SRC calls for curb on fees as £124m cost of large business rates revealed 

The Scottish Retail Consortium has renewed its calls for a lowering of business rates after it emerged that the tax revenue the Scottish Government generates each year from the large firms’ business rates supplement has soared from £14.4 million to £124.8 million over the past decade.

The near nine-fold increase in the tax receipts were revealed in answers to parliamentary questions and the revelation comes after recent data from the Scottish Government also showed Scotland has seen 1,700 fewer shops and 10,000 fewer retail jobs over the past seven years.

The supplement (tax rate) was raised from 0.4p in the £ in 2006-07 to 2.6p in the £ this year.

The supplement is levied on 29,000 medium-sized and larger commercial premises in Scotland.

This includes 4,740 businesses in Glasgow, 3,910 in Edinburgh, 1,107 in Aberdeen, 944 in Dundee, and 963 in Renfrewshire.

Commenting on the new figures, Ewan MacDonald-Russell, head of policy at the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “Business rates in general and the large firms’ rates supplement in particular have been ratcheted up year after year with little regard to trading or economic conditions. As these taxes have gone up we’ve seen retail jobs lost and shops closed.

“These increases in the Large Business Supplement have made it clear to businesses looking to invest in Scotland that they will face higher costs here than elsewhere in the UK. This short term approach of raising taxes today will lead to lower tax revenue in the future as businesses go elsewhere either online or outside Scotland.

In September, thirteen of Scotland’s leading business representative groups combined to sign a joint letter to the Scottish Government voicing alarm over this year’s doubling of the supplement, and calling for the restoration of the level playing field with England.

Mr MacDonald-Russell added: “The strategy of attempting to pluck the goose with the minimum of hissing isn’t working. The only effect is to make life tougher for Scottish businesses already grappling with a growing cumulative burden of government-imposed costs including the new apprenticeship levy and higher employer pension contributions. The Finance Secretary needs to recognise this tax is hurting Scotland’s economy and move to scrap it in his Budget later this month.”