…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
A dramatic fire has been raging all afternoon at the Gusset building at 120-130 Morrison Street, Glasgow. The property has lain derelict since it was bought for £4,200,000 by Straben Developments Limited of Belfast, Northern Ireland in September 2007. (title
Continue readingIn the rapidly expanding digital world, it is encouraging to welcome an outbreak of online participation among our elected representatives. Not only do many MPs and MSPs have blogs, twitter accounts and facebook pages but some of them are even
Continue readingThe Scottish Government today announced a further three projects that will be developed using the Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) model. This is a mechanism whereby future non-domestic rates (business rates) that arise as a consequence of the TIF financed development
Continue readingThe Liberal Democrats have just published an interesting policy discussion paper on land taxes available here. I am delighted to see this thinking emerging from one of the UK coalition partners in Government and hope that the Scottish party plays
Continue readingUPDATE 9 April 2011 Actually, the error I identify below (over-estimate of LVT revenue by £123 million) doesn’t look like an error on further examination. The land values in my original report were from January 2009 (the Valuation Office) and
Continue readingYesterday, the Scottish Government published its draft Long Leases Bill which is designed to convert any lease of over 175 years (with at least 100 years left to run) to full ownership. This follows a consultation earlier this year
Continue readingAt the risk of becoming an anorak, I though I would share some correspondence I have been having with the British Property Federation via Twitter on the topic of Tax Increment Financing (see previous posts today). This correspondence has taken
Continue readingWhen John Swinney approved the tax increment finance scheme for Leith docks last week (see previous post), I wonder if he was aware that among the business rate payers who would be picking up the tab for paying back the
Continue readingInteresting interview on Newsnight Scotland tonight with CEO of Scottish Futures Trust on tax increment financing. This is a funding mechanism for infrastructure projects whereby a public authority borrows money to pay for infrastructure (bridges, roads etc.) in anticipation of
Continue reading