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Business

Scottish public sector spending is over 20% higher than in England with more than twice as many people working for government than the entire manufacturing sector. In 1997 The Scottish Office employed less than 5,000 people, while today the Scottish Executive employs 11,500. This cannot be sustained. However with the existing parties afraid to turn off the public expenditure tap, in case they lose votes, we are presently stuck with the state spending more than 40% of our income. The New Party is committed to bringing down spending in the public sector to less than 30% of GDP .

"Resources are being transferred on a huge scale from the productive and efficient sector of the economy to the public sector where productivity is poor and falling… public sector productivity has fallen by 15 to 20 per cent since 1997."
Nick Herbert, Director of Reform

Our economy has become far to dependant on the State at the expense of genuine enterprise and our increasing cost base is deterring investors. Scottish business rates are 10% higher than those in England with the cost second only to wages and NIC.

"We have tested to destruction the notion that more public expenditure will improve the underlying economic performance of the Scottish economy".
Professor Sir Donald MacKay

"The burden of regulation is the most significant avoidable constraint on business growth."
David Frost, Director General,
British Chambers of Commerce

The New Party will ditch unnecessary red tape and strip out as much harmful legislation as possible to give business the space to operate. We will introduce fast-track planning procedures to eliminate the planning log-jam which inhibits both commercial and residential development and fuels the dangerous rise in house prices. We will free up land supply by allowing more building on available sites and removing altogether the requirement for planning permission in selected areas where new and sustainable jobs can be created.

The New Party believes that the poundage on Scotland's business rates should be reduced to UK levels immediately and abolished altogether as soon as practicable. We will also abolish Scottish Enterprise and use the savings to underpin reductions in business rates and charges.

Related Policies

• A Strategy for Growth and Prosperity

• Low, Simple and Fair Taxation

• Cutting the cost of the state

• Deregulation: Industry, Employment and Incomes

• Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Foods