Supporting Business

This has been a bad-tempered debate because those of us who want fairness are angry that those who oppose a transitional relief scheme have been more interested in covering up the damage caused to businesses than listening to the real hardship. Business leaders will have watched in dismay as Swinney, Brownlee et al paid more attention to name-calling and cheap electioneering than to the real problems outlined by my colleagues Jim Hume and Iain Smith and Labour members such as Lewis Macdonald. While Wendy Alexander's analysis was a welcome contribution to the debate, the SNP's contribution has been dire. Its only solution to the problem is to tell people to appeal. It is wrong for a minister to suggest that appealing is a solution without explaining the grounds of such an appeal.

During the Easter recess, I visited some local businesses that are hit hard by rates revaluation-businesses such as Deans of Huntly and Aberdeen and Northern Marts, which are based locally but are of local and national standing. I have surveyed hotels in my region and have been in contact with the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce. I have found out about some massive hikes in rates.

I have also learned of owners' and managers' fears for their businesses in light of the increases. The Liberal Democrats have used their time in the chamber this morning to give those businesses a voice in Parliament. Obviously, any revaluation has winners and losers, but in the past there has been a transitional relief scheme to soften the blow-businesses did not suffer the full force of the rate rise in one go. It is different this time around because the SNP Government has refused to put a transitional relief scheme in place. Businesses throughout Scotland find themselves left alone to deal with huge increases in their bills just when, having perhaps managed to weather the recession so far, they might expect to look for support from the Government.

Gus Stewart, a rating partner at Ryden, summed up the mood:

"It is strange that at a time when transitional relief would probably have been at its most helpful for those seeing significant increases and ratepayers already struggling in the face of a recession, that it has been removed. The Government has publicised the fact that the reduction in the uniform business rate (UBR) will itself cushion the increases, but this is the same uniform business rate as applied in England and it will have a transitional relief scheme. Scottish businesses are once again the poor relations."

As we have already heard this morning, auction marts across Scotland are facing astronomical business rate increases and Inverurie's Thainstone mart is the hardest hit of them all. Aberdeen and Northern Marts has seen its business rates soar 70.7 per cent to £248,400.

The president of the IAAS, John Gregor, has said:

"The Scottish Government professes to be a strong supporter of the livestock industry in Scotland. However, by not re-introducing transitional relief, they are letting the industry down and threatening its very existence."

He went on to say that we cannot allow the livestock industry to suffocate under such charges.

Hotels have been badly hit too. Ivor Finnie, director of EDC hotels in the north-east explained to me that his rates will rise by 45.87 per cent, which represents an increase of £280,000. He said that that was

"an astronomical sum for our business and in the absence of transitional relief in my opinion, a wholly unfair increase."

Further, Malmaison in Aberdeen, a welcome newcomer to the hotel scene, has been sent a bill for a 66 per cent increase. Agriculture and tourism are vital to Scotland's economy, yet the Government has refused so far to lend a hand.

Jim Tolson mentioned the Lauriston nursery in Dunfermline that saw its rates rise by 150 per cent and finds itself paying more than Dunfermline Football Club. Mr Salmond was happy to have his photograph taken at the nursery last month; I wonder whether he will now be happy to vote for the introduction of a transitional relief scheme to ease the burden on Ms Crush's business.

Alex Salmond is always quick to pronounce on economic issues that are the preserve of Westminster, but there has been an uncomfortable silence from him on business rates in Scotland, which are entirely within his power to do something about. In the First Minister's constituency, Meldrum House Hotel faces an increase of 161 per cent; Thainstone mart 71 per cent; Meldrum Motors 94 per cent; Strathburn Hotel 56 per cent; and Dean's of Huntly 23 per cent. Those massive rises are unfair, yet the First Minister has nothing to say on the topic. The SNP's latest public relations campaign tries to kid us that electing SNP politicians is akin to electing local champions. The businesses of Gordon do not have a local champion in their local MSP in this matter. Alex Salmond has not been heard articulating the concerns of local businesses in Inverurie, Meldrum or Huntly.

The refrain from the Government that 60 per cent of businesses will be better off is no consolation to the 40 per cent of them who are hardest hit. Jeremy Purvis, our finance spokesperson, warned the Government last year about the difficulties that this revaluation would cause and the Lib Dems have been calling for action for months. The SNP has blithely ignored those calls and turned its back on some of our most important businesses. It is not just me who thinks that; CBI Scotland director, Iain McMillan, recently said:

"We're not happy that (finance secretary) John Swinney has rejected the business community's advice. We're living in times of severe economic restrictions".

Before the revaluation in 2005, the previous Scottish Government consulted widely and introduced a transitional relief scheme to limit the increases in business rates. In 2010, the UK Government is doing that for English businesses, yet at a time of deep recession the SNP does not think that there is any need for a transitional relief scheme. I say that it is unfair to put Scottish businesses at a competitive disadvantage compared with businesses in England. It is time for the SNP Government to think again. It is not too late to introduce a transitional relief scheme to limit the increase in bills. In the end it comes down to fairness.

The Conservatives and the SNP voted down our first attempt to introduce a transitional relief scheme; today we give them another chance. I know where I stand on this matter.