RETAIL STIMULUS PACKAGES

COVID-19: DAVID LONSDALE, DIRECTOR OF THE SCOTTISH RETAIL CONSORTIUM

SRC DEMANDS SCOTLAND FOLLOWS NORTHERN IRELAND’S LEAD

As Northern Ireland announces an increased high street stimulus package, the Scottish Retail Consortium suggests Scotland should follow suit.

Last week, Northern Ireland confirmed that it was increasing the funding for its proposed high street stimulus scheme from £95m to £145m. The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) has praised the Labour Party’s proposal for a shopper stimulus scheme as a means of aiding Scotland’s high streets and stores which have been left reeling by the pandemic and is calling on the Scottish Government to show similar commitment to its Northern Irish counterparts.

The SRC says retail has been “thwacked hard” by the impact of Covid with shopper footfall plummeting, store vacancies spiking to a six-year high and retail sales slumping by more than a fifth.

The body has been in the vanguard of suggesting that a retail voucher or high street stimulus scheme should be considered for Scotland, first suggesting it in its Scottish Budget submission in late October as a means of re-igniting consumer spending and transactions. The submission noted that Jersey and Malta had introduced similar schemes to pep up their economies during Covid.

SRC wrote to Scottish Ministers about the idea in December, and again in its post-Scottish Budget paper.

David Lonsdale, Director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “This is a big, bold and imaginative proposal from Scottish Labour to help reignite the economy.”