By Dave Hunter
Bar, club and restaurant operators from across Scotland didn’t pull their punches when they had the chance to vent their frustrations to politicians directly at a pre-election hustings organised by the Scottish Hospitality Group (SHG).
Hosted at Cold Town House in Edinburgh, representatives of the SNP, Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Reform and Green Party were questioned by hospitality business owners on their plans for the industry should they triumph in the May Scottish parliamentary election.
Opening the event, SHG spokesman Stephen Montgomery said hospitality business owners are ‘backing Scotland with their own capital, their belief and their ambition’.
“But ambition cannot survive in a constant arena of hostility and instability. When margins are razor-thin decisions made (by government) can mean the difference between keeping the lights on, expanding, creating good jobs, or handing back keys.
“This isn’t about special treatment. It’s about fairness. It’s about predictability and it’s about recognising economic reality.”
He was then followed by a range of business owners from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen, who quizzed the assembled politicians – often with palpable anger – about issues such as business rates, national insurance contributions and VAT.
As the governing party at Holyrood it was perhaps no surprise that the SNP bore the brunt of the trade’s frustrations, with the recent rates revaluation a particular bone of contention.
A Glasgow business owner took the chance to lambast the party’s record, saying: “As far as I’m concerned the SNP have bludgeoned, slowly, this industry. Ignored it. And it’s only recently you’ve come up with a nice wee package – funnily enough right before the election.
“It’s only now you’re talking about reforming the rates. I was there ten years ago when all the politicians were getting hassled for rates reform. You’ve done nothing. That’s what is really appalling.”
Despite widely differing opinions from the politicians present, however, there was tacit agreement from all corners that the current rates system is not fit for purpose.
Former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said he supported switching the rates methodology from the current turnover system to one based on square footage, as well as taking steps to make the assessment of premises more transparent.
Former Scottish Greens co-convenor, Patrick Harvie, said the current methodology is ‘absurd’ and advocated switching to a model based on a company’s profitability.
Scottish Conservatives leader Russell Findlay was in favour of pausing the current revaluation and overhauling the system entirely, as was Reform leader Malcolm Offord, while Daniel Johnson of Scottish Labour favoured a two-step approach. Short-term, he favoured changing the current system to make it fairer and more transparent, with a long-term view to replacing it altogether.
SNP representative Euan Hyslop acknowledged the strain the recent revaluation has put on the trade and pointed to the Scottish Government’s ongoing Gill Review as a sign the party is taking it seriously.
While the politicians all had the chance to say their piece, it was the trade that really had the floor. And the attending politicians were left in no doubt as to the anger the industry is feeling.
A Dundee operator, who has recently seen her bills increase by circa £50,000, summed up the feeling in the room when she said that the constant tax rises are due to successive governments having ‘screwed up’.
“We have to balance the books every single day,” she said. “Why can’t you?”
SLTN will approach all parties directly ahead of the election to ask what they will do for hospitality.
