Chamber and committees

I do not mean to read out my speech all over again, but the member will have heard me criticise the situation with regard to specific routes to my consistency relating to the lack of service, including the lack of service that is currently planned for Tarbert to Uig. I really think that what he said is inaccurate and he might want to reconsider.

The transport minister was recently in my constituency to hear about the challenges that different communities face on the ferries front. I know that her visit was appreciated, and the meeting that I chaired in Tarbert, Harris was certainly a productive one.?

That island—Harris—and North Uist share a ferry, with services between Tarbert, Lochmaddy and Uig in Skye forming the so-called Uig triangle—a route for which vessel 802 is intended. The investment that the Scottish Government has put into rebuilding both Tarbert and Uig as harbours in recent years is very significant. That inevitably means that, later this year, Uig will be closed for some months.

Harris, of course, has a land border with Lewis. I have registered my concerns already about what will happen if, during the period when the Uig to Tarbert service is out of action, we try to squeeze all the Tarbert traffic on to the existing service from Stornoway to Ullapool. That would mean that a population of 20,000 people would be entirely dependent on a single, fallible?vessel for several months. No other population even approaching that size is in a similar position on any other CalMac route. I struggle to see how that is viable, unless CalMac can allocate more capacity to the Stornoway route during that period. ?

All of that brings us to the urgency of finding new additional tonnage, whether through charter or purchase, and I again make the case for that option to be pursued. I know that the minister and her predecessor have been active on that front.

The acquisition of the MV Loch Frisa from Norway will directly benefit my constituents, as MV Lord of the Isles will be freed up to deliver additional services to South Uist. The entire network will also benefit from the increased resilience that an additional vessel affords. In addition, the Scottish Government has undertaken a number of short-term charters of the MV Arrow to enhance freight capacity on the Stornoway to Ullapool route. Although I know that it may not be an option to purchase that particular vessel, I again make the case, because there is a strong case to be made, for Stornoway to permanently host a freight vessel.

In the longer term, it is my belief that North Uist and Harris require a vessel each during the busy summer months. At present, those routes, along with several others in my constituency, run at virtually full capacity for the entire tourist season, making it difficult for anyone living on the islands to book their car on to a ferry for weeks on end. Prior to the introduction of the MV Loch Seaforth at Stornoway, those routes actually carried more cars than the Stornoway to Ullapool route. I have no doubt that the introduction of vessel 802 will see a similar increase in traffic, although it is only with separate vessels that each community will be able to have the capacity and resilience that they each deserve.

The recent orders for replacement vessels for Islay are very welcome. In the short term, however, and particularly in the context of the new Clyde and Hebrides ferry services contract, we need to have a serious discussion about how to ensure that islanders have something nearer a level playing field with tourists when it comes to booking tickets. At present, in summer, the playing field slopes away from island customers at an even sharper angle than that of the famous pitch at the Eriskay football club.

Although it is questionable whether the motion before us is actually motivated by any such practical concerns as those that I have outlined, the debate provides an opportunity for island MSPs to talk about the real, and very urgent, needs of their communities.

Will the member give way?

Will the member give way?

Members have, I believe, already seen—and, indeed, heard in the debate—evidence that NPF4 marks a turning point in Scotland’s planning system, not least because that system now allows a key role for this Parliament.

The draft NPF4, which was laid before the Parliament last November, has been subject to extensive scrutiny and interest, both here and in wider society, as a number of speakers have reflected.

The draft represents a change of direction in how we think of the places where we live in Scotland. It is grounded, I hope, in an attempt to ensure that our planning system can live up to the aspirations of the 26th United Nations climate change conference of the parties—COP26—and that we can recover economically from Covid, as well as simply make our communities more resilient, pleasant places to work in that have, above all perhaps, a distinctive sense of place, which is important to say.

However, I think that we all recognise that, for those aspirations to be realised, strong leadership will be needed, both in this place and locally. Compared to its predecessors, NPF4 is likely to be shaped to a greater extent by this Parliament, following the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019. The importance of meeting the needs of communities is recognised in the longer 120-day period of scrutiny, and in the requirement for the draft NPF to be approved by a resolution of the Parliament before Government can adopt it.

As others have said, the draft NPF4 has been scrutinised by four committees of this Parliament. The Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth has, in turn, reacted to that process, and the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee’s report

“welcomes NPF4 and its ambition.”

One item that I want to focus on briefly is the place that is given to spatial strategy in NPF4 and how this Parliament will need to shape that as a concept. I think particularly of spatial strategy as it applies in rural areas, where, as others have mentioned, the concept of 20-minute neighbourhoods will need to be imagined slightly differently for obvious reasons.

We will need to develop those concepts as we go, to counteract and not contribute to the tendencies towards the centralisation of population in a few rural centres, away from our more fragile communities, as has happened over the past few decades. It is good to see the focus that NPF4 puts on rural-proofing planning goals in rural areas.

The draft NPF4 sets out important proposals for the resettlement of previously inhabited areas. It will also enable new homes in rural communities, with planning policies that are more proactive and directive in shaping existing places and creating new ones.

In particular, we will have to put housing needs at the heart of what we understand by good rural planning. Literally everywhere I go in my island constituency, whatever the meeting is about, people express to me their anxieties about the need for affordable housing, both to buy and to rent. We need to overcome outmoded models of planning social housing that create a catch-22 situation, in which no houses are built in many rural areas where there is no record of demand. There is, of course, often no record of demand simply because there are virtually no rented houses for which anyone might apply to live in.

I hope that, in rural and urban Scotland alike, we can work together as a Parliament to ensure that NPF4 can enable the investment and development that Scotland will need in the coming decades, creating communities where people can prosper and, crucially, actually afford to live.

I know that the First Minister is aware of the extreme impact of fuel poverty in the Western Isles, where 88 per cent of households are not connected to the gas grid. Although electricity prices will rise sharply across the whole of Scotland from tomorrow, the price of heating oil has already more than doubled since this time last year. There is little to no competition in my constituency, which leaves consumers without any choice of supplier. Will the First Minister give an assurance that the Scottish Government will continue to make representations to the United Kingdom Government to urge it to introduce proper regulation and price caps for the heating oil industry?

Can the minister say more about the way in which the principles will continue to reshape people’s relationship with the land in Scotland and the pattern of that relationship, given that the relationship has often been skewed historically by iniquitous patterns of land ownership and use?

This may have been covered by others, but we heard that the NPF should be an everybody thing. I am not unwise enough to suggest that the NPF will ever capture the public imagination—I am not sure that would be entirely healthy anyway—but what has come through is the importance of awareness among community-level bodies that are spending or applying for money. Is there anything that the Government could do to express the purpose of all this in terms that more effectively capture the imagination of people at the community level?

Without putting words in people’s mouths, I would suggest that it sounds as though the type of process associated with a work visa is being conflated with the type of process associated with a refugee programme in a war. My question, which is for Andy Sirel and Graham O’Neill, is: do you think that the process that we have is fitted to the current situation with refugees, or are we just retrofitting a process that has been designed for another purpose, such as providing visas for workers?

I have a question about some of the many complexities that people who come here will face with regard to information that they have or do not have.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has pointed out that people might have different immigration statuses depending on the different schemes under which they come into the UK. I do not know whether that perception is accurate but it cannot contribute to making life easy for people who come here. Does Andy Sirel or Graham O’Neill have anything to say about what could be done to simplify that situation or, at least, to provide a clearer flow of information to remove at least some of the worries that refugees might have?