I thank Jamie Halcro Johnston for bringing this debate on rural issues to the chamber. Before I contribute to it, however, I would like to pay tribute to several members who will not be back in May. It has been a pleasure to work with Mairi Gougeon on various key pieces of legislation during this session. I thank her for being so constructive and personable during our discussions, and I wish her all the best for the future. I also thank Oliver Mundell and John Mason for their years of public service in the Parliament and to the people they represent. I also thank Beatrice Wishart—I name-checked her yesterday, too—for her championing of Shetland and, in particular, our shared interest in fixed links.

Today’s motion raises several key points that I agree with. The lack of availability of affordable accommodation is a real concern, and I share the view that we need to boost connectivity across the region. As the motion notes, those factors are key to strong communities and the Scottish Government must handle them with nuance. I disagree, however, with its diagnosis of the challenges that rural and island communities face. For example, increased regulation of the visitor economy will help to fix housing shortages and support local authorities to deliver the various services that the motion states are downgraded. The reason for services being on their knees can be traced back to 14 years of Tory austerity at Westminster and historic underinvestment in rural Scotland long before the Scottish Parliament existed.

Throughout this session, the Scottish Greens have delivered for people across the Highlands and Islands. On transport, we have scrapped peak fares for rail passengers, as well as those for islanders on NorthLink ferries. We have introduced a £2 bus cap across the Highlands and Islands and secured consultation on cruise ship levies that will help to reduce pressure on port towns and island communities.

On housing, we have ramped up availability and affordability by winning multiyear funding for community housing projects, getting more money into the rural and island housing fund and implementing tougher council tax rules for second homes. Tenants are better off thanks to Green wins from the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, including long-term rent controls and stronger protections against no-fault evictions. We were also there for renters in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, when we were instrumental in bringing in a rent freeze and a ban on arbitrary evictions, both of which were key promises in our 2021 manifesto.

I have also been supporting the agricultural sector, securing funding for a sustainable farm and food skills pipeline that will support the transition to regenerative growing practices and give more young people opportunities in that crucial sector. I urge the Government to follow through on that work. On top of that, I have supported market gardeners, working to set up a support scheme that would ensure that crofters and other small-scale producers are funded based on what they deliver rather than the size of their holdings.

I am incredibly proud of what the Scottish Greens have delivered so far, but I am also aware that more still needs to be done. I am deeply concerned about the impact that Donald Trump’s reckless attack on Iran will have on the cost of living. Energy costs look set to soar, which will hit people across the Highlands and Islands who already face a price premium. The cost of fuel is also likely to rise, which will affect everyone from fishers to community pharmacies that deliver vital prescriptions. The Scottish Greens will continue to be there for folks in the on-going crisis.

Looking further ahead, we want to instigate proper investment in the future. Highlands and Islands communities must see the delivery of a rural housing revolution, more affordable homes, more social housing and more long-term empty properties coming back into the community. We want to ensure that every community has access to essential banking, childcare and public transport, including free bus travel, which is already enjoyed by half of Scotland’s population. We also want to tackle escalating land prices to democratise land.

Scotland’s rural communities are the backbone of our nation, and the Scottish Greens will do all that we can to give them the best possible future.

14:14

Before I get to my points about the bill, I will say a few words about some of my colleagues who are speaking in the chamber for the final time. I came to know Evelyn Tweed as a member of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, specifically by observing her determination to ensure fairness in the approach that the Scottish Housing Regulator takes to all forms of social housing, especially community‑led housing. I learned a lot from her approach and the tenacity that she showed in that work.

I will also express gratitude to Sarah Boyack, who has been a consistent and constructive voice for climate action on the Labour benches. Again, I have learned from her approach and hope to bring what I have learned into session 7.

The debate on the bill has been constructive and important. Although this is an amending bill, it speaks to a much bigger question of how we properly resource local government in Scotland. The changes before us today—particularly the addition of a flat rate option—are sensible. They give councils more flexibility to design a visitor levy that works in their area, and they reflect engagement with the industry to make the policy more practical and deliverable.

