FRESH from making her Budget speech, Finance and Economy Secretary Kate Forbes has spoken exclusively on the Go Radio Business Show With Hunter & Haughey.
The show’s host, Donald Martin, editor of The Herald and Herald on Sunday, began by asking how she might respond to suggestions the Scottish Government does not listen enough to business?
“My diary is packed with engagements with business organisations, individual businesses and individuals active in our business community,” said Ms Forbes.
Lord Willie Haughey countered: “What people would like to see is there’s a route into Government from business and the Government does listen.”
Sir Tom Hunter added: “None of us has all the answers. The only way we get through this is through collaboration. Businesses want policy to be written in conjunction with them – not done to them, done with them.”
READ MORE: UK increase Covid alert to level 4 after rapid increase in new variant
Ms Forbes pointed out that since the election the Government has published, in collaboration with key business organisations, a principles-based framework for developing policy with business.
“I know developing these frameworks is only as valuable as the change it delivers to the way we do things,” she added, “so time will tell whether it hits the mark or not.”
Asked why the document doesn’t mention maximising economic growth, Ms Forbes said: “That is a priority for me. It doesn’t matter what I announce in a Budget about public services, about doubling the Scottish child payment, about trying to reduce inequalities, if we don’t have economic prosperity and growth.”
It has been reported by the Federation of Small Businesses that 20,000 small firms went bust during the Covid-19 pandemic. Lord Haughey wondered whether a taskforce should be set up to find ways to help.
“It is alarming,” said Ms Forbes. “It demonstrates a lot of the policies we immediately go to to try to help are not always working. Rates: most of these small businesses are not paying rates, so let’s not use rates as the fall guy’ grants: a lot of these businesses, not all, but a lot will have some sort of financial support.
“My impression is how unprepared all of us were for the pandemic. My sense of it is it’s more than money. It’s about guidance, mentoring and how to get support quickly in a very complex public sector.”
Asked specifically about support for the hospitality trade, Ms Forbes said it was not possible on a fixed budget to create funding overnight at the level required. “It does need to come from the UK Government. It’s the samefor the Welsh Government, which is why we have been working jointly with them.”
Ms Forbes announced in her Budget on Thursday that some business rates relief will continue for the first three months of the 2022-23 tax year, but
Sir Tom pointed out that, because of the switch to e-commerce, the only equitable way to tax businesses is at the point of sale.
“I 100 per cent agree with you taxing property is inconsistent with the way trade operates now and it needs wholesale reform. It probably needs replaced completely.
“If it’s a new tax, of course, we would need the UK Government’s permission. There’s scope to explore that further. Maybe that’s one of the areas where joint partnership with business could make a significant difference to the ultimate policy.”
READ MORE: 'Freezing' pupils and classroom Covid risks highlighted in major teaching survey
While Sir Tom and Lord Willie welcomed the Budget increase to £20 in Child Support Allowance, they also suggested the best help to give anyone is a good job.
“Yes, we need to get people into work that pays a fair wage,” said Ms Forbes. “What’s really encouraging in the past two weeks is we have PWC and Lloyds Banking Group both independently coming out and saying Scotland is the best place right now for green jobs.”
Asked to give businesses confidence going into the new year in the face of potential restrictions brought by the Omicron variant, Ms Forbes said: “If businesses can work with us, as they have done every twist and turn of the past two years, and help us keep people safe, my sincere hope is we keep them open, we keep them
trading and we keep the economy on the road.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel