City centre stores win £1m reprieve

CITY-CENTRE stores in Edinburgh have been given a £1 million reprieve with the defeat of SNP plans for a special retail levy to help fund next year's Scottish Government budget.

Shops like John Lewis, Jenners, Harvey Nichols, Boots and Marks & Spencer faced having to pay thousands of pounds extra on top of their business rates under the proposal.

Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative MSPs united to throw the plan out by 68 votes to 46 in the Scottish Parliament last night.

But the defeat leaves Finance Secretary John Swinney with a 30m hole in his budget which goes before the Scottish Parliament for approval next week.

Mr Swinney said the levy would have affected only a tiny percentage of retail properties and would have helped redress the imbalance in costs between small independent retailers and the largest stores.