Glasgow Scottish National Party MSP, Bob Doris, is attempting to introduce a pilot scheme to improve the collection of business rates across Scotland. Glasgow City Council currently raises around 94 percent of business rates with the remainder going uncollected. Mr Doris claims that whilst there have been genuine difficulties in achieving a higher collection rate in the past, the loss to the public purse in cash terms is substantial. Glasgow's collection is at least 2 per cent less than the Scottish average.

Following a question raised by Mr Doris in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday (13 May), Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth John Swinney MSP confirmed that discussions were now under way and that pilots for the incentivisation scheme would be agreed with local authority body COSLA.

Councils collect non-domestic rates (NDR), but at present all the revenues are then handed to the Scottish Government before being redistributed to local authorities on a population basis. Bob Doris claims that local councils will be more likely to clamp down on businesses that evade rates if they can spend the extra cash raised on services within the local area.

Mr Doris said: "Whilst the Council may have had Glasgow specific difficulties in collecting business rates, the shortfall is considerable and compares poorly with other local authorities. Councils will be more likely to take a tougher approach with businesses if any extra revenues raised can be retained by the local authority for local services.

"The Tory government is already talking about in-year cuts of £6 billion to start tackling Labour's deficit, which will mean several hundred million immediately taken from the Scottish budget. Politicians at all levels need to wake up to the serious consequences of these cuts and look at how best to protect public services in these circumstances.

"A local government incentivisation scheme will go some way to improving Glasgow's finances. I will be pushing for its introduction here as early as possible to ensure that Glasgow gets a fair deal."

Mr Doris has invited representatives from both Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government to discuss his proposals and he will be urging the Government to introduce the scheme in Glasgow first.