SNP loans to businesses fall £170m short of vow by Sturgeon
THE Scottish Government failed to hand out nearly £170million of vital loans to struggling businesses despite a promise by Nicola Sturgeon.
the First Minister pledged to ‘guarantee’ £500million of bank loans over three years in the biggest announcement of her 2016 legislative plans.
But new figures reveal the cash is still £166.5million short of the promise made five years ago to boost the economy.
Critics said the broken promise means the missing millions are ‘gathering cobwebs’ when they should be ‘supercharging Scottish commerce and innovation’.
the figures, provided by the Scottish Government, show that up to the end of January this year, £333.5million had been invested in 560 companies as part of the Scottish Growth
‘Millions of pounds gathering cobwebs’
Scheme, which includes public and private sector finance.
Scottish Conservative economy spokesman Maurice Golden said: ‘the SNP should seriously consider changing their name to the slowest national party with the speed they take to transfer funds to business support.
‘the SNP Government even missed their own targets for their much-hyped growth scheme, leaving millions of pounds gathering cobwebs when the cash should have been spent supercharging Scottish commerce and innovation.
‘it’s the same old story with this lacklustre SNP Government: countless hospitality workers were left on the breadline after promised coronavirus support grants took ages to materialise.
‘if the SNP could just take a moment to forget about their plan to hold a second independence referendum this year, we might see some progress.
‘But this won’t happen. indyref 2 is their obsession and deep down all they care about.’
the Scottish Growth Scheme helps ministers ensure that businesses get funding to allow them to invest and expand. However, the public purse will foot the bill if the firm is unable to repay the money, or collapses.
No details have been published of the firms to benefit because of ‘commercial confidentiality’.
When she announced the Scottish Growth Scheme as the flagship policy in her 2016 programme for government, Miss Sturgeon said it was ‘an exceptional response to an exceptional economic challenge’.
She told MSPs: ‘this is a halfbillion-pound vote of confidence in Scottish business, Scottish workers and the Scottish economy.
‘We are determined to build an economy where everyone has a fair chance to contribute to growth and where everyone can share in the benefits of growth.’
the Scottish Conservatives highlighted figures to the end of
November 2020 showing £296.5million had been invested in the scheme. However, the SNP said the latest data showed this had increased to £333.5million by the end of January.
Of this, £259.1million of the funding came from the private sector, as well as £29.2million from Scottish Enterprise, £25.8million from European funding streams and £19.4million from other public bodies, including the Scottish Government.
the total amount of funding received by firms was £144.8million last year, while a further £13.3million was provided in January of this year.
the 560 companies supported are 0.3 per cent of the total number of firms in Scotland.
a spokesman for the SNP said: ‘this is desperate stuff from the tories, cherry-picking out-ofdate information and deliberately ignoring more than £200million that has already been paid to Scottish businesses, with further significant payments due to be paid in april.
‘Businesses in Scotland have benefited from more than £1.94billion in grants since March 2020. this is in addition to £965million in coronavirus nondomestic rates reliefs.
‘the Scottish Growth Scheme remains open for applications and has unlocked more £330million of investment in Scottish businesses since it was launched – investment that simply wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the support of the SNP Scottish Government.’
‘Indyref2 is all they care about’