Scottish election 2021: Stirling candidates face Q&A on the big issues affecting city residents
| Published date | 04 May 2021 |
The candidates were given the opportunity to present their views on some of the biggest issues affecting Stirling residents locally, nationally and globally in a bid to win your vote.
The four candidates are:-
Here we will show the questions put to the candidates by theStirling Observerand their responses to each question.
What ideas will you bring to the table for Covid-recovery, particularly for retail/business and what suggestions do you have for the regeneration of Stirling city centre following the loss of some major retailers?
"The Stirling of my teenage years, with trips to ‘Our Price’ for CDs or ‘Woolworths’ for the pick-and-mix before a trip to the Allanpark cinema, has changed dramatically.
"Changing shopping habits have had a profound impact on our high streets and not always for the best.
"A vote for Labour is a vote for a stimulus plan where we will give every adult (16+) a £75 prepaid card to spend in person on our high streets. We’ll promote the ‘Great Scottish Staycation’; tourists pay for two nights, Labour subsidises a third which will keep people in Stirling for longer and spending more money.
"Labour will introduce reduced business rates on non-grocery bricks-and-mortar shops and a taskforce to examine business rates and ensure the digital economy makes a fair contribution to local services.
"However, this isn’t one government alone; if we want a vibrant city centre, we have to support businesses with ‘shop local’ whenever we can."
"The Scottish Liberal Democrats will reform business rates to take the burden off high street retailers, who are unfairly disadvantaged compared to online retailers who have lower premises costs.
"We support a land value element for this new tax to avoid penalising businesses who improve their properties, for example by installing renewables or developing measures to keep their customers safe from the virus. This will help high streets develop into community hubs, with a good shopping and social experience, and allow them to compete with online. The new system will raise more from underused sites and land “banked” by developers.
"We will review the rates relief system to give more support to shops on local high streets which have low turnover but a high rateable value.
"We will give local authorities control of the level of tax and reliefs in their area to foster new partnerships between councils and local business."
"The over-riding priority for the Scottish Parliament over the next five years must be to rebuild our communities, businesses, and local economies.
"Scottish Conservatives want at least 25 per cent reduction in business rates in 2022-23 and a tapered scheme for smaller businesses. This will encourage small businesses and entrepreneurs to retain their presence on their high streets. We would grant more powers to councils to exempt areas from rates completely, redevelop derelict sites and scrap parking charges in town centre locations. We must do everything possible to allow high street shops to compete fairly with huge online companies.
"I have consistently worked with Stirling’s high street businesses to promote the needs of retailers and find innovative solutions to make our town centre an attractive place to live, work and visit. This is now even more important in the wake of the pandemic and the loss of major retailers such as Debenhams."
"The Covid pandemic has hit almost every part of our lives. According to official statistics, there has been a sharp rise in the local area of people on some form of unemployment support over the course of the past year. A lot of work needs to be done at all levels of government to ensure our communities recover from the impact the pandemic has had.
"The City Region Deal is a strong starting point, and we need to build on that work to attract investment and jobs to our area. An SNP government will also invest £500 million in creating new jobs across the country, and to re-skill people.
"We’ve also committed to freezing lower rates of income tax, so people keep more of the money they earn which will help stimulate economic recovery.
"We will also do everything we can to strengthen and maintain our relationship with other EU countries, despite being faced with a Brexit we didn’t...
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