Most landlords who want to spend a six -digit sum jumping up of their pub should probably take out a loan or dive into their own money.
However, the local population on a debt-taught Scottish Island has imposed their pub at the expense of the taxpayer after they have received a subsidy of nearly a quarter of a million pounds.
The Gigha hotel has been closed for two years because it had money.
But now the public has asked the bill for an upgrade of £ 248,000 to the bar in the hope that it could be a profit.
The hand-out is one of the more than £ 1 million of the government cash spent gigha in the hands of the community last year.
Other controversial buy -out schedules in the Highlands and islands also saw their subsidies increase sharply – even if the taxpayers are struck elsewhere with record increases to accounts while services are attached.
Shimeon Lee, policy analyst at the Campaign Group of the TaxPayers 'Alliance Campaign, said:' Taxpayers will ask why they pay the bill to renew a pub that was closed because they were unprofitable.
'While the tax on the council tax and public services are reduced to the bone, the PET projects of the SNP seem to be exempt from the belt-dependent with which all others are confronted.
The Gigha Hotel and Pub on the island received £ 248,000 for an upgrade
“Scottish ministers must put hard -working taxpayers in first place instead of expensive ideological missions.”
Gigha is off the coast of Kintyre and has a population of around 150.
The Community Group of the island of Gigha Heritage Trust (Eight) bought its LAIRD for £ 4 million in 2002 – with the Scottish government and the National Lottery Bankrolling Most of the Deal.
Since then, the island has been fighting debts and depends on subsidies from the public sector to float.
In 2022/23 the trust received £ 706,000 in public money, but last year it received £ 1.07 million.
That total included nearly £ 819,000 of the Rural Housing Fund of the Scottish Government and around £ 114,000 of the Quango Nature Scot for a landscape recovery project.
In addition, £ 248,000 was promised for the pub -upgrade of the British government fund of the government, which has since been extracted.
The Trust annual report showed: 'During the year, the tenant of Gigha Hotel sent the building back to the Eight.
The island of Gigha Heritage Trust bought its Laird for £ 4 million in 2002
'The [refurbishment] Is part of a broader plan to upgrade the property … to guarantee a sustainable and viable future for the hotel. This has led the hotel not to operate in 2023-24. '
The local population was shown the new interior during the recent annual Gigha Day parties of the island and the Trust is advertising for a new tenant.
Council members of the local authority of Gigha, Argyll & Bute, increase the council tax by 9.9 percent next week and admit themselves a wage increase of 22 percent.
Elsewhere, the island received £ 109,000 in public money in 2023/24, more than twice the £ 42,000 it was handed over the year before.
The external community has been supported by the taxpayer for almost 30 years since his own buy-out.
Adjacent rum received £ 44,000, an increase of £ 27,000.
And the Asynt Foundation – which owns the Glencanisp and Drumrunie Estates near Lochinver, Sutherland, and has cost the taxpayer £ 5 million so far – received another £ 66,000, an increase of £ 39,000.
Last year it admitted that a real estate that it had rented was not suitable for habitation, and it also took a holiday when repaying a Covid Bounceback loan, endorsed by the treasury.
It recently unveiled a deal to lease his hunting lodge – which was refurbished from the public wallet for £ 1.1 million but has been empty for years – as a hotel.
Scottish conservative shadow rural cases and secretary of Land Reform Tim Eagle said: 'These schemes in theory sound great for communities to make them able to make decisions in their best interests, but the costs cannot get out of hand.
'While SNP ministers continue with more aggressive measures for land reform, they must learn from what happened earlier and ensure that taxpayers do not get a rough deal.
“Scots that are affected with the highest taxes in the United Kingdom wants SNP ministers to justify these costs if the benefits are not clear to see.”
The council's tax accounts will rock this week while town halls are struggling with budget deficits worth millions of pounds.
Many local authorities prepare double digits, including an increase of 15.6 percent in Falkirk.
A spokesperson for the Scottish government said: 'Community property is an investment in tackling depopulation, offering crucial facilities and giving people more power and an interest in the country where they live and work.
“Our support – whether it concerns financing, advice or more legal powers – helps to comply with the different needs of communities that want to acquire country and assets that contribute to the benefits that live there.”
The British government said it had taught the fund that Gigha had granted the pub out of hand “because of the challenging inheritance that the previous government left.”
Eight was approached for comment.
This week the 20,000 South Sleat Estate was offered for sale after the owner, the Clan Donald Lands Trust, admitted that it could not make it run profitable.
