Chamber and committees

Undoubtedly, the community right to buy abandoned, neglected and detrimental land is a positive thing, but there are so many constraints around organisational capacity in communities, in particular deprived communities, where people are not necessarily able to get together because they are so busy working and trying to make ends meet. In addition, there is an issue with simply trying to raise the capital. Is there a way for us to bolster that capacity by resourcing councils, for example, to do it, with the understanding that they can build up that capacity with communities, rather than leaving it to laissez-faire self-organisation?

It is a pleasure to rise in support of my friend Ms Villalba, who is a member for North East Scotland, and her motion for members’ business, which was a pleasure to sign, as indeed it was to support her proposed member’s bill, which challenges this persistent, invidious and pernicious problem at the heart of Scotland’s economy.

The Conservative spokesman asked why we were debating the topic and for what purpose. It actually runs as a thread through every aspect of public policy in this country. We often come here and debate the inadequacy of the public finances, our incapacity to generate sufficient public resources to address the population’s needs and to ensure that everyone can have a good, dignified quality of life.

This is a wealthy country. The question is not the extent of the wealth but its distribution, and at the heart of that is this debate, because the elephant in the room of this country’s economy is the concentration of ownership and wealth that is vested in the land of this nation. That is fundamentally at the root of it. So much of our public treasury is derived from taxes that are levied on income that is generated from waged employment and from profits that are generated from economically advantageous and productive activity. What is not levied is the unproductive rent extraction that is rampant across the Scottish economy, and that is something that must be addressed; it has never been addressed in a century, despite repeated attempts.

Indeed, we could go back to 1909, when William Bellinger Northrop drew a polemic map of London with an octopus on it, with the tentacles wrapped around all the different aspects of the land of London owned by the various aristocrats. At that time, over a century ago, the text on the map characterised the octopus as an “absorbent parasite”, leaching £20 million of rent out of the common wealth of people at that time. It has extended its grip; it has extended the rent extracted exponentially since that time. It has only ever got worse. The decoupling of the value of wealth vested in land from that in wages has been extraordinary—certainly, over the past 30 years—and it is at the heart of the problem that we face in this country today.

My friend’s motion focuses on rural land ownership concentration, but the issue is prevalent in our urban environments, too, where 91 per cent of Scotland’s people live. Urban areas account for only 2.3 per cent of Scotland’s land, but I will take Glasgow city centre as an example, as I have looked at it recently. Glasgow has 2.3 million square feet of vacant commercial floor space—that is equivalent to the space in the Empire State Building—and it is largely owned by remote owners in tax havens, whose position is opaque. Those owners pay not a penny towards the city’s improvement or maintenance, but they extract rents and free ride on business rates not being charged on buildings that are listed and of value to the city’s heritage.

Since 2005, Glasgow has pretty consistently had about 5,000 empty homes. Vast amounts of potential are locked away from people by remote ownership and uninterested owners. Since 2019, only 52 compulsory purchase orders have been issued in Glasgow. The rate of recycling of such properties is insufficient, and I hope that the minister will reflect on the state’s capacity to bring such properties back into fundamental public ownership.

On every front, we see an attack on community ownership in Scotland. Community-run housing associations are being railroaded into asset-stripping mergers with large national groups. We need to take cognisance of such things to improve justice in Scotland.

At the heart of the issue is the opportunity to unlock our economic potential by removing the parasitic extraction of wealth through rents and unleashing productive economic activity in every possible facet of human endeavour. That reality has been observed for more than a century; it is at the heart of our politics and it is the reason and the mission behind why, for the benefit of the many, we need to unlock the hoarding of land by a remote few.

The cabinet secretary is aware of the shocking statistics—she just mentioned them—that show that a third of children in Glasgow are living in poverty and that, in the neighbouring local authority of South Lanarkshire, a quarter of children live in poverty. I agree whole-heartedly that cruel Tory policies such as the two-child cap should be scrapped, but the Scottish Government could and can do more here to eradicate poverty.

