BARELY one in 10 of Scotland’s businesses have laid down plans to cope with a vote for independence, a survey revealed yesterday.

Almost 84 per cent of 137 Scottish firms questioned in a KPMG poll said they had not yet considered how to deal with changes if the Yes campaign succeeds on September 18.

Potential changes to the tax regime were highlighted as particularly important by 29 per cent of firms, while 24.8 per cent raised the issue of a possible change in currency — despite Holyrood’s insistence that it will retain the pound regardless of whether Westminster agrees to a currency union.

The findings came as the Bank of England former deputy governor Sir Andrew Large said people were “understandably puzzled.”

“Alex Salmond claims that nothing much will change, that threats otherwise are a bluff and that Scotland would keep the pound — but although Scotland could keep using the pound, to promise ‘no change’ is a huge deception — the consequences would be enormous,” he said.

A spokesman for Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney said a formal currency union would be in Britain’s “overwhelming economic interests.”