However, we should see the bill in its wider context. For far too long, local authorities in Scotland have been asked to do more with less, and they have had limited powers to raise revenue locally. That has had real consequences for services, infrastructure and the resilience of our communities. The Scottish Greens have been clear that that needs to change. Through successive budgets and negotiations, we have pushed to expand the fiscal powers that are available to councils. That has included council tax reforms—new bands will be introduced in 2026-27 to make the system fairer and more progressive. We have also supported measures that represent a shift in approach, such as the visitor levy, and we recognise that local areas should be able to generate revenue in ways that reflect local pressures and opportunities. That is exactly what the bill supports.

The reality is that tourism brings both benefits and costs. Although it supports jobs and local economies, it also places demands on roads, waste services, public spaces and local infrastructure. Giving councils the ability to respond to those demands and to reinvest in their communities is not only reasonable but necessary. It is about moving away from a system in which local government is overly dependent on central funding and towards a more balanced, empowered and resilient model. The bill alone does not solve that challenge, but it is part of a broader direction of travel that signals that we trust local authorities and are willing to give them the tools that they need. Importantly, that has been done in a way that reflects what has been learned. The original legislation set the framework; this bill improves it and makes it more flexible, responsive and more likely to succeed in practice.

The bill is not only a technical amendment; it is another step towards a fairer and more sustainable system of local government finance—one in which communities are better supported, local decisions can be made locally, and the success of places, including their success as visitor destinations, helps them to sustain themselves into the future. Once again, I am pleased to support the bill on behalf of the Scottish Greens.

16:38

I pay tribute to some of the members who have spoken today and who are stepping down. I hope that I do not pick up the tears that my colleague Edward Mountain has brought into the chamber—that depth of feeling. Although we may come from very different perspectives, he has always been willing to reach across the aisles between us to work constructively as a fellow member and convener. We have found common ground on a number of issues, including salmon farming and climate change, and I appreciate the work that we have done together in those areas.

Beatrice Wishart has been a strong advocate for Shetland. We share a passion for infrastructure—that of fixed links. Rhoda Grant has been an incredible champion for crofting—I have seen that come to the fore through the passage of this legislation—and a force for the Highlands and Islands. She has also called for the right to food. I share Tim Eagle’s enthusiasm for Richard Leonard’s speeches in the chamber, and I appreciate the tag‑team approach that we took to making improvements to seasonal worker accommodation. I am looking forward to taking that forward in the next session.

My thanks must also go to the team that put together the bill and to the Parliament’s legislation team, which was very supportive in our work to lodge amendments.

On what is at hand today, I will close the debate for the Greens by saying that we support the bill. It ties up loose ends that are creating problems for today’s crofters. However, as I said earlier, it is not ambitious enough to ensure crofting’s long‑term future. I look forward to working with the Government to create something that will allow crofting to flourish and expand.

There are a multitude of challenges ahead that crofters will need support with so that they can adapt and thrive. For example, the 2045 net zero target is edging ever closer, and we also have the good food nation commitments to consider. The job of the Scottish Government in both instances is to prepare the ground for crofters and enable them to make the most of the opportunities that these present. We are moving in the right direction, but more haste is needed, given the severity of the challenges that are on the horizon.

Elements of the legislation will help crofters to begin the process of adaptation, but there was room in the bill to speed things up. At stage 2, we proposed giving crofters the benefits from environmental use of the land, an environmental use advice service and public financing. Had those amendments been accepted, crofters would have had the means and the confidence to pick up the pace on climate and nature.

At the same time, those amendments would have fostered thriving crofting communities, with a more equal distribution of wealth, greater financial security and a clearer route forward when it comes to putting the land to environmental use. Those ideas should not disappear with the bill. They need further consideration by the next Government in its review of crofting legislation.

The review should also aspire to create a system that is easier to access. The new entrants will be the life-blood of crofting’s future, and we need to pave the way for new faces by levelling out the market in croft tenancies and simplifying the legislation so that it is clearer and more coherent for those who are not yet part of the crofting community.

There was an opportunity to create rapid positive change in part 2 of the bill. We pushed the Government to consider giving the Scottish Land Court further environmental jurisdiction, with a view to using it as a foundation for an environmental court. For too long, Scotland has been in breach of its Aarhus convention obligations, with little meaningful movement by successive Governments to rectify the situation. If Scotland is to become an independent nation that is trusted and respected on the international stage, we need to meet all the requirements of the treaties that we have signed up to. To the Government’s credit, its amendment to review the court’s operation will mean that that issue is looked at.

