SCOTTISH Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has unveiled plans to offer tax breaks to small companies which agree to increase wages for low-paid staff.

In a move designed to broaden her party's appeal to working class Scots, she said small and medium sized companies would receive a business rate cut if they paid the 'living wage'.

The living wage, which is voluntary for employers, stands at £7.85 per hour, higher than the statutory minimum wage of £6.50.

Ms Davidson insisted the Tories should back efforts to increase wages for the low-paid, telling her party's conference in Edinburgh: "As Conservatives, we are the party of aspiration and of working people."

The plan was announced alongside "parent power" initiatives to free schools from local council control and give families greater flexibility when accessing government-funded childcare.

They form part of an effort to persuade voters the Conservatives are on the side of ordinary families, rather than merely the better off.

Ms Davidson used her keynote speech to party members at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre to put the message at the heart of her party's general election campaign.

However her plan to cut business rates for small firms paying the living wage was effectively a manifesto pledge for next year's Holyrood election.

Emphasising her support for working people, the Scots Tory leader also restated her pledge to use newly devolved tax powers to cut income tax by at least 1p in Scotland if her party is in a position of power after the Holyrood poll.

Announcing the living wage plan, she said: "If you are prepared to work your way up then we want to help you get there.

"We want you to succeed. We want you and your family to share in the economic recovery we're building - and our plan to help tackle low pay will do just that."

Rallying activists for General Election campaign, she said the party would "win again by proving to our fellow Scots that we are on their side".

She added: "We cannot - we will not - be satisfied with an economic recovery that looks good on a balance sheet but does not reach into the workplaces, sitting rooms and pay-packets of everyday Scots."

Ms Davidson ended her 35-minute speech by telling activists to "remember who you are fighting for".

"I'm not in this for the people who have already made it in life. I'm here for everyone who just wants a decent job and to make sure their children have more of a chance than they ever did."

The promise of help for the low-paid follows persistent criticism from Labour that the fragile economic recovery has mainly benefited the well off.

But Ms Davidson launched an angry attack on Ed Miliband's economic policies, claiming the Labour leader's plan to reduce the deficit more gradually would put "an extra £180billion on the nation's credit card".

Echoing Prime Minister David Cameron's earlier warning of a "horror movie" Labour-SNP coalition after the election, she added: "The surprise is this - it's that the Labour Party which only last year stood behind the Union still hasn't summoned up the guts to tell the SNP to take a running jump."

She claimed Mr Miliband was weak and "shameful" for refusing to rule out a possible power-sharing deal with the SNP.