Commercial mortgage holders should be charged higher rates, Salmond says

28 January 2011

Written by Gavin Elley

Commercial mortgage holders may be interested to know that a leaked email from Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond proposed businesses with empty properties should be charged higher rates.

The document become available last night (January 27th) and also asked officials to consider cutting business rates for firms in a list of policy ideas.

Mr Salmond felt there should be a "phased reduction" in charges to companies to ten per cent below English levels by 2020, but that those who own unoccupied real estate should have fees levied against them.

There was criticism over the ideas proposed by the leaked document, with labour finance spokesman Andy Kerr asserting a business rates cut like that proposed by Mr Salmond would eat into council budgets by £200 million.

However, Mr Kerr said the proposed reform of empty property tax relief was "much more worrying", adding: "The real concern is the chaos that it [the email] reveals at the heart of the SNP's [Scottish National Party] economic policy."

A rate hike has already been planned by the UK government, which has said business rate exemptions will only be available on empty commercial properties with a rateable value of £2,600 or lower from April 1st, rather than the £18,000 threshold currently in force.

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