The Scottish Greens stand ready to work with the next Government to deliver more ambitious reform for crofters. I sincerely hope that work on that can start early in the next session.

17:35

Crofting is a vital part of Scotland’s cultural and social heritage, as well as its future. It is a social and economic glue that holds rural and island communities together, offering us a template for low-impact land management that, if adopted more widely across Scotland, could help us to meet the major challenges presented by the climate and biodiversity crises, support fair access to land and food and provide an antidote to rural depopulation.

Although I am pleased that stakeholders are largely happy with the bill’s contents, it must be said—as other members have done already—that the bill is something of a missed opportunity. It has been in the pipeline for a decade, and yet what we have before us today is fairly technical, and not the ambitious reform that crofters have been crying out for.

Key elements that are missing include tighter regulation of the market in tenancies to make crofting more accessible; a scheme to create more crofts on public land; and moves towards a Scotland-wide expansion of where crofting can take place. We must ensure that the next Government uses the review of crofting legislation that Tim Eagle and I secured to deliver the much-needed solutions to those issues in order to secure crofting’s future.

I express my thanks to the stakeholders who have worked with me on the bill. The Scottish Crofting Federation and Community Land Scotland have provided excellent support on part 1. Ramblers Scotland and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland have also been very helpful in proposing amendments, and it has been good to collaborate on making meaningful changes to part 2. I also thank the minister and his officials for their constructive approach in meetings about the bill.

Turning to the specifics of part 1, despite the overall lack of ambition in the bill, some welcome progress has been made on giving crofters the right to put land to environmental use and ensure a fairer balance of rights between the crofting community, the public interest and landlords and estates.

I trust that those changes will allow crofters to do their bit for Scotland’s nature and climate and enable landscape-scale change so that we meet our biodiversity and emissions reduction goals, with biodiversity in particular being key to ensuring that our nation remains resilient in the face of global ecosystems collapse.

My concern is that it is unclear who is entitled to the financial benefit of that vital work. Although I understand that the bill is not the place to resolve carbon offsetting issues, I urge the next Government to commit to investigating that issue through primary legislation to allow crofters and other land users to work with full confidence.

That is not an endorsement of the carbon offsetting system—instead, it is an acknowledgement that the system exists and needs regulating in the interests of fairness, community wealth building and democratising Scotland’s land.

Part 2 of the bill is a sensible idea in principle and will give crofters, as well as other stakeholders, a clear destination for their legal cases.

It is especially pleasing to note that the new Scottish Land Court will have jurisdiction over access rights. That will allow for better, fairer access to justice in this area—something that can only improve outcomes for everyone, not just for those with the deepest pockets.

My stage 3 amendment, which will see land access guidance updated for the first time in two decades, and the minister’s amendment to review the operation of the Scottish Land Court—something that I pushed for at stage 2—will ensure that the new jurisdiction works as effectively as possible in the years to come.

To wrap up, the Scottish Greens support the bill, but we want to see further reform in the next session of Parliament to ensure a viable future for crofting for generations to come.

17:18

Crofting is a vital part of Scotland’s cultural and social heritage, as well as its future. It is a social and economic glue that holds rural and island communities together, offering us a template for low-impact land management that, if adopted more widely across Scotland, could help us to meet the major challenges presented by the climate and biodiversity crises, support fair access to land and food and provide an antidote to rural depopulation.

Although I am pleased that stakeholders are largely happy with the bill’s contents, it must be said—as other members have done already—that the bill is something of a missed opportunity. It has been in the pipeline for a decade, and yet what we have before us today is fairly technical, and not the ambitious reform that crofters have been crying out for.

Key elements that are missing include tighter regulation of the market in tenancies to make crofting more accessible; a scheme to create more crofts on public land; and moves towards a Scotland-wide expansion of where crofting can take place. We must ensure that the next Government uses the review of crofting legislation that Tim Eagle and I secured to deliver the much-needed solutions to those issues in order to secure crofting’s future.

I express my thanks to the stakeholders who have worked with me on the bill. The Scottish Crofting Federation and Community Land Scotland have provided excellent support on part 1. Ramblers Scotland and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland have also been very helpful in proposing amendments, and it has been good to collaborate on making meaningful changes to part 2. I also thank the minister and his officials for their constructive approach in meetings about the bill.