One way in which it could do that is through funding local authorities to enable them to continue their summer holiday food programmes, which provide targeted support for families that are in need and ensure that children get at least one hot meal a day. The Government has provided no clarity on the funding that will be available for local authorities to deliver those programmes, and the councils in both Glasgow and South Lanarkshire are crying out for clarity. When will the Government confirm the funding, because schools in Glasgow close for the summer tomorrow and South Lanarkshire schools finish on Tuesday? Thousands of children look set to lose out on that crucial provision simply because of the Government’s indecision.

Community link workers play a crucial role in community mental health support in particular. The SNP’s previous programme for government, “A Fairer, Greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22”, committed to establishing 1,000 additional mental health roles to support wellbeing hubs for every GP practice and improve community mental health resilience. Given that the summer recess begins next week, will the Scottish Government have created those roles before the next programme for government or will that be yet another failed commitment from this Government?

The minister makes an important point about the clustering effect. One of the big opportunities identified in the debate was about the maritime sector and ScotWind, and I mentioned two companies in that regard. Will the minister refer to those companies and offer to try to make them succeed in Scotland?

Does the member recognise that perhaps one of the big constraints is access to capital? It is simply very difficult for Scottish businesses to organically access capital finance in this country. Often, the only alternative is to put themselves up for sale overseas.

While I note the minister’s comments on overdose prevention facilities—the principle of having such facilities is surely a good thing—progress is still painfully slow. I hope that we can work together across parties in furthering that agenda under my member’s bill.

The minister will be aware that the original target date for MAT standards 1 to 5 was April 2022. Despite the minister saying that she is “heartened by the progress” in the report, not a single ADP in Glasgow had fully implemented standards 1 to 5 by April 2023, 12 months after the original target date. That was not a stretch target, as the minister characterised it; it was a baseline—particularly in cities such as Glasgow.

Last year, after the target was missed, the former Minister for Drugs Policy told the Parliament:

“When it comes to implementing MAT standards, I am not asking and I am not taking no for an answer.”—[Official Report, 23 June 2022; c 71.]

However, here we are, 14 months after the original target date, and we are still miles off full implementation. Can the minister please tell us when she expects to see full implementation of MAT standards 1 to 5 across Scotland, given that we have now missed two critical target dates? Will she give a cast-iron guarantee that ADPs in Glasgow will have achieved full implementation of standards 6 to 10 by the target date of April 2025?

We really need to get on with this, and I hope that we can seize the opportunity for the good of Scotland—time is of the essence.

I am pleased to close for Labour and I am keen to emphasise the importance of innovation across our economy. Many members have spoken about Scotland’s historical pedigree on innovation, but I am afraid that that picture has faded considerably. Even on patents, for example, Scotland has just a quarter of the European average on patent density.

The root cause of a lot of that comes back to firm generation. We are simply not generating the velocity of firms that are owned and headquartered in this country to allow us to have the sovereignty over industrial growth that we need in order to get back on track with all the metrics that we have talked about, such as productivity, product development, exports and patents, which are all critical and surround the firm.

The joint-stock company was the great innovation of the industrial revolution and of the Scottish enlightenment that gave Scotland a huge global head start. There have been great examples. We have talked about Glasgow. Many members have discussed the engineering genius of Scotland. Engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs and canny investors all came together in close proximity to crack the industrial leads that we needed.

There are many opportunities in Scotland today. The innovation strategy focuses on life sciences and health. The BioQuarter in Edinburgh is certainly a great asset. However, we must not forget the life sciences expertise and innovation potential across the country. In particular, a great ecosystem of innovation is taking root in Glasgow.

I had the pleasure of visiting the University of Glasgow’s new Clarice Pears school of health and wellbeing, which has brought together academics who are working to address health inequalities. It will also be a key aspect of the Glasgow riverside innovation district, which was mentioned by Kaukab Stewart.

