A RESTAURANT owner has written to MP Kirsten Oswald and MSP Jackson Carlaw asking them to raise issue of business grants being paid to retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in Scotland.

Grants in Scotland are one per business, whereas south of the Border they are one per property, Greig Anderson notes.

The co-owner of MJ’s Brasserie in Williamwood, East Renfrewshire and Moyra Janes in Pollokshields, Glasgow, wrote in the letter to the MP for East Renfrewshire and SNP business convener, and Scottish Tory leader and Eastwood MSP Jackson Carlaw, that his business “will be hit hard by the Scottish Government’s decision to limit the small business grants of £10,000 and £25,000 to one per business”.

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He wrote: “It means I will be significantly worse off than my counterparts in England and Wales where the scheme offers support to all qualifying properties owned by businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.

“My two properties both have rateable values of over £15,000 and so would both qualify for grants of £25,000 if they were in England or Wales. As they are in Scotland, I will receive a single grant of £25,000 - half what my counterparts in England and Wales will receive.”

Finance Secretary Kate Forbes earlier said the Government will limit grants to one per business, regardless of how many outlets they trade from.

It comes as Advance Construction Scotland flags its view that firms in sector are in jeopardy amid “shortcomings” in job retention scheme.

ACS, which employs more than 1,600 staff, said that the failure to publish a timescale for furlough payments had left many companies fearing for future.

Seamus Shields, who established the family owned company 25 years ago, called on the UK and Scottish Governments to look at an emergency funding package similar to that announced for the hospitality and tourism sectors. Mr Shields said: “This is an unprecedented situation and despite the many high and lows of the construction over past decades, as with many other industries it is difficult to draw any sort of comparison to what we are dealing with now. Our company is working across more than 200 live construction sites and has a payroll stretching to seven figures per week.”