Scottish referendum bookletA leading businessman has declared his support for Scottish independence.

Jim McColl, one of the country's richest men and chief executive of engineering firm Clyde Blowers, previously backed calls for a strengthened form of devolution.


"I have argued that full fiscal autonomy should be offered to Scots in a referendum. However, no such option is gaining enough support to be realised in time to make the difference we all want to see for this and future generations," he wrote in Friday's Scotsman newspaper.

"It appears that only independence as defined by the Scottish Government, an independent nation within this social union and common market of the UK, will allow England and Scotland to pursue distinct economic policies in the face of different demands and competitive pressures."

Mr McColl sits on First Minister Alex Salmond's council of economic advisers, which met on Friday morning at Bute House in Edinburgh.

The intervention comes one day after Chancellor George Osborne said there remains an economic case for Scotland staying in the United Kingdom.

There is more to Unionism than "wallowing in nostalgia", he told members of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) at their annual dinner in Glasgow on Thursday night.

Mr McColl said Scotland's economy will "continue to flatline" unless Mr Osborne makes a policy shift. He laid the blame at the Chancellor's door for a decline in the construction sector.

"It is that industry's short-term recovery which holds the key to wider economic confidence in every sector of the economy, including my own," he continued.

Welcoming efforts of the Scottish Government to stimulate growth, Mr McColl added: "They are constrained in their ability to influence events by two major factors. First, the lack of economic powers at their disposal. Secondly, by a UK Government policy which fails to recognise the importance of the construction industry and real upfront public investment."