Business groups have called for a change in Scotland's planning system to prevent another debacle like the Donald Trump golf resort decision.

Business groups have called for a change in Scotland's planning system to prevent another debacle like the Donald Trump golf resort decision.

Looking ahead to 2008, CBI Scotland has said the Scottish Government must encourage more weight to be given to economic matters in planning decisions. Planning laws currently being phased in would speed up the system, the CBI said, but local planners must be encouraged to look at the bigger picture, and not just the effect on a small area.

The government stepped in when Trump's plans for a £1bn golf resort on the Menie Estate were rejected on the casting vote by a committee of Aberdeen council, and its intervention has ignited a political row at Holyrood.

Iain McMillan, director of CBI Scotland, described the council's decision as "potentially very damaging" and went on: "I think that Scotland is under the spotlight at the moment at the moment and that overseas investors are monitoring this very carefully."

Scottish Chambers of Commerce has also called for change in the planning system. Liz Cameron, director, said: "If Jim Mather (Industry Secretary) believes that a nine-month timescale should be the upper limit for renewable energy planning applications, then why should this not apply to all planning applications, as we have called for?"

Cameron said ministers should also "revisit the idea being pursued in England of an independent national planning authority for strate- gic projects - I would have thought Mr Salmond might be beginning to find this idea attractive, given current circumstances".

CBI Scotland has also warned that the economic slowdown could cost thousands of jobs in Scotland in the coming year. The organisation said the country could shed up to 10,000 jobs as the turmoil in financial markets and rising food and energy costs hit home in 2008.

The CBI nationally has recently downgraded its forecast for UK economic growth in 2008 from 2.2% to 2%, suggesting a rise in unemployment, but McMillan also pointed to a squeeze in the public sector. He said public spending would "slow significantly" because of the three-year spending review announced by the chancellor in October.

"Therefore the ability of the public sector in Scotland to put demand and employment into the economy is going to drastically slow down."

The growth powerhouse of financial services could also be hit by the slowdown, McMillan said. "As banks seek to rebuild the quality of their balance sheets and restore margins in their profit-and-loss accounts, that will almost certainly have some impact. It could have an impact in terms of employment in the financial services sector."

Banks would "have to be very cost-conscious and this might lead to job losses in that sector". But he added: "We are not expecting a massive amount of job losses, certainly at the UK level."