More evidence of money pressures on our high streets
WHENEVER the state of many of Scotland’s high streets is discussed these days it has become almost obligatory to use the expression “gap-toothed” – in other words, the undeniably ugly sight of so many empty, boarded-up units that give the streets – the so-called beating hearts of our towns – such a desolate appearance.
Yesterday it was summoned up again, and with very good reason, as Scotland’s business community digested two charts contained within a briefing paper from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Spice).
The first showed the widening gap between the revenues gathered from Council Tax and Business Rates over the last six years; the second revealed that Business Rates’ actual share of the burden leapt in that time-frame from £2.07 billion to £2.79bn.
The Scottish Retail Consortium was quick to observe, yet again, that businesses are being landed with a disproportionate share of local authority charges. It also said, pointedly, that retailers and other firms are noticing an online presence is a less expensive way of reaching customers than having a solid physical presence in the high street. A sharp growth in online shopping sites certainly benefits consumers wedded to smartphones and tablets but it does precious little to improve the gloomy, rundown state of many of our high streets.
As David Lonsdale of the SRC warned, this instinct to migrate online also has implications for jobs, for commercial investment and, potentially, on future tax revenues that help keep local government and its vital functions in operation.
All of this will be highly familiar to anyone who read The Herald’s Great Rates Revolt series, in which businesses of every stripe spoke out forcefully about what they saw as a grossly inequitable system. The series revealed, amongst other things, that pubs, hotels and restaurants were among the most exposed from the latest rates revaluation and within a matter of days the Scottish Government introduced measures to alleviate the increases.
The rise in the rates burden had come during a council-tax freeze that was in operation for nine long years, which severely hampered local authorities’ room for manoeuvre. The freeze has since been defrosted, but the burden on businesses had already risen steeply. It has come at a cost for too many businesses.
Many hopes have, for understandable reasons, been pinned on the forthcoming
Barclay Review of the business rates system, led by the former RBS chairman Ken Barclay. Retailers would very much like to see the system being reformed, with their tax burden being eased.
Without wishing to pre-judge the outcome we would say that such a decision would make sound business sense and could induce retailers to consider investing in new or refurbished shop premises.
The bottom line is that too many high streets look forlorn and unpromising as it is. Shoppers are going elsewhere. Businesses need to be given a helping hand. The logic seems inescapable.