Sarwar in new pledge to reform business rates – Daily Business

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has repeated his pledge to reform business rates to help small businesses.

Speaking ahead of an event with the Scottish Retail Consortium, Mr Sarwar promised a “fundamental overhaul” of the current business rates system.

Businesses in Scotland have been sounding the alarm over eye-watering increases to business rates resulting from revaluations.

Some are expected to see their rates soar by as much as 400% – with the Federation of Small Businesses describing its budget cut as a “drop in the ocean”.

Labour has called for a reset between local businesses and online retail giants.

“Businesses are facing eye-watering rates hikes, but the SNP is still tinkering around the edges of a fundamentally broken system,” said Mr Sarwar.

“The shops, pubs and restaurant at the heart of our communities are at risk and so are countless jobs – we need to reset the balance between those local businesses and the online giants.”