Retailers face £64m handicap over rates

SCOTTISh business owners face paying £64million more in rates than english rivals because SnP ministers refuse to scrap a controversial tax.

Retail chiefs yesterday made a fresh appeal to Finance Secretary Derek Mackay to ease the burden on medium and large firms by scrapping the large business supplement.

The Scottish Retail Consortium argues that the tax puts Scotland at a competitive disadvantage to the rest of the UK.

The Scottish Government expects £127.8million in revenues from the so-called supplement on non-domestic rates next year – double what the firms affected would pay if they were south of the Border.

The nationalists doubled the large business supplement, which affects one in eight commercial premises in Scotland, in 2016.

They hiked this from 1.3p to 2.6p. It is added to the poundage rate for non-domestic rates for larger businesses.

In his December draft budget, Mr Mackay said that he would look at the Barclay Review recommendation to reduce this – but would only consider doing so in future budgets.

Business chiefs want him to act now in a bid to stimulate growth and ensure retailers in Scotland are not put at a disadvantage.

David Lonsdale, Director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: ‘Firms operating from 22,000 medium-sized and larger premises in Scotland are set to stump up almost £64million more than their counterparts or competitors down south in the coming year, due to our higher large business rates supplement.

‘Making Scotland a more expensive location to do business than elsewhere in the UK and raising the hurdle for attracting commercial investment sits uncomfortably with the devolved administration’s oft-stated aim of having the most competitive rates regime in the UK, as well as their plans to promote town centres.’

he added: ‘As advocated by the Barclay Review, who described the supplement as “damaging perceptions” of Scotland, we would like to see a more ambitious timetable for ending this Scotland-only surcharge and restoring a level playing field with england.’

Scottish Conservative economy spokesman Dean Lockhart said: ‘how can the SnP government expect businesses to expand and create more jobs when they are punished in this way?’

Last night a Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We recently accepted the vast majority of the recommendations of the Barclay Review of non-domestic rates, going beyond Barclay with additional progrowth measures in a package widely welcomed by business.

‘We will consider the large business supplement at future budgets in line with the timetable suggested by Barclay, whilst continuing to provide the most competitive rates relief in the UK, including the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which alone lifts 100,000 properties out of rates altogether.’

‘Restoring a level playing field’