Council Budget: Inverness BID calls for pro-business policies

Inverness Business Improvement District director has warned that this year’s local authority budget could put local traders under even more pressure given the volatile economic climate.

BID Director Lorraine Bremner McBride warned that many city centre businesses are still under real pressure and a hiking the base rate of parking charges and commercial waste will not help.

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“Economically it remains an extremely challenging time for many of our member businesses,” she said.

“The ongoing impact of Brexit, high energy costs, high inflation and high interest rates as well as the cost-of-living crisis – reducing available household budgets – helps explain why for example unit vacancy rates in Inverness have increased from 7.8 per cent in 2018 to 12.6 per cent in 2022 and the recent revaluation of non-domestic rates had a net effect for most of either no change or a reduction, demonstrating that growth remains elusive and times for business remain tough.

“In this context, raising the cost of commercial waste removal by three per cent and doubling basic car parking charges when there remains no cheap or reliable public transport alternative is short-sighted.

“We need to see more pro-business measures urgently to help provide the much-needed stimulus and the right conditions to help our local economy recover and grow.

“As it is, some of our members report that the increasing costs, and the existing and growing pressures placed on them, as well as the lack of pro-business policies given they already face an uneven playing field may, in the longer-term, be unsustainable.”

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