Chamber and committees

I thank the clerks, the convener and the deputy convener for guiding our long and complex inquiry. I am pleased to speak in the debate as a member of the Economy and Fair Work Committee but I am also influenced by my other work, including my work as a member of the Finance and Public Administration Committee.

I will outline a few personal thoughts on why town centres and their regeneration are important. I guarantee that I will take less than the prescribed six minutes, Presiding Officer.

As an important yet often forgotten part of Scotland’s economy, town centres have an important role to play not only in local communities but in relation to sustainable economic growth. We sometimes forget that, among other things, they are powerful hubs of business activity, not least SME activity, which has a critical role to play in our national economy. If town centres contract, it is not only a tragedy for many communities but almost certainly has a negative impact on sustainable growth as well as a multitude of other areas such as culture and sense of place. Claire Baker, the committee convener, has already noted the range of areas that are affected.

You have given me a lot of information. I know that other members want to come in, and I sense that Liz and perhaps Hisashi want to come in as well.

Thinking about the very important chemical cluster and SMEs around Grangemouth, how do we make this real for them? Part of the problem is that, although they are there, it might be difficult for them to get oven-ready, if you like, in order to be able to go on to procurement frameworks. It is about that linkage of working at both ends of the conundrum. The witnesses may want to pick up on some of the earlier themes, but I am interested in exploring that. Perhaps Liz wants to go first.

I want to ask about targeting young people. I appreciate that the Forth Ports bid is at its very early stages, but I am interested in knowing more about how you will be able to drive down—if, indeed, you intend to do that—to actively target young people in job creation, which is another issue that Grangemouth, as a centre, struggles with.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending.

We have already alighted on a theme—from the inside looking out, particularly with reference to Grangemouth town. The people who live there often refer to the economy as a “DIDO economy”—drive in, drive out. That is the feeling.

Stuart, you have already touched on some of the active consideration that you gave to your bid, and I want to put some meat on the bones of that. When do you think that Grangemouth, as a community, will start to see some of the activity that has meaning to people there? I suppose that that also links in with what Liz was saying about frameworks for SMEs. A considerable amount of work is needed to change what is a good, thrusting sentiment about that involvement into actual meaningful engagement. I would appreciate some meat on the bones of that.

Do you all feel, at this point—it is, obviously, very early days—that you have the right people contributing? Should anybody else be contributing? Do you think, “We really need to bring in this organisation or group to make sure that all their views are reflected.”? Have you been able to cover everything?

Tell me whether my assumption is correct. One of the concerns around freeports that are expressed generally is that they displace economic activity. From my point of view, the fact that so much in the bid is centred around Grangemouth means that that will not be the case, because a lot of the economic activity is already there. The bid is simply galvanising that and can only add to it.

Is everyone who needs to be involved involved at this point, given that it is early doors?

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the final details of its proposed agriculture bill. (S6O-01900)

I note that information is both being gathered and emerging in stages, but what is important is that any scheme is sufficiently robust to give confidence to food producers. Will the conditionality measures that are proposed allow for that confidence to be maintained?

The challenges of continuing to encourage young women to go into science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to stay there came out in that debate. They remain fairly acute, and we must continue to focus on them.

If the Stewart report is a cause for cautious optimism, we know that the state of the UK economy is not. We have heard it quoted previously that the UK is expected to be the worst-performing state economically among the G7 and G20 countries—worse than even sanctions-hit Russia. UK economic growth has lagged behind the average for large and small advanced economies over the past four decades, with the small advanced economies experiencing cumulative economic growth that was double that of the UK between 1999 and 2019. Those are all facts that cannot be chased away. Measured by gross domestic product per head, the gap between the small economy average and the UK had grown to more than £12,700 per person by 2019.

For the record, I point out that fiscal powers for achieving such economic growth reside squarely with the UK Government. In this context, the efforts of the acting finance secretary should be applauded. I have spoken previously about the multiple ways in which the devolution settlement ties his hands. I thank Ms Smith for taking my intervention on restrictions on borrowing powers, which we discussed earlier. I agree that the terms of reference for the fiscal framework might look at that again, but, if members do not mind my saying so, it has taken a very long time. Frankly, I do not think that the Scottish Tories need to be told what to think by the London Tories in calling for increased targeted capital revenue-raising powers.

At the same time, we must acknowledge that the UK Government is hellbent on furthering legislation that is a direct threat to our limited economic powers. We need full fiscal freedom to act in Scotland’s interest. This is about growth, job creation and wealth creation, and it is utterly vital.

My final point concerns Brexit, which we have hardly mentioned today. We must abandon the little England mentality in favour of re-engaging fully with Europe and the wider world. Every day, Brexit damages the lives of Scots, putting barriers in the way of trade with Europe and destroying supply chains. It is damaging our prospects for economic growth and, in a multitude of ways, it places an added burden on Scotland’s finances. Scotland needs full borrowing powers, a complete range of fiscal powers and a reinvigorated international outlook. I think that we could call that independence.

This is a theme that I have often asked questions on. In terms of additional—what I would regard as proper—capital borrowing powers, is Liz Smith willing to support my call for those, because we all agree that infrastructure projects are fundamental to growth in the economy?