Chamber and committees

Thank you—that is helpful and informative. Finally, I want to ask—

I want to raise the issue of further support for kinship families, which overlaps with much of the conversation that we have had. I am thinking specifically of how we can improve referral pathways and signposting. We have already touched on what happens when young people are in education. Should we be looking for a better model so that all the professionals who are involved—especially teachers—are aware of the needs of children in kinship care and of young carers in the classroom setting?

CELCIS’s survey highlighted the root of the situation when it identified that many children in kinship care have experienced trauma and that children in kinship care are less likely to receive mental health support than children in foster care. What is your view on that? How do we improve that model? I am thinking of the classroom setting in particular. Although we are not the education committee, there is an opportunity to take on board some of the work in that area.

I realise that that was a long question. Maybe we can hear from Vivien Thomson first, as she has touched on the issue.

Will the member give way?

Will the minister accept that this is an indiscriminate tax that will impact on the lowest-income families that own a car in this country? That point has been made across the chamber today, but we have not had an answer.

I have listened to what the minister said about stakeholder engagement. It is incredibly important that he meets members of the hotel industry across the capital, because that sector’s recovery following the pandemic is currently the slowest. Many people in the sector are warning that the introduction of the levy will impact on recovery, so I hope that the minister will take it on board that many people in the tourism industry, which has lost many jobs during the pandemic, do not want the levy to be introduced.

Will the minister take an intervention?

I think that the ministers and the SNP and Green members need to explain where low-income families will find £428 to pay this tax just to go to work.

Those cost of living pressures are facing families across Scotland. This is the wrong policy at the wrong time and it will hit the poorest in our society. The message today is clear that it is time—

Will the minister take an intervention?

I will use the time that I have to outline the impact of the car park tax on my constituents here in Edinburgh and the wider Lothian region. Motorists in Edinburgh are set to become the highest taxed in any part of Scotland and indeed the United Kingdom, with the SNP and Green councillors on the City of Edinburgh Council planning to introduce not only the car park tax but a huge roll-out of parking zone permits across the capital. The majority of motorists in the capital will very soon be facing the burden of having to pay to park outside their homes and at their workplaces.

The City of Edinburgh Council stated that there are around 32,500 eligible parking spaces across the capital. The council estimates that it expects £14 million in revenue to be raised by the car park tax, based on the £428 per space that Nottingham currently charges.

Having no upper limit on the tax risks the City of Edinburgh Council charging individuals and businesses higher and higher charges to increase the revenue stream—all that at the very time that SNP and Green ministers are cutting local council budgets, leaving councils with little option but to use the car park tax to fill that financial void. It is little wonder that the City of Edinburgh Council—one of the lowest funded councils in Scotland by the SNP-Green Scottish Government—has been forced to look at implementing the car park tax to fill the financial black holes that it faces.

We all know that the cost of living is going up for people across Scotland, making it harder for hundreds of thousands of people across the country to break even every month. Food prices have been on the rise and pressures on energy costs are seeing bills increase.

However, the car park tax and parking zone permit charges that motorists in the capital will face will see families facing on average an additional £630 put on to their budgets after May’s council elections if the SNP and Green councillors are returned in Edinburgh.

People outside the capital travelling to work in Edinburgh from the growing communities in West Lothian, East Lothian and Midlothian, the Borders and Fife, will have to pay the City of Edinburgh Council that charge, which will be of little or no benefit to the local authorities where they live.

As I have outlined, Edinburgh motorists are facing the double whammy of new parking zone costs and the car park tax. The cost of an annual parking permit in Edinburgh is already £202, which is the third highest in the UK—in fact, it is £82 higher than in London. Overall, the average cost of a permit in cities across the UK is £103, almost half of what it is here in Edinburgh.

This legislation, giving councils the power to implement car parking taxes, is typical of the SNP-Green Government—it grants councils the powers and then blames them for putting the policies in place. That is totally unacceptable.

The Scottish Conservatives have been steadfast in our opposition to the car park tax. It is an indiscriminate tax, and it is one that will hit the most vulnerable in this country. We will see people being priced out of owning a car. The transport minister would not take my intervention earlier, but ministers have put forward a clear message, which is that poorer people in this country cannot afford to have and run a car. That is the message that this debate will send. I am happy to take an intervention from the ministers.

Will the member take an intervention?