Scottish Government responds to Town Centre Review

Plans to revitalise Scottish town centres have been unveiled by Local Government Minister Derek Mackay today.

These include an expansion of the rates relief scheme for new businesses to include pubs, restaurants and hotels in a bid to diversify the high street.

The Town Centre Action Plan is a cross-government response to the independent National Review of Town Centres, published in July. The action plan addresses the recommendations of the review and outlines proposed joint working between public, private and community sectors.

Recommendations include:

* Expanding the ‘Fresh Start’ business rates relief to apply to pubs, hotels and restaurants from 1 April 2014 and to increase the thresholds of the scheme from property with a rateable value of £45,000 to £65,000
* £2m towards a Town Centre Housing Fund to help bring empty town centre properties back into use
* Working with COSLA to develop a town centre first principle.
* Powers for local authorities to establish Town Centre Investment Zones
* £120,000 for town centre charettes – grants available to help deliver community design meetings specifically focused on town centres
* Launching a competition for entrepreneurs to drive forward town centre regeneration ideas 
* Derek Mackay to be named dedicated Minister for Town Centres
* Maintaining the Small Business Bonus Scheme for the life of the current Parliament

Mackay said: “The Scottish Government is determined that our town centres should be vibrant, attractive and safe places where local people and visitors alike want to spend their time and money.

“They should be accessible places which invite business start-up and inspire innovative ideas from all walks of the community. We welcomed the independent review earlier this year and the crucial role it will play in the regeneration of high streets across Scotland.

“In response to this we are today publishing an action plan which will encourage and support action across the wider public, private and community sectors.

“We recognise the importance of securing the future of our high streets as the economic centre of our towns. This is why we have expanded Fresh Start – our rates relief scheme for new businesses – to include pubs, hotels and restaurants and increasing the thresholds for the scheme.

“Our town centres should also be places where we live and socialise, which is why we have allocated £2 million towards a housing fund to bring empty properties back into use as homes and are supporting community design charettes through £120,000 in funding.

“The plan marks a new era for Scotland’s town centres and we will continue to work in partnership with local authorities, private and community.”

However, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has said the measures are not sufficient. Scottish policy convener, Andy Willox, said: “The FSB has warned for many years that independent retailers cannot single-handedly win the battle to turn around Scottish town centres and high streets. While we support most of the measures outlined in today’s publication, many are re-announcements of existing policies and others won’t be implemented for some time. The proposal to develop Town Centre Investment Zones, for example, will require legislation not scheduled until 2014 and, even then, will require consent and funding from councils. Independent businesses expecting the town-centre cavalry will be waiting a while longer.

“Further, issues important to those currently located within our centres, such as parking, planning, traffic management, access and rents, have been neglected both by the initial review and by the Scottish Government response.”

Convener of the Cross Party Group on Towns and Town Centres Margaret McCulloch, welcomed much of the document, however, she is calling for action on the town centre first principle and support for communities eager to regenerate their towns.

She said: “There is broad support for community-led regeneration, entrepreneurship and affordable housing in our towns but there are key issues affecting town centres which have either been overlooked or are still not any closer to being resolved.

“The Scottish Government support the town centre first principle but they have yet to agree with their partners what ‘town centre first’ actually means in practice or how it will be implemented. No wonder Scottish ministers are standing idly by while police stations and local courts are being closed with little or no regard for the foot-fall that is lost when services pull out of town centres.

“There are communities, groups and businesses out there who want to turn their town centres around and were hoping for an action plan they could sink their teeth into but while there is good stuff in this paper I’m afraid that many of those people are still waiting for the tools and resources they really need.”