The Scottish Conservative Party firmly sets out its stall for the 2007 elections by entitling their manifesto "Manifesto for a Buzzing Economy". Among their pledges are:-
Business rates
- Firms with a rateable value of £7,000 or less will be completely exempt from business tax.
- Firms with a rateable value of between £7,000 and £8,000 will only pay a quarter of their business rates.
- Those with rateable values of £8,000 to £11,500 will gain a 50 per cent discount.
- Firms with a rateable value of £11,500 will gain a 10 per cent discount.
- Oppose local income tax.
Infrastructure
- Invest £30 million annually on infrastructure, with a particular focus on improving and upgrading the A9, A75, M74, A96 and A82.
- Set up a review body to report to both Holyrood and Westminster on a high speed rail link between Scotland and London and a high speed link rail link between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
- Merge the budget of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
- Establish a new Scottish Skills Agency, incorporating Careers Scotland.
- Abolish Local Enterprise Companies.
Cutting red tape
- Introduce a 5 year review of all Holyrood's primary legislation.
- Establish a Red Tape Review for subordinate legislative regulation
- Ensure a presumption against the gold-plating of EU regulations
- Require all legislation and regulations to pass an economic growth test.
- Require all quangos and public sector bodies to have an over-riding obligation to promote economic growth.