OPINION: Burning issues for business and government as dust settles on new political order

While every general election opens a new chapter in this country’s history, few UK governments have gained office with more power to re-set destiny than this one.

The UK of 2021 will be a very different country to that of 2019, and the key decisions about its future shape are being made now.

So what do businesses from Scotland, and more especially the Highlands, want to see in 2020?

The first ask is practical. Smaller businesses must have time to prepare for the changing trading conditions that will result from Brexit. Rushing into things could have significant consequences for individual businesses, business sectors and regions like ours.

Similarly, the UK’s new immigration system must be sufficiently flexible to work for Scotland’s local economies, communities and firms. The Highlands and Islands has become particularly dependent on EU workers in recent years and, what with the decline in the working-age population and the lack of skilled job-seekers locally, we must ensure that we have a simple, efficient, inexpensive immigration system that enables businesses to recruit the staff they need as and when they need them.

Some businesses are already downsizing or reducing their opening hours because of staff shortages, and it would be a tragedy if this becomes the norm.

Addressing the UK’s mediocre digital connectivity is another high priority for smaller businesses right across the UK, and, sadly, the mediocrity increases the further one strays into remote rural areas. The new UK Government’s fibre broadband programme must be carefully co-ordinated with the Scottish Government’s telecoms initiatives, and we must give more attention to improving our patchy mobile coverage, not least to help our visitors have better experiences and spend more money as they travel.

Elsewhere, some major decisions about Scotland’s rates system will be made by policy makers in 2020, and at a time when many are facing rising costs and reducing profit margins, it is vitally important that smaller businesses are protected – and that the Small Business Bonus in particular is preserved.

However, two issues override everything. First is the need to rebalance our population and enable businesses and economies to flourish through the retention of more young people and the attraction of young families into the region. This means making the Highlands and Islands less remote by bringing the outside world closer through improved transport and digital connectivity. And it means making the region a great place to live, work and play by providing sufficient accommodation of the right types and prices in the right places, and by ensuring that the basic services that people expect nationally are available here and accessible locally.

The other issue is climate change. Responsible governments across the globe must take urgent action to drastically cut carbon emissions, which means making huge changes our daily lives. How these changes are implemented in the vast, remote and sparsely populated Highlands & Islands could make or break our region, and the FSB will ensure that the voice of smaller businesses is heard loud and clear in the debate.

David Richardson is the Highlands and Islands development manager for the Federation of Small Businesses.

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