Business Focus: We need a business restart grants scheme
Mike Smith, manager of Inverness Business Improvement District (BID), looks at how to move forward from lockdown.
After all the problems of the past year it’s great to be able to start this comment reflecting on good news stories.
The vaccination roll out is a massive credit to all involved from the research scientists to those who are currently delivering the jabs and the suggestion that the UK vaccination capacity could potentially rise to one million jabs a day is truly amazing!
From a business perspective, the UK Budget gave a necessary boost with furlough extended until September (albeit with employers having to make contributions from July-September) and to help hospitality and tourism jobs, there was continuation of the five per cent VAT until September, then an interim 12.5 per cent before going back to 20 per cent in April 2022.
While these two support schemes may still need to be adjusted in light of the speed of economic recovery, taken with the Scottish Government’s previously announced business rate holiday (for retail, hospitality and leisure) for the year to March 2022, this does offer businesses some certainty as to future operating costs.
Despite this support, what Scottish businesses really need now (alongside the earliest possible firming up of a lockdown timetable!) is help with cash flow.
So let’s hope that the additional £1.2 billion being paid to Scottish Government for 2021/22 above the sums due under the Barnett formula, will be used by our government to create the equivalent of the English business restart grants scheme which will give £6000 to each business due to open in April and up to £18,000 to those where reopening is delayed.
The other part of the business equation is, of course, the demand side of the economy and how it performs. In the current climate it must be right to delay tax rises until recovery is under way.
However, any return to austerity in the short or longer term, through severe public spending cuts, inequitable tax increases and/or squeezing of local services must surely be rejected.
If the pandemic has taught us anything it’s surely the importance of supporting the poorest and most disadvantaged in society!
