I am very grateful to Gordon MacDonald for bringing before us this debate, which covers a matter of huge importance in every part of Scotland. I am also very grateful for the contributions of all members from different parties across the chamber. They recognise the significant role that independent retailers play in the economy; it is a very large role.
The retail sector has been quite resilient during the recession. It did not go “down the stank”, to use the technical expression that Mr Gibson brought to the proceedings; rather, it managed to overcome very well the buffeting of the recession. I am quite sure that that is partly because of the hard work and effort that managers and owners of those independent businesses brought to bear to ensure that they offer an efficient, friendly and effective service that provides goods, fresh food and a variety of grocery products that people throughout the country want. They give people what they want and run the businesses well on a family basis. I used to be one of them, as opposed to a politician—although I suppose that a politician is one of them, as well, in a different context.
I was a small businessperson and I remember the pleasures and anxieties of running a business. Being responsible for the livelihoods of a great many other people is a burden to bear, but that is a burden that independent retailers bear extremely well in Scotland, as the figures show. As has been pointed out, employment in the sector is substantial.
There are challenges facing all businesses in Scotland. The burden of taxation is one such challenge. Various members, starting with Gordon MacDonald, mentioned business rates, and that was a particular focus of Gavin Brown’s speech. We are pleased that we reinstated the uniform business rate in 2008, the year after we came into office. That ended an extra overtaxation of, I think, up to 8 or 9 per cent, and the change has made a contribution. I am also very pleased that we have had a measure of cross-party support for the introduction of the small business bonus scheme, which assists more than 92,000 businesses—two in five premises.
Gavin Brown puts his points reasonably. As he suggests, we want to do more—there is no question about that. That applies across the board, because business rates are a significant burden for a great many businesses. The rate must be paid irrespective of turnover. The sum is fixed and is based on the notional rental or the rateable value. The rate is a large and looming burden in running a business.
I say out of fairness and to be candid, particularly given that we know that some independent retailers are in the gallery, that I would be somewhat pleasantly surprised if they were eligible for the small business scheme. That is because the bonus is for the smallest businesses.
Mr Brown asked whether we could raise the thresholds and whether those thresholds could be stepped. On 11 December 2013, John Swinney announced an expansion of the small business bonus scheme by increasing the upper threshold for businesses with multiple properties from £25,000 to £35,000. That expansion was estimated to extend the benefit to more than 4,000 additional properties over this Parliament’s lifetime.
We also have more generous provision with regard to empty property relief than is available south of the border. Derek Mackay, the Minister for Local Government and Planning, has introduced a new incentive—the fresh start relief, which provides a 50 per cent rate of relief for 12 months when long-term empty property such as shops and offices become newly occupied. That would perhaps affect only a small number of businesses; nonetheless, it is there to encourage and promote additional economic activity in the retail sector.
Reference was made to regulations and red tape. The Scottish Government brought in the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, which I led on, and which will make all public bodies subject to the duty of considering the economic impact of what they do. That general principle is one whose introduction was long overdue. The duty is not yet in force, but we expect regulators in particular to act as though it were. Therefore, when taking decisions, public bodies must take account of the economic impact—how they affect existing business—and seek to ascertain how decisions that they take will affect businesses.
On town centre planning, in July my colleague Derek Mackay, along with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, announced the town centre first principle. Reflecting some of Gordon MacDonald’s remarks about supermarkets, the recognition of that principle acknowledges that, in some town centres, matters are very difficult. There are empty shops, a great number of charity shops and perhaps a lack of choice to individuals in many towns throughout the country. I will not name them, but that is a tendency that we have noticed. Therefore, the town centre first principle is a recognition that we need to redress the balance against the dominance of the supermarkets, as was mentioned by a great many members.
Margaret McCulloch mentioned new initiatives. We have the small business bonus scheme, the empty property relief and the fresh start property relief. We also have the business improvement districts and the town centre first principle. In one sense, I suspect that for most people in business here, those are, in practical day-to-day terms, probably not of much relevance. Also, people in business do not expect or want Government to come along with an occasional cheque, bung or grant. They do not want initiatives with handouts. I am sure that that was not what was suggested. Rather, they expect to run profitably, to run the show themselves and to offer a good service to their customers and thereby make a decent living, and to look after their staff well and provide appropriate training for them.
However, we in the Scottish Government are of course very keen to work with the representative bodies that have been referenced, including the Scottish Grocers Federation, representatives of newsagents and the Scottish Retail Consortium. Like my colleagues, I seek to have close relations with those bodies, and I will continue to do that.
To the independent retailers and their sector in general, I say that I have worked with individual businesses, not least in my constituency, to help them to access other services so that they can, for example, become a post office or retain their lottery ticket outlet, and so on. However, if there are general matters, initiatives or measures that are identified by independent retailers as creating barriers to success, I would be extremely happy to work with their representatives on that. I am grateful that Mr MacDonald has given me the opportunity clearly to make that pledge. I also support the initiatives that have been taken by the Scottish Grocers Federation recently in terms of healthy living and healthy food, which we very much welcome.
We have covered quite a wide range of topics this evening, but I think that what is most important is that all of us, across the different parties, expressed our support for and appreciation of the economic, practical and, as Margaret McCulloch said, social functions that smaller independent shops provide as they compete with the megaliths of the dominant supermarkets with their different practices, including purchasing practices. The smaller shops find it difficult from time to time to compete with them in those ways. However, by their personal, local, effective, high-quality service they have nonetheless proved to be very resilient in hard times. The message from all of us is this: Long may that continue.
Meeting closed at 18:26.