Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Kate Forbes proud of Scottish Government approach after claiming that taxpayers’ millions going to wealthy second-home owners under Westminster scheme
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EMERGENCY business support scheme payments set up by the UK government are helping to prop up some second-home owners while fishermen are left to "rely on little more than Universal Credit", a Highland MSP has claimed.
Kate Forbes, the MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, said she was proud of how the Scottish Government was helping rural communities in her constituency after it emerged that the UK government’s emergency business support scheme has been paying out millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to wealthy second-home owners in England.
Under the Scottish equivalent, vacant second homes cannot claim business grants, which Ms Forbes said has enabled funding to be shared more widely with genuine businesses.
The number of short-term lets in Scotland, and especially the Highlands, has risen dramatically in recent years and in some areas locals are finding it increasingly difficult to find homes to live in.
Last year a Scottish Government study showed that almost one in five dwellings on the Isle of Skye is now an Airbnb (1083 listings for 5813 dwellings).
Some second homes register as a business and the owners avoid paying council tax. Because such properties may be on the Non Domestic Rates roll, in England they can access the £10,000 UK government grant designed to support small businesses struggling to survive the impact of the coronavirus.
One rural Conservative MP, Anthony Mangnall for Totnes, told the Financial Times that: “Fishermen are offered little support other than from universal credit, but are seeing Londoners with second homes being able to apply for £10,000.”
Ms Forbes said that this stood in contrast to Scottish Government support for the fishing industry, which she said totals almost £23 million to date.
The MSP, who is also Cabinet Secretary for Finance, said: “The economic crisis is having a significant impact on the Highlands and Islands. Our local economy is largely dependent on tourism, food and drink and small businesses.
“There are so many small businesses struggling at the moment, that it is important that support goes to as many as possible. That’s why it is so galling to see potentially millions of pounds going to second home owners in England, whilst fishermen rely on little more than Universal Credit.
“That is not the case in Scotland, because the Scottish Government took a very different approach, to ensure that empty second home owners don’t qualify for grants and more genuine small businesses can get support.
“In Highland coastal communities, fishermen will get help, as will the newly self-employed and non-rates paying businesses.”