Yes, the Merck investment announcement was great and a good example of high-quality, high-value jobs. However, again, I lament the fact that it is not a Scotland-headquartered company that is driving that investment in Scotland. We cannot deny that that investment is great, but we come back to the fundamental question about ownership. It is an opportunity for us.

There are two practical challenges. Let us take the strategy in the abstract and then drill down into practical applications. One of the most rewarding things that I have been doing, working with several members from across the chamber, is forming the cross-party group on shipbuilding. I have a personal background in the shipbuilding industry. Although we have focused heavily on naval shipbuilding and ferry building, there is a lot more to it than that. The key to that is the opportunity that exists for Scotland in driving those huge procurement into value propositions that can build companies in Scotland.

I am really concerned that we are potentially going to miss two critical opportunities. I will cite them today for the benefit of the minister. I hope that we can work together to capture those opportunities for Scotland.

Ultimate Boats is a company that is already building on the Clyde and needs to expand. It needs to move to a larger site—moving to a larger site on the Clyde would mean that Ultimate Boats could build 500 vessels a year and create 300 high-quality jobs. The current lease runs out in May 2024 because the landlord wants to redevelop the land for housing. Ultimate Boats has identified a couple of suitable sites in Scotstoun and Inchinnan, but it is struggling to engage with landlords to agree a lease.

The current owner of the business has put in £7 million of capital funding but needs £10 million of extra investment. There has been interest from several buyers. As the current lease is up next May, if the company is unable to find the funding, it will not be in Scotland as of 1 January 2024. A move to the United States is possible—the US is willing to invest £10 million for 5 per cent equity and is likely to see a £100 million return within five years. Another possibility is Poland, where there is a European investor who is ready to invest £30 million to £40 million for 30 per cent equity. Similarly, Invest Northern Ireland is keen to bring the company to Belfast, with the promise of various grants.

What is happening in Scotland? Scottish Enterprise seems uninterested and the Scottish National Investment Bank will not support the business because it is too small. That is not acceptable, minister, and we need to get a grip on the situation urgently. That is a critical, tangible output that we need to secure for Scotland within the next six to seven months.

The cross-party group on shipbuilding has been working to identify opportunities. The products that Ultimate Boats is developing represent huge opportunities. Recent sea trials of a new counter-terrorism craft for Hampshire Police, which leads on counter-terrorism for UK police forces, went very well. Police Scotland diving teams and anti-terrorism units also took part in those trials. Ultimate Boats can build such a vessel in as little as two weeks. The company could be a market leader in that field, but it is likely to leave the UK for the US or Europe unless it can secure the funding—in debt or equity—this year. Time is of the essence if we are to secure those opportunities.

Similarly, there is the Zephyrus project; a tripartite consortium of Aluminium Marine Consultants, an aluminium boat builder, Shift Clean Energy, which makes batteries, and Ecomar Propulsion have agreed to join together to retrofit crew transfer vessels to service offshore wind farms. They are trying to set up a facility in Montrose or on the Clyde. For the latter, they were looking at the Malin Scottish marine technology park facility that is under development at Old Kilpatrick but, unfortunately, timescales for its completion are currently unclear. We must help them to find a facility. Ecomar needs 15,000 square feet, AMC needs quayside access and Shift needs 7,000 square feet for a battery factory. Ecomar needs £2.5 million in equity and £2.5 million in debt to get the propulsion software hydrogen integration factory started. AMC needs £10 million over two years to start to build a yard on the Clyde and create up to 2,500 jobs. Shift requires £5 million to set up a battery facility, but a larger 300MW plant would need £20 million investment in debt.

Therefore, for £30 million to £45 million of investment, the Clyde and Scotland could have a yard, a battery factory and a low-emissions propulsion manufacturer, which would make the area a global leader in zero-emissions crew transfer builds to service the ScotWind project and global export markets.

I urge the minister to meet me and the Scottish National Investment Bank to move the issue on. We cannot afford to wait any longer for those key investment decisions. Zephyrus waited a year for a reply from SNIB. My understanding is that SNIB’s focus may simply be on larger companies, but we will miss—