made, which is another £125 million or so that they
have to find.
The Conservatives cannot come here and ask me to spend more money
when they cannot tell me where the money is coming from.
