No business rate cut to boost city
But council leader says nightlife needs improving
Stirling Council’s leader has ruled out reducing business rates as a way of boosting the city centre economy, but says the “lacklustre” local night life needs to improve.
Councillor Scott Farmer made the remarks at a full meeting of Stirling Council last Thursday.
At a recent meeting of the council’s finance and economy committee Tory councillors had asked for a report to be brought back on options to support businesses by reducing business rate bills and introducing a relief scheme.
However, at last week’s full council Councillor Farmer ruled out the option, adding that he would not want to risk propping up businesses which had been unviable in the first place.
He said: “There’s a national debate going on at the moment and the Scottish Government has done more than its share in terms of alleviating small businesses in terms of their rates liabilities as opposed to the Tories who whine from the sidelines.
“We are not engaged in a race to the bottom. If we say to businesses in King Street or Cowane Street we are going to slash their rates we would have to find that from our revenue budget and we have other responsibilities such as to the elderly, social care etc.
“I don’t think it is wise to cut rates to what may just be an unviable business. On the broader front both COSLA and the Scottish Government are opening up talks as to how we can broaden the tax base and raise money to be invested in our city centres.
“In terms of the council reducing business rates it would be opening Pandora’s box.”
Councillor Farmer said it was a matter of engaging with city centre traders but also acknowledging that shopping trends had changed.
“This is not a Stirling problem but for city centres throughout the country,” he added. “We need to look at how we can have more niche businesses and attract differentiation. The problem I have always had is if you are in Thistle Centre, for example, you could be anywhere in the UK. There is not that specialist offering but it is something we will be working on.”
He said things such as the new city centre BID (Business Improvement District), engaging with businesses across Stirling, improvements to the public realm and increased potential for social enterprises, the arts and other sectors, there were a lot of considerations being looked at by the council to maintain vibrancy.
“We do tend to focus at times on shops that are closing instead of what is opening but we are bucking the trend in comparison businesses close due to high business rates the Government have only just given powers to councils to reduce rates in certain circumstances. The fact they won’t even look at this shows that they do not care about our city centre or high streets and are not interested in actually doing something that might really help. Businesses are struggling and the council has the power to do something about it, the SNP simply chose not to.
“He is right in terms of the fact we do have businesses opening as well as closing.
“But the specific proposal on the table at the finance and economy committee was the issue of business rates. When I speak to businesses in the town centre, especially the independent niche businesses, they ask why will we not look at business rates.”
We are not engaged in a race to the bottom