Sarah Medcraf: SNP leader and First Minister elect Humza Yousaf needs a reset with business community
The new First Minister must offer the business community a reset
Humza Yousaf is the new leader of the SNP and set to be the new First Minister of Scotland.
Ash Regan, Kate Forbes, and Humza Yousaf tirelessly campaigned over the last month to try and prove why they would be worthy of the votes to give them the honour of being the next First Minister. aside from the Independence discussion, which we would of course expect.
The candidates discussed infrastructure, economic growth, childcare, public services and so forth and whilst they are all members of the same party, have different views and priorities.
Business will have differing views and priorities too. An engineering business which wants to expand but is struggling for talent, will have different priorities - and of course different requirements from the Scottish Government - than an entrepreneur in the creative industry or a hotelier.
Where I think we can and need to find the common ground is through communication, listening and understanding.
We heard from Kate Forbes that she’d like a ‘meaningful reset’ between business and Scottish Government, whilst Humza Yousaf has said that his door will always be open to business stakeholders.
Many of our businesses are in a much tougher situation now than Covid-19 ever put them in.
The cost of doing business is so much higher, linked with some sectors having a huge drop in sales and many businesses still paying off debt from money they borrowed when they were unable to trade properly.
All this makes for a very uneasy business community.
So, what are businesses looking for? Handouts? No! They are looking for policy and legislation that supports them, that encourages ambition and supports innovation.
They want to feel valued as a contributor of jobs and opportunities (and tax!) in their community.
They want to be heard by government at early stages of policy creation so the government fully understand the impacts on time, money and other resources on businesses before decisions are made.
We’ve seen the mess with the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) over the last few months and the reality is, no one is against the end goal of needing to recycle more, but the ‘how’ we do this is completely off the mark. We need to learn from this so this is not repeated.
Whilst I know Rome wasn’t built in a day, I look forward to the new FM engaging with the business community and supporting a growing economy, which will benefit everyone.
