Chamber and committees

I will reflect on that; let us see what comes forward in the future.

Another issue that I want to raise—and it has been raised time and again during the debate—is the capacity of councils to deliver the changes and the policy. When I looked at this as a council leader at COSLA, we asked over and over whether extra resource would be available, but we have seen cuts to local government in successive budgets. Colleagues such as Alexander Stewart pointed out that that will be an issue with the framework. The SNP-Green devolved Government continually pushes more burdens on to local government by removing its funding and capacity to deliver. In the words of a COSLA resource spokesperson, council services are “at absolute breaking point”.

Today, we have heard concerns from Fergus Ewing about the impact that this policy will have on farming and rural communities. It lets them down and it lets down our towns and cities and our Government partners. I look forward to seeing how this will progress in future, as it will need to improve.

As I said, I welcome that, but surely we should not be in a situation where many organisations feel that a ban is coming. I hope that the minister can clear that up.

I agree that we should have a town centre-first approach, but I am concerned that the framework will make it hard for businesses such as garden centres that need to be out of town to be granted permission. Time will tell on the interpretation, but I would have liked to see guidance issued on what out-of-town development will be permitted.

I thank all members for an interesting debate. I also thank the organisations that emailed helpful briefings to all members over the past couple of weeks.

I congratulate the minister on two things. First, it is obvious that he listened to concerns about the previous draft and came back with an improved version. The revised draft is better, but it still falls short in key areas, as we heard from previous speakers. Secondly, I congratulate him on his foreword to NPF4, where he admits that planning is “fully devolved” but says that everything would be better if we were independent, thereby showing, in black and white, that this SNP-Green devolved Government will take any topic and try to turn it into an independence debate.

Emma Harper rose—

The member raises a very good point. I hope that we will find out more when the minister responds.

As Fergus Ewing once said, we should be anti-emission, not anti-car. I welcome the fact that the minister said that his Government is committed to fully dualling the A9 and A96. I remind him that the commitment was to fully dual by 2030. Like Fergus Ewing, I will remind the minister and his colleagues about that commitment. I note that The Press and Journal is reporting today that the free ports will be in the Forth and in Cromarty, so the A96 dualling will be vital for the north-east.

One place we will not need a road to is drive-throughs, because it seems that the devolved Government wants to ban drive-throughs. Once again, the junior partner in this coalition of chaos is pulling the strings. The ban seemed to come from left field, with no opportunity for the affected businesses to give comment, because the policy had never appeared before.

I welcome the major multiyear projects section, which really helps us as a committee. I have a question on the building energy management system, which follows on from what Daniel Johnson asked. Michelle, you suggested that it would help us towards becoming a net zero Parliament, so it is a case of spending to save. Do we have any idea how much of a reduction in our energy consumption it could lead to?

Is there not a risk in going ahead with the new building energy management system before you have the route map? Until you have the route map, you will not know what heat pumps and solar panels will be required or how everything will interface. It seems a bit strange that you are focusing on one particular piece of work. Although that might be necessary because the current system is antiquated, would it not be safer to have the whole route map or the whole plan before pushing ahead with this little bit? I am sorry—it is not a little bit.

So the new ways of working programme is not a way of trying to get more people into the building; it is about entirely new ways of working.

When you talked about ending child poverty, you spoke about employability. Your budget document says that it is regrettable that £53 million has been taken out of the employability budget. How does that tie in with ending child poverty? You have previously spoken to the committee about early intervention and prevention. How does that tie in with that decision, which was obviously a tough one?

When will we find out about the costs associated with that pathway?

I want to ask about public sector reform. Information on that was going to be in the budget statement in December, but it has been delayed. Can you tell us your thinking on the direction of travel on public sector reform and when we will actually see things come forward? I imagine that reform will have an impact on the coming years’ budgets. The longer that it takes to make those reforms, the harder it will be to set budgets in future years.