A committee of MSPs has made 41 recommendations for action to halt the long-term decline of Scotland’s town centres in a new report.

The economy and fair work committee called on the Scottish Government to set out how it would address three specific and linked areas of policy.

The first was to show “how cohesion of its cross-portfolio policy will be achieved to ensure and maintain the necessary direction of travel” followed by stating “who will have overall responsibility for ensuring that” and finally how to avoid “silo-working.”

It went on to call for “rebalancing the cost of doing business in town centres versus out of town sites” as “the overarching principle.”

One way to do that would be to give “councils the power to levy an out-of-town development premium or a business rates surcharge” for town centre regeneration.

It also voiced its support for greater “transparency of beneficial ownership of town centre property and land” as “absentee owners can still be a problem.”

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