Turning to the specifics of part 1, despite the overall lack of ambition in the bill, some welcome progress has been made on giving crofters the right to put land to environmental use and ensure a fairer balance of rights between the crofting community, the public interest and landlords and estates.

I trust that those changes will allow crofters to do their bit for Scotland’s nature and climate and enable landscape-scale change so that we meet our biodiversity and emissions reduction goals, with biodiversity in particular being key to ensuring that our nation remains resilient in the face of global ecosystems collapse.

My concern is that it is unclear who is entitled to the financial benefit of that vital work. Although I understand that the bill is not the place to resolve carbon offsetting issues, I urge the next Government to commit to investigating that issue through primary legislation to allow crofters and other land users to work with full confidence.

That is not an endorsement of the carbon offsetting system—instead, it is an acknowledgement that the system exists and needs regulating in the interests of fairness, community wealth building and democratising Scotland’s land.

Part 2 of the bill is a sensible idea in principle and will give crofters, as well as other stakeholders, a clear destination for their legal cases.

It is especially pleasing to note that the new Scottish Land Court will have jurisdiction over access rights. That will allow for better, fairer access to justice in this area—something that can only improve outcomes for everyone, not just for those with the deepest pockets.

My stage 3 amendment, which will see land access guidance updated for the first time in two decades, and the minister’s amendment to review the operation of the Scottish Land Court—something that I pushed for at stage 2—will ensure that the new jurisdiction works as effectively as possible in the years to come.

To wrap up, the Scottish Greens support the bill, but we want to see further reform in the next session of Parliament to ensure a viable future for crofting for generations to come.

17:18

I pay tribute to some of the members who have spoken today and who are stepping down. I hope that I do not pick up the tears that my colleague Edward Mountain has brought into the chamber—that depth of feeling. Although we may come from very different perspectives, he has always been willing to reach across the aisles between us to work constructively as a fellow member and convener. We have found common ground on a number of issues, including salmon farming and climate change, and I appreciate the work that we have done together in those areas.

Beatrice Wishart has been a strong advocate for Shetland. We share a passion for infrastructure—that of fixed links. Rhoda Grant has been an incredible champion for crofting—I have seen that come to the fore through the passage of this legislation—and a force for the Highlands and Islands. She has also called for the right to food. I share Tim Eagle’s enthusiasm for Richard Leonard’s speeches in the chamber, and I appreciate the tag‑team approach that we took to making improvements to seasonal worker accommodation. I am looking forward to taking that forward in the next session.

My thanks must also go to the team that put together the bill and to the Parliament’s legislation team, which was very supportive in our work to lodge amendments.

On what is at hand today, I will close the debate for the Greens by saying that we support the bill. It ties up loose ends that are creating problems for today’s crofters. However, as I said earlier, it is not ambitious enough to ensure crofting’s long‑term future. I look forward to working with the Government to create something that will allow crofting to flourish and expand.

There are a multitude of challenges ahead that crofters will need support with so that they can adapt and thrive. For example, the 2045 net zero target is edging ever closer, and we also have the good food nation commitments to consider. The job of the Scottish Government in both instances is to prepare the ground for crofters and enable them to make the most of the opportunities that these present. We are moving in the right direction, but more haste is needed, given the severity of the challenges that are on the horizon.

Elements of the legislation will help crofters to begin the process of adaptation, but there was room in the bill to speed things up. At stage 2, we proposed giving crofters the benefits from environmental use of the land, an environmental use advice service and public financing. Had those amendments been accepted, crofters would have had the means and the confidence to pick up the pace on climate and nature.

At the same time, those amendments would have fostered thriving crofting communities, with a more equal distribution of wealth, greater financial security and a clearer route forward when it comes to putting the land to environmental use. Those ideas should not disappear with the bill. They need further consideration by the next Government in its review of crofting legislation.

The review should also aspire to create a system that is easier to access. The new entrants will be the life-blood of crofting’s future, and we need to pave the way for new faces by levelling out the market in croft tenancies and simplifying the legislation so that it is clearer and more coherent for those who are not yet part of the crofting community.

