News Story

Slash taxes and scrap food price cap, retailers say in budget wishlist

The Scottish Retail Consortium also urged the Scottish Government to make spending cuts.

The Finance Secretary must slash taxes and scrap plans for a food price cap, retailers have said.

The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) also urged Jenny Gilruth to make spending cuts as it published its budget wishlist.

The business group issued 21 recommendations to the Scottish Government to improve the nation’s economy and the public finances.

Among the asks sent to Ms Gilrith is a promise of no new taxes on the retail sector, while “avoiding new regulatory burdens”.

It also wants stores in Scotland to benefit from increased rates relief to at least the same levels as those seen in England.

The Finance Secretary is urged to make shopping safer by committing more money to Police Scotland’s Retail Crime Taskforce and resourcing Trading Standards to tackle unscrupulous illicit traders.

The SRC also asked the Deputy First Minister to cut taxes by narrowing the difference between taxes elsewhere in the UK during her next budget, expected in December.

The group also urged Ms Gilruth to show “spending restraints” while cutting health boards, councils, and the number of civil servants.

SRC director David Lonsdale said: “Scotland’s retailers are weathering an economic storm as the costs of international instability and domestic public policy impact on their supply chains and their own operations.

“In the face of these challenges the industry is looking for an unabashed Budget for shoppers which supports businesses who are doing everything in their power to keep costs down for Scottish households.

“That requires new Finance Secretary Jenny Gilruth to grapple with the legacy of the last Parliament which has left Scottish shops with a less generous rates discount than England at every level, with a complicated income tax system which impacts recruitment, and with a public sector which needs to cut its cloth in the same manner as industry.

“It also means ministers need to focus on what measures can make the most tangible improvements to people’s lives, for example enhancing the successful Retail Crime Taskforce and ditching the ill-conceived and incoherent statutory food price cap.”

Mr Lonsdale said the industry was willing to work with the Scottish Government to make Scotland the “best place in the UK to grow a retail business”.

He added: “With the Holyrood election behind us now is the time to take the tough decisions to balance the books, support shoppers and retail businesses, and kickstart economic growth.

“If the Government can do that we’d urge MSPs from across Parliament to work collegiately to pass a pro-growth Budget. The first Budget of this session has the chance to set a new pro-growth tone.