Helping Scotland’s businesses: SNP should first use the powers they’ve got
Follow Tory Hoose on Twitter. Read more from this authorSpeaking after FMQs today, Annabel Goldie MSP, Scottish Conservative Leader, said:
“The First Minister likes to wax lyrical at every opportunity about the powers he doesn’t have – like Corporation Tax, which he wants devolved.
“The fact is that, according to the Scottish Parliament’s own researchers fewer than 3% of all businesses in Scotland would benefit. And by the Government’s own admission their estimated 27,000 new jobs would take 20 years.
“The First Minister has got a tax power which he can use right now. In an SNP press release we are told that the small business bonus, delivered by Scottish Conservative votes in the last parliament, created 40,000 new jobs in just 4 years, at a fraction of the cost of the First Minister’s proposal for Corporation Tax.
“Yesterday’s budget was silent on extending more help to more businesses, large and small, to cut their business rates and create more jobs right now, with the powers we’ve got. Rather than bleat about what he doesn’t have, Alex Salmond should make the most of what he does have.”
