Chamber and committees

If Serco loses millions running the service at near capacity, what will a state-run service do differently, so that those losses are not borne by the taxpayer?

I am pleased to be taking part in this debate because, as someone who represents Aberdeen, I know that trade links to the Arctic, and to Norway especially, are vital. I have been to and enjoyed visiting Norway many times. It will be at the heart of my contribution.

Aberdeen is twinned with Stavanger. I had the pleasure of being in Stavanger on a number of occasions in my previous role working in the oil and gas industry. Aberdeen and Stavanger is a perfect twinning, with the economies of both areas having relied heavily first on fishing and latterly on oil and gas. That partnership and friendship remains strong. Stavanger even gifts Aberdeen a Christmas tree each year.

I was pleased to read the 2019 Scottish Government document “Arctic Connections”, which has already been discussed. It includes a section on oil and gas, which states:

“The industry supports a total of 110,000 jobs in Scotland when including direct, indirect and induced employment.”

It goes on to say:

“A strong domestic oil and gas industry can play a positive role in supporting the low carbon transition, in terms of transferable skills and infrastructure.”

Things were much better in 2019 before the Greens were in government. The SNP of old seemed to understand how important the oil and gas sector was to our economy and our transition. That now seems to be a distant memory for this anti-growth and anti-business devolved Government.

Another part of the document that caught my eye was on digital connectivity. The document states:

“The challenges of broadband deployment in the Arctic are akin to those encountered by Scottish remote communities. Like Scotland, Arctic states have established broadband speed and coverage goals to increase interconnectivity in sparsely populated areas.”

While the Scottish Government has made a complete mess of the reaching 100 per cent—R100—scheme and missed its goals, Norway has some of the best fixed and mobile speeds in the world, as we heard earlier. That shows that that is possible, and that is something that we should strive towards.

Another similarity between Scotland and Norway is the island communities. It seems that, while Norway is investing in low-carbon vessels, we are investing in Norway’s old diesel fleet. We should be looking closely at what Norway is doing and, if we are serious about meeting our climate change goals, looking to invest in electrifying our harbours is a must.

Fishing is another area in which we have common interests. We should be working closely with our Arctic partners to ensure that we fish in a sustainable way and to learn how to transform our seafood industry through increased automation.

In closing, I agree with the motion that we should be collaborating with our Arctic partners. I also agree that we should learn from them. We should learn from them how to protect our oil and gas industry, as it is a key part of our energy transition. We should learn from them how to run a ferry service that is reliable and greener and which helps to support our island communities. We should learn from them how to grow our fishing industry and invest in automation. We should learn from them how to roll out a decent broadband service. We should learn from them how to roll out world-leading telemedicine, so that our rural communities are not left behind. We should learn from them how to build a decent car-charging infrastructure. In fact, this precarious SNP-Green Government should learn from our Arctic neighbours how to run a country properly.

The Scottish National Party has been in power for 16 years, and the people of the north-east are still having to put up with a second-class rail service. The new trains for the north-east are 40-year-old diesel 125 cast-offs. There is no chance of electrification to Aberdeen, of dualling at Usan, or of reducing journey times to the central belt by 20 minutes by 2026. The local chamber of commerce has said that that is vital to economic growth in the area. Does the minister agree that rail services to Aberdeen and the north-east are being neglected by the SNP Government?

I share the minister’s views on Sistema and the good work that it does in our communities, which is why I am absolutely disgusted with the SNP-Liberal Democrat administration at Aberdeen City Council for axing the budget for Big Noise Torry, which was a budget that I protected while I was council leader for four years.

Will the minister now intervene to find a way to save Big Noise Torry?

Will the minister take an intervention?

The retail sector and town centres the length and breadth of Scotland are facing enormous and often unnecessary pressures at present. I welcome the opportunity to take part in the debate and I thank all the organisations who sent in briefings ahead of it.

This Government and those before it that were led by the SNP have presided over a period of decline in Scotland’s retail sector. The change in shopping behaviours was predicted and accelerated by the pandemic, but that should not mean that we accept defeat and just manage the decline. We should have had plans in place a decade ago to change how we use our town centres by having more people living and working in them. However, time and again, we have seen that there is no plan from the Government to re-energise or reinvigorate our town centres, no plan to boost economic growth in the heart of our communities, no plan to bring jobs and opportunity to those areas, and no plan to help small businesses to flourish.

The SNP and the Greens have never been friends of Scotland’s small businesses. What we have is an anti-business Government that seeks to restrain businesses with unwanted and unnecessary bureaucratic shackles.

Did the committee hear representation from rural retailers about their concerns about broadband?

It is just unfortunate that the small business bonus scheme was cut in the budget that has not long been passed.

Nowhere are the bureaucratic shackles more evident than in the shambolic disaster that is the deposit return scheme. Businesses of all sizes across Scotland have been calling for the scheme to be reconsidered for months, but the Government seems to be determined to plough on. Granted, it has been suggested that small businesses might be given some sort of exemption, but the when, what, and how remain, which is muddying the waters and creating more uncertainty for businesses.

Proof, once again, of the Government’s disdain for small business was its decision to vote through reforms to the small business bonus scheme in the recent budget, thereby reducing the threshold for 100 per cent relief and ripping away a lifeline from many small businesses in Scotland.

We also have business rates, the regime for which—as the committee’s report identifies—places a huge disadvantage on Scottish businesses and remains a disincentive to investment. The committee’s report notes that evidence that was produced by the Government showed that the current non-domestic rates regime is “inequitable and unfair”. That will be no surprise to anyone who has spoken with business owners in our town and city centres.

