Sir Tom sets out business plan for growth to rekindle Scotland's stagnating economy

ONE of Scotland’s richest men has set out his manifesto for saving Scotland’s stagnating economy and creating 100,000 jobs — including a “bonfire” of pointless SNP quangos.

- By DOUGLAS DICKIE

Sir Tom Hunter has called on political parties to take advantage of his and other entrepreneurs’ expertise and turn around the country’s flagging fortunes after the Scottish Parliament election.

He called on the SNP executive to adopt the UK tax system, warning that the current penalisation of the middle-class was making it harder for businesses to recruit.

SirTom also said the current business rates system should be scrapped in favour of one “calculated on square footage of the premises,” and backed building a small nuclear reactor at Hunterston, Ayrshire.

Other policies include boosting apprenticeships, replacing the windfall tax on the oil and gas industry with an energy profits levy, and delivering a fast-track planning process to boost housebuilding. He also blasted the council tax system and the assessors who administer it, arguing that a “handful of officials exercise quasi-fiscal powers over the country’s entire property tax base”.