Campaign and petition email responses

Our Pubs and Breweries Still Need Help

Unfortunately, as we remain in the UK, Energy is a policy area entirely reserved to Westminster, and so we are at the whims of Tory governments endlessly returned which Scotland did not vote for.

I am aware of the difficulties our invaluable hospitality sector – which provides such community cohesion – has faced in recent years, both with Covid and with the inflationary crisis overseen by successive Tory Governments. At every stage we have called for more support.

The SNP believe the UK Government must provide long-term clarity for the alcohol sector beyond the six-month rates freeze. Businesses have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, as well as the uncertainty surrounding the freeze, which was announced, cancelled, then re-announced, all in a three-month period.

My SNP colleagues and I have been outspoken on the need for ongoing energy bill relief scheme support to be in place after March, and it is greatly disappointing that the UK Government has not listened to our calls. We shall continue to push the UK Government to extend support at every opportunity.

We have and continue to call for more action on the inflation crisis. It is a shame that the Tories decided to spent six months this year on leadership tussles, when the country was crying out for action on the energy crisis, and for action on the inflation that is pushing the cost of living up so much

The SNP Scottish Government continues to mitigate the inaction by the Tory government, but Holyrood’s powers are limited. The powers and resources needed to tackle this emergency on the scale required - access to borrowing, welfare, VAT on fuel, taxation of windfall profits, regulation of the energy market - lie with the UK Government. We continue to urge The UK Government to use all of the powers and fiscal headroom at its disposal.