That is why it is so disappointing that the SNP refused to accept the Scottish Conservatives’ proposal for a 75 per cent business rates relief. As a result of Barnett consequentials, the Government could have provided Scottish retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with support that would have been equivalent to that which is enjoyed elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Sadly, this Government chose to continue to hammer businesses in our town centres with jacked-up rates.

There has been one change recently to non-domestic rates; that is, devolution of empty property rates relief to local authorities. That devolution means that the burden of providing the relief falls on our hard-pressed local councils. My fear is that the relief might be withdrawn altogether because councils simply cannot afford to keep it going.

In Aberdeen, we are seeing perfectly good office accommodation being pulled down in order to avoid rates liability, which seems crazy but is, at least, an option for some owners. However, the owner of a listed building does not have that option, and an empty listed building could be liable for non-domestic rates depending on the position that the council takes, which will differ between Ellon and Edinburgh. That could have two outcomes. The first is that the owners could be more flexible with their terms so that the building would be occupied. That is what we all want. However, when I speak to commercial property experts, they tell me that they do not feel that rent is the issue; rather, lack of demand is the problem.

The second option is that owners could simply walk away, thereby adding to the decline of our town centres, as listed buildings become too high a risk for people to invest in. I guess that time will tell, because I do not suppose that any modelling of the potential impact has been done by the Government.

We have heard contributions from other members. It was good to hear about Roz McCall’s real-life experience of working in retail. She reminded us that many retailers will be working now on their plans for Christmas trade—there are only 299 shopping days until Christmas. Roz McCall mentioned House Of Fraser. Aberdeen used to have a House of Fraser store, just like it used to have Debenhams, BHS and John Lewis stores. All of them have gone from Aberdeen’s high street and they will not be replaced. We need new thinking and new ideas.

Claire Baker mentioned in her speech the demise of some of those big names. In Aberdeen, the old BHS building will have a new use—I hope—since Aberdeen’s success in securing £20 million of levelling up funds.

Claire Baker also said that Scotland has been falling behind the rest of the UK on digital skills. That is a worrying trend that must be addressed urgently. We heard about that in the Finance and Public Administration Committee.

Jamie Halcro Johnston talked about e-commerce business support, as did Daniel Johnson. Jamie Halcro Johnston made some great points about the skills that people need in order to be able to start trading electronically.

There has been some good news. We heard, for example. that Dumfries is fighting back, and Roz McCall mentioned Cupar and the success there, which we hope can be replicated across the country.

Fiona Hyslop spoke about business improvement districts. From experience, I know that they play a vital role and that they lever in additional funding through the levies that they raise. She also spoke about the importance of the role that the cultural sector can play in improving our town centres.

Graham Simpson spoke about East Kilbride and suggested that the answer might be to move use of buildings’ to housing and leisure. I say that a mix of things is required; I would add culture and hospitality to that. He also spoke about the £9.2 million of levelling up funding and the need for all levels of government to work together.

I share Evelyn Tweed’s memories of Woolies. I remember being dragged round the shops by my mum: we went to C&A first, then I got pick and mix from Woolies as my reward.

Elsewhere, other policy failures of this Government are having severe impacts on our town centres. Despite promising in its 2016 manifesto to

“deliver 100 per cent superfast broadband coverage for Scotland by the end of the next Parliament”,

the SNP has presided over serious delays to the R100 scheme—so serious that we will not see it being delivered until 2028. That has a real impact on our rural shops and retail sector.

The devolved Government has failed to produce a plan that will bring prosperity to our town centres, and seems instead to want to manage the decline, so let me give it some areas to look at. We could take steps to make our town centres more competitive by supporting Scotland’s local councils to exempt high streets and town centres from paying business rates, which would release businesses of all shapes and sizes from restrictive and unfair taxation.

We could take action to bring people back on to our high streets by proving local authorities with full funding to scrap parking changes in publicly owned car parks, which would encourage people to support their high streets. As Alex Rowley said, it is often easier to go out of town. We could stop the war on motorists by making it easier for people to get into their town and city centres.

The Scottish Conservatives would take on the horde of “To let” signs that are holding our high streets hostage, by supporting the community-first right to buy. We would reform planning laws to allow for redevelopment of brownfield sites, which would help to energise our towns and cities, encourage new green spaces and revitalise our town centres and return excitement and opportunity to them. As Roz McCall said, time is running out.

Above all, we would pass on Barnett consequentials and deliver 75 per cent rates relief so that Scottish businesses could operate on a level playing field with those across our United Kingdom.

No. The money should come from the national care service.

The Deputy First Minister was quoted as saying:

“we are providing councils with a real terms budget increase of 1.3% next year”.

That has now been revised upwards to 3 per cent—which sounds great until we look at the details. Most of the extra cash is for the pay settlement, and £105 million is for the devolution of empty property business rates relief—not new money but an accounting exercise that has moved it from a central Government spend to a local government spend. There is other cash for Scottish Government political priorities, after which, COSLA believes,

“Local Government will see an uplift of only £71m once policy commitments are taken into account.”

That £71 million is far below what is required to ensure that services continue at their current levels. I do not see that changing after the Deputy First Minister’s intervention today.

It is not so much about people with care experience. Obviously, changes are needed, but at this point the Government cannot even tell us what the service is and how much it is going to cost. We have had a financial memorandum; it came to the Finance and Public Administration Committee, but it was completely inadequate and had to be thrown out. We are calling for clarity on what the national care service is actually going to be.