There was an opportunity to create rapid positive change in part 2 of the bill. We pushed the Government to consider giving the Scottish Land Court further environmental jurisdiction, with a view to using it as a foundation for an environmental court. For too long, Scotland has been in breach of its Aarhus convention obligations, with little meaningful movement by successive Governments to rectify the situation. If Scotland is to become an independent nation that is trusted and respected on the international stage, we need to meet all the requirements of the treaties that we have signed up to. To the Government’s credit, its amendment to review the court’s operation will mean that that issue is looked at.

The Scottish Greens stand ready to work with the next Government to deliver more ambitious reform for crofters. I sincerely hope that work on that can start early in the next session.

17:35

Crofting is a vital part of Scotland’s cultural and social heritage, as well as its future. It is a social and economic glue that holds rural and island communities together, offering us a template for low-impact land management that, if adopted more widely across Scotland, could help us to meet the major challenges presented by the climate and biodiversity crises, support fair access to land and food and provide an antidote to rural depopulation.

Although I am pleased that stakeholders are largely happy with the bill’s contents, it must be said—as other members have done already—that the bill is something of a missed opportunity. It has been in the pipeline for a decade, and yet what we have before us today is fairly technical, and not the ambitious reform that crofters have been crying out for.

Key elements that are missing include tighter regulation of the market in tenancies to make crofting more accessible; a scheme to create more crofts on public land; and moves towards a Scotland-wide expansion of where crofting can take place. We must ensure that the next Government uses the review of crofting legislation that Tim Eagle and I secured to deliver the much-needed solutions to those issues in order to secure crofting’s future.

I express my thanks to the stakeholders who have worked with me on the bill. The Scottish Crofting Federation and Community Land Scotland have provided excellent support on part 1. Ramblers Scotland and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland have also been very helpful in proposing amendments, and it has been good to collaborate on making meaningful changes to part 2. I also thank the minister and his officials for their constructive approach in meetings about the bill.

Turning to the specifics of part 1, despite the overall lack of ambition in the bill, some welcome progress has been made on giving crofters the right to put land to environmental use and ensure a fairer balance of rights between the crofting community, the public interest and landlords and estates.

I trust that those changes will allow crofters to do their bit for Scotland’s nature and climate and enable landscape-scale change so that we meet our biodiversity and emissions reduction goals, with biodiversity in particular being key to ensuring that our nation remains resilient in the face of global ecosystems collapse.

My concern is that it is unclear who is entitled to the financial benefit of that vital work. Although I understand that the bill is not the place to resolve carbon offsetting issues, I urge the next Government to commit to investigating that issue through primary legislation to allow crofters and other land users to work with full confidence.

That is not an endorsement of the carbon offsetting system—instead, it is an acknowledgement that the system exists and needs regulating in the interests of fairness, community wealth building and democratising Scotland’s land.

Part 2 of the bill is a sensible idea in principle and will give crofters, as well as other stakeholders, a clear destination for their legal cases.

It is especially pleasing to note that the new Scottish Land Court will have jurisdiction over access rights. That will allow for better, fairer access to justice in this area—something that can only improve outcomes for everyone, not just for those with the deepest pockets.

My stage 3 amendment, which will see land access guidance updated for the first time in two decades, and the minister’s amendment to review the operation of the Scottish Land Court—something that I pushed for at stage 2—will ensure that the new jurisdiction works as effectively as possible in the years to come.

To wrap up, the Scottish Greens support the bill, but we want to see further reform in the next session of Parliament to ensure a viable future for crofting for generations to come.

17:18

I pay tribute to some of the members who have spoken today and who are stepping down. I hope that I do not pick up the tears that my colleague Edward Mountain has brought into the chamber—that depth of feeling. Although we may come from very different perspectives, he has always been willing to reach across the aisles between us to work constructively as a fellow member and convener. We have found common ground on a number of issues, including salmon farming and climate change, and I appreciate the work that we have done together in those areas.

Beatrice Wishart has been a strong advocate for Shetland. We share a passion for infrastructure—that of fixed links. Rhoda Grant has been an incredible champion for crofting—I have seen that come to the fore through the passage of this legislation—and a force for the Highlands and Islands. She has also called for the right to food. I share Tim Eagle’s enthusiasm for Richard Leonard’s speeches in the chamber, and I appreciate the tag‑team approach that we took to making improvements to seasonal worker accommodation. I am looking forward to taking that forward in the next session.

