Call to freeze firms’ rates after Brexit

A FREEZE on business rates should be brought in to help combat post-Brexit uncertainty, the Scottish Government has been told.

The Tories called for firms’ bills to be kept at the same level for the next five years, in the same way as the Scottish Government froze council tax charges for householders.

Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Murdo Fraser wants the large business supplement, which sees firms with a rateable value over £35,000 pay a higher charge, to be scrapped. He also urged Holyrood ministers to be ‘more cheerful’ about possible future opportunities and ‘be less dismal, less miserable, less downbeat’.

Mr Fraser said: ‘There are a whole range of policy opportunities for us, given our departure from the EU.

‘Rather than take these forward, rather than be positive about the future, all the SNP Government want to do is sit on the sidelines and complain and carp.’

He hit out after the Economy Secretary Keith Brown accused the Tory UK Government of ‘ignoring the challenges of Brexit’.

Mr Brown told MSPs that Westminster should boost capital spending by £5billion across the UK, arguing this would ‘provide £400million in Scotland, supporting around 3,000 jobs’.

Mr Fraser said SNP ministers were acting ‘as if the Scottish Government had no tools at its disposal’ to stimulate the economy.

He insisted: ‘In reality, there is a huge amount they can and should be doing – and they should start with business rates.

‘Business rates are nothing to do with the UK Government, they are entirely the responsibility of the Scottish Government.’

Labour’s Richard Leonard said Scotland’s economy was more vulnerable than the UK’s as a larger proportion was owned by overseas firms.

He told MSPs: ‘When the SNP came to power in 2007, less than a quarter of Scotland’s economic base was owned externally, now it is over a third.

‘The speed and scale of this loss of economic sovereignty is huge and I put it down to the fact that there has been no industrial strategy.’