Chamber and committees

I resigned as a councillor on 4 June. Until then, I was in local government for nine years. In my nine years as a councillor, I sat on a number of arm’s-length organisations of the council. I had a meeting with the standards clerks, and was advised to put all of those on the register of interests under the voluntary category, because none of the posts was remunerated and all of them were in my role as a councillor. The standards clerks have come back to say that I can remove all of them, but I am going to leave them on for transparency.

However, there is a question mark around a limited liability partnership, Edinburgh Living, which is a development company with the council that delivers market and mid-market homes. I do not know whether I need to declare that yet, as I am waiting for full guidance from the standards clerks. I will declare it for now, but it might come off my declaration in future.

I have been a councillor in Edinburgh for the past nine years, although I resigned a couple of weeks ago. Many of my interests stem from when I was the housing and economy convener. I am interested in how we can grow the economy so that it works for our society. I am also interested in fair work and in how we ensure that the Government’s support for industry, sectors and businesses goes to the businesses that are giving back the most to society through well-paid jobs, good career progression and providing opportunities for people. We have to look at the benefits that our economy gives to society.

I would be very interested in the committee looking at the gig economy, which I did at the City of Edinburgh Council. With the Workers Observatory, we looked at working conditions for people in the gig economy and the challenges that they face, including those around safety.

Like others, I think that AI is huge and there are massive opportunities for us, but there are big questions about energy. I am also concerned about youth employment. A couple of months ago, I was on “Question Time”. A young woman in the audience became very annoyed when politicians were talking about young people needing skills. She said that young people do not need skills—they have skills, but they need jobs. Many highly skilled young people who are coming out of university are not able to get jobs, so we need to look at how we match young people to the work and ensure that there are jobs for them.

I am concerned that AI is taking space from young people when they first leave university. A lot of work that people would normally do as their first or graduate job is being done by AI. We need to work out how we bridge the gap and ensure that we are not losing lots of jobs for young people.

Tourism is important for employment, but there are big challenges. For example, in Edinburgh, we can look at the loss of housing and how tourism has fed into the pressure on housing. The issue is how we get the balance right with the businesses and sectors that are creating jobs so that they do not extract too much from other sections of our society.

There are three parts to energy. There is the jobs aspect, which is really important; there is the cost, not just for homes but for businesses—it is one of the biggest challenges for businesses at the moment; and there is a climate aspect. The committee will have to have an interesting discussion about that. I am glad to hear terms such as “evidence led”. I want to ensure that we understand the reality of the situation and that we look at it as honestly as we can. The just transition and how we create jobs in renewables will be a huge focus for the committee.

I agree with what has been said. We should be providing scrutiny as far as possible. Rachael Hamilton made the point that we would have felt much more informed this afternoon if we had been able to take evidence and have a deeper discussion. I would like to see that happen in the future.

The other point is that, as Daniel Johnson said, we often do not get notice. Legislation does not happen overnight, so even if we have not been informed about legislative consent memorandums, are we looking at where they might come from? I am learning this process, but are we able to see where we might expect them so that we are perhaps a bit more prepared?

The letter says:

“Given a political commitment by UK Government has been made to consult with Scottish Ministers, should the Bill’s powers extend into Scotland, the Scottish Government will therefore now be recommending consent to the Bill.”

If we are going to write to the minister, it should be to ask for that sentence to be elaborated on.

I have had a number of previous roles as a board member for arm’s-length external organisations for the City of Edinburgh Council, but none of those roles were remunerated. They were listed in my initial statement of interests. Although I have been given advice that they do not need to remain on the register of members’ interests, I will leave them there as a voluntary gesture of transparency. I am still waiting for advice about whether my role in a limited liability partnership, Edinburgh Living, which was a joint venture between the council and the Scottish Futures Trust to deliver market and mid-market housing in Edinburgh, should remain on the register of members’ interests; it is currently listed under voluntary. When the register is published, I will refer members to it and it will be clear where my interests sit.