First minister John Swinney pledges to 'intensify support' for Scotland's entrepreneurs

Unveiling his programme for the Scottish government, John Swinney has promised more support for Scottish business owners.

Detailing his legislative plans for the next 12 months, the first minister said:

"A critical element of ensuring that Scotland is attractive to investors, means that we must intensify our support to Scotland's innovators and entrepreneurs as part of our work to become a start-up and scale-up nation."

Scottish government programme for government

Among the small business related pledges, detailed in the full programme for government document, are:

• Maximising the impact of the £42 million Techscaler programme for tech start-ups, by extending access for entrepreneurs through integration with "other centres of innovation", and creating opportunities for Scottish companies to raise funding, access new markets and learn from peers.

• Implementing the key recommendations of Ana Stewart and Mark Logan's review of gender equality in entrepreneurship to increase the number of women starting and scaling businesses in Scotland. That will include a regional programme of support in partnership with South of Scotland Enterprise, and "a competitive Pathways Fund...to widen participation in entrepreneurship from people in groups that are currently under‑represented".

• Working with Scottish Enterprise, the National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland, and the National Robotarium to support 'deep tech' companies with prototypes and manufacturing.

• Supporting the development of business clusters in areas such as data, digital and AI, health and life sciences.

• Providing £315 million to universities in the 2024-25 academic year to "help develop early career researchers, promote knowledge exchange, and enable universities to drive local economic growth".

• Delivering the commitments in the New Deal for Business to improve how businesses and government work together. A group was set up which made 10 recommendations that focused on issues including improving working around sharing data, involving business in the development of policy and tackling challenges related to business rates and tax.

• Delivering support through enterprise agencies "to help businesses to start and scale, be more productive, access finance and attract investment, develop new products and services, enter new markets, and positively impact on their communities".

• Setting up Regional Economic Partnerships to empower decision making and investment, including pilot work on regional funding to

  support Glasgow City's ambitions to create a metropolitan region, and Edinburgh's Regional Economic Prosperity Framework.

• Supporting the negotiation of a new UK-EU food and drink/veterinary agreement to ensure Scottish exporters can access EU markets and tackle red tape.

• Providing £6.6 million in creative and cultural funding which means Creative Scotland's Open Fund can resume taking applications. The fund, which supports creatives such as artists, musicians and writers, closed on 30 August after concerns over Scottish government budget cuts. The £6.6 million includes £3 million for the Open Fund and £1 million for Screen Scotland. The government has also released £1.8 million for youth music support.

• Reviewing Creative Scotland to ensure the creative sector is properly support and the distribution of additional funding is delivered in the most effective way possible. The Scottish government has previously committed to increase funding for culture and the arts so that it is at least £100 million more a year by 2028‑29.

• Inviting the culture sector to join a partnership on Scottish festivals to focus on how best to support Scotland's festivals and uphold their vital role within the sector.

• Supporting local authorities to implement the visitor levy to "help enhance the tourist experience and benefit local communities and their economies". Local councils are able to apply a levy on overnight stays.

• Supporting crofting and croft businesses, by responding to the consultation and bringing forward legislation.

• Bringing employers, colleges, universities, and other partners together to ensure the skills system is responsive to regional and national skills needs.

• Launching a rural visa pilot to support rural employers in recruiting the people they need.

• Publishing a new green industrial strategy which will include plans to build "internationally competitive clusters" in the "key opportunity areas" of onshore and offshore wind, carbon capture utilisation and storage, professional and financial services, hydrogen, and clean industries.

• Developing two green freeports in Inverness and Cromarty Firth and the Forth estuary, and establish two new investment zones in Glasgow and the North East of Scotland.

• Connect over 20,000 premises to gigabit capable broadband in areas of market failure by March 2025.