The Scottish Conservatives have today (Wednesday) pledged to abolish car parking charges for stays of up to two hours in a bid to revive the country’s ailing high streets.
Under the plans in the party’s Holyrood election manifesto, local authorities would be given the funding to end short-term parking fees to stimulate local economies in Scotland’s towns and cities.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay unveiled the policy on a visit to Paisley town centre this morning to coincide with the SNP’s crippling business tax rises coming into force.
The rates revaluation, which business leaders pleaded with John Swinney to pause, has seen bills jump by several hundred per cent for some, adding to the woes of high street businesses.
Findlay said the anti-business policies of the Nationalists, coupled with their cuts to local government funding and soaring personal tax rates, which limited consumers’ spending power, had left Scotland’s high streets in a “sorry state”.
He added that the measures proposed by the Scottish Conservatives would boost local economies, by making it cheaper for hard-pressed Scots to visit their town centre and support small businesses.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “After almost two decades of neglect under the anti-business SNP, Scotland’s high streets are in a sorry state.
“Our common-sense plan to provide councils with funding to give motorists two hours of free parking will generate much-needed footfall.
“This would create a buzz in towns and cities – and give local businesses a big shot in the arm.
“All the SNP have done is choke businesses with red tape and hammer them with high taxes.
“At the same time, they’ve slashed funding for councils and made life miserable for motorists, who are treated as pariahs.
“We’re the only party with credible plans to cut taxes and get our economy moving again.
“That’s why Scots need to vote Scottish Conservative on their peach ballot and stop an SNP majority.”
Notes to editors
Relevant Scottish Conservative manifesto commitments:
We would give local councils funding to abolish car parking charges for stays of two hours or less. Our high streets are in desperate need of a revival but due to SNP underfunding of local government, councils are being forced to hike parking charges to make up for shortfalls in their budget. The Scottish Conservatives want to grow our economy and cut costs for consumers, so we would give local authorities enough cash to abolish parking charges for stays of under two hours to stimulate economic growth, with a view to extending the scheme if the policy manages to stimulate local economies across Scotland.
We would permanently reduce taxes for businesses by lowering business rates and restructuring the system to end cliff-edge rises. The biggest business tax devolved to the Scottish Parliament is business rates. However, under the current system, businesses face cliff-edge rises if they fall out of eligibility for the Small Business Bonus Scheme or are dragged into a higher poundage rate. We would restructure the business rates system so that no business rates are levied at all for properties valued at under £20,000. Properties valued at more than £20,000 would only be charged business rates on the value of property above £20,000. Similarly, every time a commercial property moves up to a higher tax band, they would only be charged the higher rate for the value of their property that is above the higher-rate threshold.
We would end extreme business rates revaluations by capping the maximum rise that can occur between revaluation cycles. Businesses have been hit with enormous rates rises in the most recent revaluations this year. This is not sustainable or fair for businesses who cannot afford to pay for huge rises from one year to the next – so we would cap the maximum rise that can take place in a revaluation cycle to prevent this from happening in the future. In addition, we would also exempt property improvements from revaluation for a defined period, so businesses have a chance to realise a return on their investment before being hit with extra costs.