My thanks must also go to the team that put together the bill and to the Parliament’s legislation team, which was very supportive in our work to lodge amendments.

On what is at hand today, I will close the debate for the Greens by saying that we support the bill. It ties up loose ends that are creating problems for today’s crofters. However, as I said earlier, it is not ambitious enough to ensure crofting’s long‑term future. I look forward to working with the Government to create something that will allow crofting to flourish and expand.

There are a multitude of challenges ahead that crofters will need support with so that they can adapt and thrive. For example, the 2045 net zero target is edging ever closer, and we also have the good food nation commitments to consider. The job of the Scottish Government in both instances is to prepare the ground for crofters and enable them to make the most of the opportunities that these present. We are moving in the right direction, but more haste is needed, given the severity of the challenges that are on the horizon.

Elements of the legislation will help crofters to begin the process of adaptation, but there was room in the bill to speed things up. At stage 2, we proposed giving crofters the benefits from environmental use of the land, an environmental use advice service and public financing. Had those amendments been accepted, crofters would have had the means and the confidence to pick up the pace on climate and nature.

At the same time, those amendments would have fostered thriving crofting communities, with a more equal distribution of wealth, greater financial security and a clearer route forward when it comes to putting the land to environmental use. Those ideas should not disappear with the bill. They need further consideration by the next Government in its review of crofting legislation.

The review should also aspire to create a system that is easier to access. The new entrants will be the life-blood of crofting’s future, and we need to pave the way for new faces by levelling out the market in croft tenancies and simplifying the legislation so that it is clearer and more coherent for those who are not yet part of the crofting community.

There was an opportunity to create rapid positive change in part 2 of the bill. We pushed the Government to consider giving the Scottish Land Court further environmental jurisdiction, with a view to using it as a foundation for an environmental court. For too long, Scotland has been in breach of its Aarhus convention obligations, with little meaningful movement by successive Governments to rectify the situation. If Scotland is to become an independent nation that is trusted and respected on the international stage, we need to meet all the requirements of the treaties that we have signed up to. To the Government’s credit, its amendment to review the court’s operation will mean that that issue is looked at.

The Scottish Greens stand ready to work with the next Government to deliver more ambitious reform for crofters. I sincerely hope that work on that can start early in the next session.

17:35

This amendment bill is, at its heart, a technical piece of legislation that will make what we put in place through the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 more workable on the ground. In particular, it will give councils greater flexibility by adding the option of a flat rate alongside the percentage model that is already available.

That matters, because Scotland is not one place. The pressures that are faced in central Edinburgh are not the same as those in Skye or in our smaller towns and rural communities. Local authorities need tools to respond to those differences, not a one-size-fits-all approach.

It is also worth recognising that these changes have come about through positive engagement. The Scottish Government has worked with industry to understand where the original legislation could be improved and how it could operate more effectively in practice. That kind of collaboration and co-design is welcome, because it has strengthened the approach to Scotland’s visitor levies. It was also good to hear positive feedback from stakeholders during stage 1 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee’s evidence.

However, it is important to reflect on how we arrived at this point. There were opportunities for a more constructive approach during the passage of the original legislation. Instead, there was outright resistance from some quarters to the principle of a visitor levy altogether. The passage of the original legislation was a missed opportunity, because the pressures that led to the policy have not gone away—if anything, they have intensified. If we had started from a co-design approach in the first instance, perhaps we could have identified issues such as the third-party booking issue during the process of passing the 2024 act.

Across Scotland, many of our most cherished places are experiencing the strain of success. From the streets of Edinburgh to the communities in Skye and beyond, increased visitor numbers are putting pressure on local infrastructure. Roads are deteriorating under heavier use, particularly with the rise in car travel and camper vans. Public spaces, facilities and services are being stretched.

At the same time, we should be clear that Scotland remains an incredibly attractive place to visit, which is something to celebrate. Tourism brings jobs, supports local economies and connects people to our landscapes, culture and communities. However, it also brings costs, which are currently borne disproportionately by local communities and local authorities. That is where the visitor levy plays a vital role.

