Urgent action needed to ease rates burden

ENTREPRENEURS are the lifeblood of our economy. Across Scotland, people depend on hard-working businesspeople for their livelihoods, and the taxes they pay are absolutely vital.

Yet politicians seem to treat the business community with contempt, seeing them as cash cows to be milked rather than people to be nurtured and supported.

Evidence of the failure of the political class to support business came yesterday as Chancellor Philip Hammond announced that – despite ever-increasing pressure on companies – he does not intend to reform business rates in England and Wales.

This week the Mail began its Save Our High Streets campaign. The evidence of boarded-up shops and hollowed-out communities is there for anyone to see and has been for months.

But there are fears that the Scottish Government will also show a political tin ear amid the deafening cry for a revamp of the rates system. Yesterday, a small business survey showed 41 per cent of Scots firms fear the cost of business rates, taxation, VAT, PAYE and National Insurance is a ‘major obstacle’ for them.

Ewan MacDonald-Russell, head of policy at the Scottish Retail Consortium, said the growing burden of rates and taxes on firms was having a ‘significant’ impact – and urged the Government to overhaul the system.

It is absolutely clear that businesses need support and they need it now.

The Scottish Government should take heed of people such as Mr MacDonald Russell, revamp the business rates system and begin stemming the tide of closures which are causing irreparable damage to Scotland’s economy.