Chamber and committees

Would you expect to see that soon, minister?

On the VAT implications, we discussed at the last committee meeting the figure of, I think, £32 million, around which there was also some uncertainty. CIPFA seemed to dispute it. Is there a new estimate for VAT, or do you still think that £32 million might be at risk?

The Scottish Retail Consortium has raised concerns that the framework would in effect ban all out-of-town retail development. Can the minister confirm that local decision makers will have the flexibility and ability to approve retail developments that are more appropriately sited in out-of-town locations, such as garden centres and agricultural merchants? I cannot see anything in policy 28 that would allow that.

I thank my colleagues for bringing the debate, which is of key importance to my North East Scotland region, to the chamber. It has been 11 years since this shambolic SNP Government first announced that the A96 would be upgraded from a single carriageway to a dual carriageway, but there has been 11 years of broken promises, dither and delay from the Government.

Make no mistake: that delay has cost lives. Between 2018 and 2021, there were 11 fatal accidents and 94 non-fatal accidents on the A96. I send my condolences to all the families who have been affected by those tragic events. Between January and August this year, nine people were seriously injured on the Huntley to Inverness stretch alone of this notorious road.

The grubby deal between the SNP and its anti-growth, anti-business, anti-car and anti-north-east Green partners has not only delayed the project but firmly put the brakes on it. Not just lives depend on the dualling of the A96, but jobs too.

In June, Liz Cameron, the chief executive of Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said that the region needed a “firm commitment” on the dualling, to give the region a “much-needed boost.”

She added that Scottish Chambers of Commerce is

“firmly of the view that the Scottish Government should honour the commitment made to businesses and communities along the A96 that the road is dualled from start to finish, unlocking economic growth, workforce mobility and investment along the route and providing improved connections between two of Scotland’s leading cities and areas of economic growth.”

In an article in the Press and Journal last December, haulier Colin Lawson said that

“dualling had to happen urgently”,

and added that

“people in all the towns and surrounding villages within the A96 corridor have suffered enough. It has become one of the worst trunk roads in the UK.”

I agree with the member that investment is needed right across our road network. The Toll of Birness just north of Ellon in my constituency is another area that the Scottish Government needs to focus on.

The dualling of the A96 should be a priority for the Government and it should have been delivered long ago. I speak in this chamber every week about broken promises from this SNP-Green devolved Government of chaos, and that is just one more to add to that long list.

Businesses, residents, the national health service, hauliers, the oil industry and traders have all called on the Government to move forward with the dualling. They are crying out for increased investment in the road network. Public transport is not always a solution for those who live in rural areas, and these trunk roads are a lifeline for our rural communities in the north-east. It is wrong for them to be ignored for 11 years by this Government and for their priorities to be ignored and sidelined.

It is clear that, when it comes to business rates, the oil and gas industry, and now roads, the SNP has turned its back on the north-east, and it is shameful. Neither warm words nor empty promises are needed, but action is. Will the minister commit today to dualling the A96 and give the communities, residents, employers and business owners the reassurance that they need that the Government is listening to them?

Last week, the Scottish Retail Consortium reported that the recovery in vacancy rates has stalled in Scotland, compared with what is happening in the rest of the United Kingdom. That is evident in my home city of Aberdeen, where the business improvement district company, Aberdeen Inspired, has organised an emergency summit next Wednesday in order to save Union Street. Will the cabinet secretary attend that summit, so that he can hear, at first hand, from the retail and hospitality industries about the issues that they face?

The Scottish Government has received specific Barnett consequentials this financial year for things such as the UK Government’s housing support fund. However, the Scottish Government has not always been transparent on how that money has been spent. Will the Deputy First Minister commit to publishing information on how the Scottish Government has spent all consequential funding that it has received throughout this financial year?

To ask the Scottish Government what support is available in the context of its Covid recovery strategy to help high streets to recover from the pandemic and ensure that there are no long-term scarring effects. (S6O-01480)

The Audit Scotland report “Scotland’s financial response to Covid-19”, which was published this year, stated that 100 per cent of the £4.5 billion of Barnett consequentials relating to business support was allocated. However, how much of that £4.5 billion was allocated to funds but not spent? Is that money now available to help businesses that are struggling now?

To pick up on that point, might health boards, too, have to change radically as the national care service comes into being? Would there be a reduction in the number of boards?