Colin Borland: Local elections are hugely significant for small firms

They’re certainly not irrelevant if you’re in business.

So many of the rules and regulations that make life easier or harder for the average small business come from local government, not Holyrood or Westminster. The decisions they take on local places and how they spend their budgets have a real, direct impact on local trading conditions.

That’s why, at the Federation of Small Businesses, we’re urging all of our 32 local authorities to put small businesses at the heart of their plans for post-pandemic recovery.

Now, we would say that, wouldn’t we? So, let’s look at what that might mean in practice and what the wider benefits might be.

Take, for instance, councils’ spending power. We know that, on average, less than a third of the £7 billion spent annually by Scotland’s local authorities is with local businesses. We estimate increasing this spend by a modest two per cent would bring a benefit of £140m to local economies across Scotland.

This wouldn’t just be a boost to those firms winning business and their employees. In the last three years, four out of five small businesses have reported contributing to their local communities or charities. So, on top of supporting local jobs, money spent with local businesses will also come back into the community via other routes.

As our manifesto for the council elections points out, small businesses employ around 700,000 people across Scotland and contribute £74.4bn to their local economies. So, given their economic importance, this campaign is also the perfect opportunity to talk about how we can make life easier for those running SMEs.

Many small business owners report that council processes are lengthy, confusing or needlessly paper-based. And, as you know only too well if you’re self-employed or have a handful of staff, filling out forms can be a massive time drain.

The good news is that councils don’t need to reinvent the wheel on this front, but they might want to put on some all-terrain tyres to get them driving forward. Changes like simplifying online processes, converting paper-based processes to digital and taking an overall “single customer view” when businesses are making various applications across a range of departments could ultimately save time and money for everyone.

But if you’re still not convinced about the importance of casting your vote a week on Thursday, consider this. Local authorities aren’t just crucial to the daily running of many aspects of business. They will play a huge – and ever more significant – role in determining the economic health of Scotland’s small businesses, as post-pandemic recovery begins in earnest.

They will make decisions on planning and re-purposing existing spaces, they will administer business rates and other levies, they will have a role to play in regulating waste as we push forward to Net Zero. And they will provide support to businesses starting and scaling up through Business Gateway.

The choices councils make as significant local employers will also impact on the health of the local economy. To remain viable, town centres need a critical mass of economic activity, spread across various sectors. Thus, councils retaining their main offices – and fully reopening their headquarters now that working from home rules have relaxed – will enable the return of more office-based staff and hence boost local footfall.

I’ve always had huge respect for the dedicated women and men who put themselves forward to represent their communities on their local council. It can be a thankless task and their hard work all-too-often goes unrecognised.

But they do make a real difference to our lives and our local places. And some of the decisions to be taken in the town buildings in the next five years will have a lasting impact on communities and the businesses that sustain them. The least we can do is have our say on who we want taking those decisions.

Colin Borland is director of devolved nations for the Federation of Small Businesses.