Tories challenge John Swinney to discuss ‘pubs crisis’ over a pint

John Swinney insisted he understands the “concerns” of Scotland’s hospitality sector over planned rate rises, as he turned down a request from Tories to meet a pub owner who may have to call last orders on her business.

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay asked the First Minister to join him and pub owner Katie Long for a drink on Thursday to discuss “Scotland’s pub crisis”.

Findlay said Ms Long, the owner of the Brown and Blacks pub in the First Minister’s Perthshire North constituency, was about to see her business rates bill double.

Adding that she had transformed a “derelict” bar into a “thriving” community local, Mr Findlay said Ms Long was now on “the brink of calling last orders for the last time”.

Raising the issue with the SNP leader at First Minister’s Questions, the Scottish Tory leader said: “Over a fortnight ago, I asked John Swinney to visit Katie’s pub. He hasn’t even replied.”

He added: “Mr Swinney won’t go to Katie, so she has come here today.

“I will be going with Katie to a nearby pub at 1.30 this afternoon. So will John Swinney join us to discuss Katie’s plight and Scotland’s pub crisis?”

The challenge came as Scottish Tories have been calling on the Scottish Government to pause new rates bills due to come into effect in April after a revaluation.

Scottish hospitality is “being hit hard” by the changes, Mr Findlay added, saying that the response from the Scottish Government was a “sticking plaster” when “businesses are bleeding out”.

Swinney accepted that some properties would see “some significant increases in rateable values at the 2026 revaluation”.

But he added that a transitional relief the government has put in place would mean “the gross bills of an estimated 60,000 properties will be lower in 2026-27 than they would otherwise have been”.

This, he added, was part of a package of support for businesses worth more than £870 million in 2026-27.

This came after a “whole range” of meetings between ministers and representatives of the hospitality industry,

Swinney said, stressing the relief package was a “significant contribution”.

While he added he was “very familiar” with the individual case raised by the Tory leader, Swinney said he would be unable to meet Findlay and Ms Long.

He said: “I can’t, I’m afraid, because of my commitments today, join Mr Findlay at 1.30. I would ask parliament to understand there are a range of issues I am wrestling with today, I have to take forward.”

But he insisted that the SNP in power had “demonstrated consistently over every year it has been in office a determination to put in place support for business”.

Swinney told the Tory leader: “I understand the concerns within the business community.

“I engage regularly with a range of different business organisations, my ministers do exactly the same, to make sure we can take the action, within the financial resources available to us, to support the business community and encourage their growth and development within Scotland.”