Calls to create an online department store for Kingussie

A call has been made to create an "online department store" for Kingussie to help breath new life into businesses in the town.

The suggestion has come on the back of the Scottish Parliament passing the Unoccupied Properties Bill, which will allow local authorities to charge up to double the current level of Council Tax on certain homes that have stood empty for more than a year.

Further measures in the Bill will reduce rates relief on empty commercial properties, providing greater incentives for owners to seek occupants for empty shops and offices, and offer a 50% rates discount to anyone taking on a shop or office that has been empty for 12 months under the Fresh Start scheme.

Badenoch and Strathspey Highland councillor Gregor Rimell (Lib Dem) said that whilst any attempt to revive High Streets is welcome, he was unsure how this latest move would pay dividends.

He said: "Retailing has, in the past, been ignored for business development grants. That short-sightedness is showing now in empty shops.

"Local councillors are aware of the importance of the High Street to locals and tourism. Local and national schemes are helpful sometimes, but they are not created and run by retailers, so we shall have to see.

"Capital investment in townscapes would be more useful."

He said that a retailer in Kingussie had come up with the idea of a local department store on line which could work better locally.

Councillor Rimell (Lib Dem) said: "It works on the idea that people shop on line. Local retailers can supply most shopping requirements. Therefore people can order on line for local home delivery or collection.

"It is the beginning of a germ of an idea that could make sense if retailers commit themselves to keeping up to date their contribution to the internet shopping. It might even be helpful to those retailers who cannot be bothered opening on time at published hours.

"But they would have to make sure that what appeared in their internet slot was accurate.

"In every High Street there is the minority who can retail successfully and know the continuous commitment it takes over years, to maintain quality service and stocks of the right products.

"It gets more challenging as time goes on."

Making the announcement on the bill, Housing Minister Margaret Burgess said: "While people across Scotland need new homes, it is completely unacceptable that 25,000 houses are lying empty long term and of no use to anybody.

"Not only that, empty homes can become a magnet for vandalism and anti-social behaviour, dragging down whole communities.

"The ability to increase council tax on empty properties will give councils a new and crucial tool to tackle this problem and encourage owners to bring homes back into use."

• The Scottish Government recently consulted on draft council tax regulations to set out how the council tax increase will work in practice – a copy of the consultation is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/emptyhomes

These regulations are expected to be laid before Parliament in December so that councils can, if they wish, start charging a Council Tax increase from April, next year.

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