ENTREPRENEURS Lord Willie Haughey and Sir Tom Hunter have said they will invite First Minister Humza Yousaf onto the Go Radio Business Show to discuss his pledge to support Scotland’s business community.

Discussing last week’s announcement by the Scottish National Investment Bank that it has made a £20 million investment into Aurora Energy Services and an £18m follow-on investment to Trojan Energy, the leading businessmen questioned why the Scottish Government had cut its funding to both the Scottish National Investment Bank and Scottish Enterprise in its Budget in December.

“It’s interesting because the Scottish Government says it wants to get closer to business and help business – it is saying one thing then doing the opposite,” said Lord Haughey. “We would be adding more money to these institutions, not taking it away.”

Sir Tom praised Scottish Enterprise and its chief executive Adrian Gillespie for focusing on productivity, the transition to renewables and helping entrepreneurs, pointing to the organisation’s announcement last week that it has supported Flowcopter, a Midlothian-based drone technology manufacturer, with almost £1 million towards the development of a new hybrid, heavy-lift, unmanned aircraft capable of operating on less than 30% of the aviation fuel used by a helicopter.

He said: “Why don’t we send an invited to the First Minister and ask him to say what he is doing, not what he saying, to help the economy?”

Lord Haughey then said that speaking to leaders from all business sectors at an event in Edinburgh last week “not one of them had anything good to say about any of the Scottish Government’s last five or six policies”.

Both Sir Tom and Lord Haughey also voiced concerns about the proposed visitor levy in Scotland, controversial legislation which will allow councils to add a tax to overnight accommodation if they wish to do so. Dubbed a “tourist tax”, accommodation providers and hospitality businesses are worried it might not benefit tourism and instead put people off visiting.