Chamber and committees

I am sure that the community council can follow the matter up with you.

I have one more question, on a separate topic. Parliament is sitting late this week—as we know, because we are all weary this morning—to deal with the Housing (Scotland) Bill. You said that you had investor interest in housing. Is that in the build-to-rent sector, or in other sectors?

Let me rephrase that question. When the Scottish Government says that it is not going to fund munitions, are you clear what that means?

That is a very diplomatic answer, thank you.

I want to ask about your accounts. I was having a look at your most recent accounts for the period to March 2025, which were published in June, I think. In that period, you wrote off balances to a total of just over £31 million. It was reported in June that another enterprise in which you had made investments valued at £20.2 million had notified you that there is a risk that that might be written off. I absolutely understand that when you make investments there is always a risk that some of them might not be successful, but that strikes me as quite a high percentage compared to your overall level of investments. Do you think that that is a reasonable sum to be writing off in the context of the total investments that you make?

On the housing issue, I have been talking to SSE, and I believe that it is investing in housing because it realises that there is no point in it creating vacancies if there is nowhere for potential employees to live. I appreciate that a lot of house building goes on in the inner Moray Firth area, but what more can be done to encourage house building in the west Highlands, where a lot of that investment will be going?

Good morning. I will ask about your accounts, but I will first follow up on Lorna Slater’s final question about defence companies. We have seen some very good news in the past few weeks, such as defence contracts for BAE Systems, with £10 billion-worth of orders. We also hope that there will be some good news for Babcock in Rosyth, which is in the area that I represent, with a potential £1 billion order for new frigates. There have been some changes over the past few weeks in the Scottish Government’s approach to support for defence. What is your understanding of what Scottish Enterprise can or cannot do in supporting defence companies?

The supply chains for defence companies internationally are very complex. Leonardo, for example, supplies radar systems for Lockheed Martin and employs a very large number of people in Edinburgh, who are, in the main, in very well-paid, well-skilled jobs. It might well be that some of those F35s will end up being sold around the world—who knows? However, there is clearly a knock-on impact from any decisions that are taken because of the complexity of the supply chains. It must be quite complex to try to unravel that.

I have one more question on this. What is the definition of munitions?

Thank you for that.

I have one more question on something else that I noticed in your accounts. This is a quote from your accounts, which say that there is

“significant uncertainty and complexity of the laws/legal environment within which SE operates.”

Can you elaborate on that for a layman? What does that mean?

Good morning. I have one set of questions for HIE. There is nobody on the committee who represents the Highlands and Islands, so, as I think that I am the closest thing to a Highlander here, I wanted to ask you a little bit about some of the broader issues you touched on earlier.

Clearly this is a time of great economic opportunity for the Highlands. We see the development of a freeport to Cromarty, renewable energy projects and a growth in tourism. That is all good news, but that development comes with challenges, particularly around infrastructure. There will be a need for more housing and for investment in transport infrastructure. I was talking to SSE recently about the proposed pump storage scheme at Coire Glas in the west Highlands. That will lead to an enormous amount of materials being transported in and out, which will put huge pressure on roads such as the A9 and the A82.

I am interested to get Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s perspective on issues such as upgrading the A9—an issue dear to my heart—and, more broadly, what other infrastructure improvements we need if we are going to capitalise on that economic opportunity.

Good morning. I have some follow-up questions specifically on the visitor levy, but I will start off with a slightly broader question.

We have had a very busy summer in Edinburgh. At one point, when we had the confluence of the festival and the weekend Oasis concerts, Edinburgh was the most expensive destination in the world. So, we have a lot of conversations about what people call overtourism. I do not represent Edinburgh; I represent Mid Scotland and Fife—Perth and Kinross, Clackmannanshire, Stirling and Fife. People in my area get very annoyed when they hear the term “overtourism”, because they say, “We need more tourists, not fewer tourists.” The only place in the region that I represent where I ever hear any concerns about visitor numbers being too great is St Andrews, at the height of the summer. Everybody else says, “Give us more visitors.”

I will start with David Hope-Jones, because he represents the south of Scotland, so he will have an interest in this issue. Do you think that there is a danger of our debate on tourism getting skewed by the fact that people look at hotspots such as Edinburgh and Skye and think that everything is tremendous, whereas the rest of the country could do with a lot more visitors?