Until now, those offering accommodation—from hotels to short-term lets—have benefited from Scotland’s appeal without there being a direct mechanism to contribute to the upkeep of the very places that attract visitors in the first place. The levy begins to address that imbalance. It is not about deterring visitors; it is about sustaining the places that they come to experience. It allows authorities to reinvest in infrastructure, services and the quality of the visitor experience. By giving councils flexibility in how the levy is structured—whether as a percentage or a flat rate—the bill strengthens their ability to do that in a way that reflects local circumstances.

Ultimately, the bill is about fairness and sustainability. It is about fairness because it is reasonable to ask those who benefit from tourism to contribute to maintaining what makes Scotland special. It is about sustainability because, if we do not invest in our infrastructure and environments now, we risk undermining the very assets on which tourism depends.

The bill is a sensible step forward. It reflects learning and engagement, and it helps to ensure that the visitor levy can work as intended to support communities, protect places and sustain Scotland’s tourism offer for the long term. I look forward to seeing other tourist-type levies in the next session of Parliament, including the cruise ship levy and, potentially, a point-of-entry levy.

On behalf of the Scottish Greens, I am pleased to support the bill.

16:21

I pay tribute to some of the members who have spoken today and who are stepping down. I hope that I do not pick up the tears that my colleague Edward Mountain has brought into the chamber—that depth of feeling. Although we may come from very different perspectives, he has always been willing to reach across the aisles between us to work constructively as a fellow member and convener. We have found common ground on a number of issues, including salmon farming and climate change, and I appreciate the work that we have done together in those areas.

Beatrice Wishart has been a strong advocate for Shetland. We share a passion for infrastructure—that of fixed links. Rhoda Grant has been an incredible champion for crofting—I have seen that come to the fore through the passage of this legislation—and a force for the Highlands and Islands. She has also called for the right to food. I share Tim Eagle’s enthusiasm for Richard Leonard’s speeches in the chamber, and I appreciate the tag‑team approach that we took to making improvements to seasonal worker accommodation. I am looking forward to taking that forward in the next session.

My thanks must also go to the team that put together the bill and to the Parliament’s legislation team, which was very supportive in our work to lodge amendments.

On what is at hand today, I will close the debate for the Greens by saying that we support the bill. It ties up loose ends that are creating problems for today’s crofters. However, as I said earlier, it is not ambitious enough to ensure crofting’s long‑term future. I look forward to working with the Government to create something that will allow crofting to flourish and expand.

There are a multitude of challenges ahead that crofters will need support with so that they can adapt and thrive. For example, the 2045 net zero target is edging ever closer, and we also have the good food nation commitments to consider. The job of the Scottish Government in both instances is to prepare the ground for crofters and enable them to make the most of the opportunities that these present. We are moving in the right direction, but more haste is needed, given the severity of the challenges that are on the horizon.

Elements of the legislation will help crofters to begin the process of adaptation, but there was room in the bill to speed things up. At stage 2, we proposed giving crofters the benefits from environmental use of the land, an environmental use advice service and public financing. Had those amendments been accepted, crofters would have had the means and the confidence to pick up the pace on climate and nature.

At the same time, those amendments would have fostered thriving crofting communities, with a more equal distribution of wealth, greater financial security and a clearer route forward when it comes to putting the land to environmental use. Those ideas should not disappear with the bill. They need further consideration by the next Government in its review of crofting legislation.

The review should also aspire to create a system that is easier to access. The new entrants will be the life-blood of crofting’s future, and we need to pave the way for new faces by levelling out the market in croft tenancies and simplifying the legislation so that it is clearer and more coherent for those who are not yet part of the crofting community.

There was an opportunity to create rapid positive change in part 2 of the bill. We pushed the Government to consider giving the Scottish Land Court further environmental jurisdiction, with a view to using it as a foundation for an environmental court. For too long, Scotland has been in breach of its Aarhus convention obligations, with little meaningful movement by successive Governments to rectify the situation. If Scotland is to become an independent nation that is trusted and respected on the international stage, we need to meet all the requirements of the treaties that we have signed up to. To the Government’s credit, its amendment to review the court’s operation will mean that that issue is looked at.

The Scottish Greens stand ready to work with the next Government to deliver more ambitious reform for crofters. I sincerely hope that work on that can start early in the next session.

17:35