Report to the People
Business Package
Breakfast, we are told, is the most important meal of the day. One particular breakfast last Thursday, though, was perhaps more important than others.
At a business breakfast attended by trade union representatives and business leaders in Edinburgh, the First Minister, Henry McLeish, unveiled a range of measures to help small businesses.
Under the scheme, Small Business Rates Relief will be increased and red tape will be slashed.
Maybe it’s years of opening gas bills and junk mail at the breakfast table, but I have difficulty believing that any news you receive at 7 in the morning can sound good.
But the business community has good reason to welcome this as a positive move. Indeed, whenever I meet and talk with local business representatives, the issues of business rates and red tape are never far from the top of the agenda.
I fear that at this point your fingers may be itching to turn the page. I admit that Regulatory Impact Assessments, Poundage Rates, and Micro Business Tests may not set the pulse racing, but how we support entrepreneurs and small businesses has an impact on us all.
No one in Greenock & Inverclyde needs to be told about the dangers of over-reliance on a small number of large employers. It is in all our interests that we have what economists refer to as "a broad economic base", with many small and medium sized employers operating in a range of sectors.
And, of course, these businesses equal jobs; which equal a strong economy; which equals the ability to invest in our communities.
It is vital, therefore, that we encourage and support small businesses, rather than hamstring them with red tape.
This, of course, does not mean giving cowboy operators a licence to operate as they please. The package will not undermine the National Minimum Wage or health and safety regulations. It is part of the Executive’s better regulation strategy, under which all Scottish business regulations must justify their continued existence in a "regulatory MOT" within 10 years. This ensures that each and every one of them remains fit for its purpose.
This strategy has the potential to support local businesses and continue our regeneration. Not bad for a morning’s work.
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