Business Rates and Business Support
ADMG Chairman Richard Cooke has written to the Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Finance Kate Forbes MSP to ask why sporting businesses, deer forests and a number of other business types are being excluded from business rates relief being applied under Covid-19 support measures. He has also questioned why small business support grants and business loans are not being made available to deer management businesses on the same basis as for other businesses.
Richard Cooke states in his letter:
Deer management is an essential environmental and climate management function and, as such, is under regular Parliamentary scrutiny to ensure that wild deer populations are being sufficiently controlled. A review is ongoing at present. In most situations, deer management receives no direct support from public funds and is largely funded by the letting of stalking which is a part of Scotland’s tourism offer attracting visitors from across the world; also by the sale of venison. In a survey commissioned by ADMG in 2014, consultancy Public and Corporate Economic Consultants (PACEC) estimated that deer management generates £140.8m for Scotland’s rural economy and supports 2532 jobs. There is a real likelihood that a significant proportion of those jobs will be lost if the Covid-19 support measures are not made available and either no lettings take place this year, or the epidemic leads to many cancellations, of which some are already occurring. I should also mention that the venison market is currently closed and that if that continues very little deer management can be done until it reopens.
A number of other organisations including BASC Scotland and Scottish Land & Estates have raised similar questions which we hope will lead to a satisfactory outcome for the sector.
Richard Cooke’s letter to Kate Forbes is available online.
ADMG Newsletter and Annual Review
With the postponement of the ADMG AGM due to have been held in March we know that a lot of members will not have seen the Annual Review or the latest newsletter, Scope, that would usually have been distributed at the event. These are both available online.
If you would like a printed copy these are available by contacting Dick Playfair although it may be some time before normal access to post offices/postal services is resumed.
Wildfire warning
Note that the wildfire danger assessment from 14 – 17 April is EXTREME. Full details are available online.
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E-SCOPE is produced for the Association of Deer Management Groups by Playfair Walker.
