One of Scotland’s leading business groups has unveiled its own manifesto for this year’s Scottish Parliament elections.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Scotland is putting forward a series of its own policy proposals it wants the country’s political parties to adopt in order to boost economic recovery.
These include creating a financial intermediary scheme to help increase lending to small businesses and the government and giving more support to anyone who is self-employed and seeking to hire their first employees.
The FSB, which has 20,000 Scottish members, also wants the Scottish Government to work closely with the Scotland Office to ensure the rollout of next generation broadband is carried out as efficiently as possible.
Its manifesto, called The Journey Back: How Small Businesses Can Drive The Recovery, also recommends government should undertake a study into how the aggregation of contracts affects the supply chain, end users, local communities and the wider economy.
Scottish policy convener, Andy Willox, said, “The coming Scottish Parliament election campaign will see the economy, jobs and enterprise put front and centre.
“It is a great opportunity to debate in detail how we can help Scotland’s small businesses do what they do best create jobs, revenues and economic activity.
“Despite everything that has come our way in recent years, Scottish small businesses still employ some 800,000 people, with no looming threats of relocation if they don’t get their own way.
“The small business community is the business community and we hope our politicians will work with the FSB to see some of these ideas developed.”