I am congratulating the Scottish Lib Dems for their successful inclusion of the Post Office Diversification Fund in the Scottish budget. The diversification fund will help secure the future of local post offices by helping them offer a wider range of goods and services to their communities.

The news that a Post Office Diversification Fund has been included in the budget is great news for Angus villages and towns. With state owned banks refusing to lend to sound Scottish businesses at reasonable rates, the fund will assist post office owners to expand and widen their services. By helping the businesses become more profitable, it will hold off the risk of closure.

I learned that the risk of further closures is still serious. Under the last Tory government over 4,000 Post Offices were closed. Under Labour 608 more in Scotland have closed, and yet the boss of Royal Mail is paid a salary of more than £1 million.

Post Offices are essential services in many towns and villages across Angus. I visited Glamis Post Office, which is the last remaining shop in the town. It was saved from closure by a hard fought campaign by the owners, Hugh and Ann Nicoll and local residents. Its success is partly due to expanding the range of goods sold, and it is now the village shop as well as a Post Office. In spring and summer, their cafe provides lovely refreshments for tourists and locals.

Not all villages can count on a strong campaign in defence of their Post Office. The Diversification Fund secured by Scottish Liberal Democrats at Holyrood will ensure a fair chance for all village Post Offices to stay open.

Budget, Forfar, Glamis, Post Office, Scottish Parliament

I am backing the Scottish Lib Dem campaign to get the SNP Government to support businesses and particularly hotels, facing huge increases in their businesses rates. Speaking to a debate on this issue at the Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference, I highlighted the issues facing tourism during a year of celebrations across the whole of Angus.

Jeremy Purvis MSP, Lib Dem Shadow Secretary on Economic affairs, introduced a motion to press the Scottish Government to support hotels facing rises of up to 120% in the 2010 Business Rates revaluation. He called for the SNP to provide transitional relief, staggering increases over a number of years, in the same way as the previous Lib Dem / Labour Government had done whilst in power, and is standard practice across the rest of the UK.

In Angus, the recession is already hitting Scottish Hotels and Tourism. In February, a stately home, the Castleton House, near Glamis, closed its doors as a hotel.

This year, there are bicentenary celebrations for the Royal Montrose Golf Course and the Bell Rock Lighthouse as well as the 150th anniversary of J M Barrie’s birth in Kirriemuir. All of these celebrations have developed great relationships with local hotels and B&B’s. But already a lack of hotel beds in Angus limits how big their events can be and how much extra business they can bring to the local area.

I spoke to Fraser Ogston, the owner of two hotels in St Andrews, who will open a third in Arbroath in April. He had little idea of what his business rates will be, particularly with the rates revaluation. How can hotel owners plan their business without knowing what their taxes will be?

The issues with business rates go further than the hotel industry and transitional relief, however. In particular, business rates are discouraging investment to tackle climate change, as any savings made on energy bills are swallowed up in increased rates. I talked to a shipyard owner, Harry Simpson of Mackay Boat Builders, again in Arbroath, where they rebuilt a workshop building, with one with an insulated roof, motion sensitive lights and taps, and a better working environment for staff. With little warning their rates were doubled, not least because they were taken over the threshold for small business relief.

How can it make sense that a business that has added no new capacity, is no longer regarded as small, simply because they have replaced a building with a greener, safer one?

Arbroath, Business, Business Rates, Forfar, Glamis, Hotels, Kirriemuir, Montrose, SNP, Tourism