The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Flying the flag for a new business-led action plan
When faced with difficult challenges such as those we have lived through this past year, the need for effective and visionary leadership becomes urgent.
And, as Sir Richard Branson has observed, if you aim higher than you expect, you could reach higher than you dreamed.
For many of us, lockdowns and – let’s not forget – the realities of Brexit have already altered our lives in ways that could not have been predicted.
Or at least, if it had been, very few would have believed it.
What has become clear, as the worst of the pandemic recedes, is what is left in its wake must be reclaimed and reformed.
As we stumble through the morass of the pandemic towards next month’s Holyrood elections, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC) network has united behind a plan to transform the way we live and work.
To this end, the SCC has produced a paper entitled Rally for Growth, a business-led action plan.
The aim of the document is to provide the next cohort of Scottish parliamentarians with a comprehensive, yet practical, set of ideas that will be fundamental to ensuring our economy bounces back and is ready to grasp new trading opportunities here and abroad.
Our first ask is that Scottish ministers pass a Business Growth Act within the first 100 days of the new government, encompassing the most urgent issues facing businesses right now.
These actions include:
reducing upfront business costs; boosting international trade; upskilling and reskilling the workforce; major digital and infrastructure investment; business mobilisation on COP26 as well as faster action and increased investment around renewable energies; and, last but not least, redesigning our towns and cities laid low by the combination of pandemic lockdowns and structural declines.
We have also called for a major reset of the relationship government has with businesses.
It has become painfully obvious that the priorities of business and the
economy, which are shared by anyone to whom jobs and prosperity are important, are not aligned with the priorities of the Scottish Government.
To address this, SCC has called for the establishment of a new Joint Economic Partnership.
This would oversee an ambitious programme of pro-enterprise, progrowth policies to boost business growth and job creation, bringing together ministers, the government’s Council of Economic Advisers and the heads of Scottish business groups, such as the SCC.
These priorities are key for many parts of the north and north-east, because
of significant economic reliance on the energy sector.
Climate change is a risk to our way of life and how we do business, but it is also an economic opportunity with the potential to create high value jobs.
Businesses are now in a position to broaden their customer base, reduce high-intensity energy costs, enhance brand reputations and attract talent – all as a direct result of working together to achieve net zero.
To these ends we need the next government to ensure the education and skills system prepares the talent pipeline for work in a net zero economy.
In the same year that Scotland plays host to the world’s foremost climate change meeting, we call for support for Scottish business to deliver net zero transition through a range of measures.
These include incentives, peer-to-peer support, knowledge transfer and sharing and investment initiatives.
This is an unrivalled opportunity to showcase private-sector leadership and business best practice to the world and beyond COP26, using the SCC network’s local presence, business connections and global impact.
The network has already made significant progress
in promoting the circular economy agenda.
By harnessing the opportunities that the circular economy can create, it will help to establish more jobs and businesses by forging a new, green, robust economy in Scotland.
The next government must also commit to introducing the longdelayed air departure tax at reduced rates, protecting and renewing Scotland’s connectivity to the world once travel restrictions are eventually lifted.