Chamber and committees

I will if I have time, Presiding Officer.

Will the member take an intervention?

I thank Russell Findlay for that intervention. I am not in the Government, so I cannot speak for it at this time, but I look forward to any plans that it will announce, because I believe that drug consumption rooms that help to support people and prevent overdoses should be introduced in Scotland.

I thank Bob Doris for that update on what is happening in greater Glasgow. My focus is on South Scotland, so I often do not know what is happening in other health boards directly, and we have not got to that yet in the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee.

In recent years, both the UK Parliament’s Scottish Affairs Committee and the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee have recommended introduction of such facilities, but they are continually blocked by the UK Government, which refuses to accept the evidence and refuses to devolve control over drug policy to this Parliament.

My final point is that the UK Government’s whole approach to drug addiction is summed up well by minister Kit Malthouse, who said at the tri-committee that people who take drugs are “sad” and not bad. Drug users are so much more complicated than that. I believe that what he said was condescending and belittles people who are struggling through harmful use of drugs and alcohol. I am sure that he didnae mean to dehumanise them and to focus on criminality, but we need proper powers to take forward our own Scottish approach to tackling drug harm—one that is focused on evidence-based practice.

I repeat my call for the UK Government to devolve drugs policy to this Parliament.

Does the member not think that it is a bit disproportionate that the Scottish Government has given £20 million more for the Borderlands growth deal than the UK Government has invested? Is that levelling up or is that just losing out?

I welcome some of the funding, but I do not like the fact that the money is going to places in relation to subject areas that are devolved to the Scottish Government. I would ask whether the member is happy that this place is being tramped upon in devolved areas by the UK Government.

SOSE is working with Stranraer Furniture Project in relation to the Community Reuse shop, led by project manager Paul Smith, to support that social enterprise to grow and expand. It is also incorporating fair work practices. From a phone call this morning, I know that the Furniture Project now has 22 employees and is working to the wider benefit of the community. I encourage members to look at the wide range of activities that Paul Smith and his team are undertaking.

In Castle Douglas, Stewartry Care, a provider of homecare with almost 100 employees, is beginning a Democracy Collaborative model of employee ownership. That is already happening. Some members are saying that we are looking at the stars and that this is a pie-in-the-sky idea, but that is not the case—it is happening on the ground, right now. With SOSE’s help, Stewartry Care is encouraging employees to take leadership and ownership roles in the company.

One final example of a Dumfries and Galloway community wealth building trailblazer is Jas P Wilson, a forestry equipment manufacturer and distributor in Dalbeattie. The company has donated a car to the local first responders, so that they do not have to use their own car, it has financed premises for a local playgroup and it has supported the local theatre group, the Birchvale Players, in its move to new premises.

All those companies demonstrate how community wealth building is already working across Dumfries and Galloway. I welcome these examples across the south of Scotland, and I invite the minister to come and visit any of them, if his diary allows.

Community wealth building is a practical, place-based and focused model that can play a central role in growing Scotland’s wellbeing economy. A community wealth building approach puts an emphasis on local people and on ownership, with a view to growing the number of people who have a genuine stake in the economy. I want more people and local communities in Scotland to have a bigger stake in our economy, share the ownership and build resilience to create a fairer and more secure economic future.

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate.

When I looked into the work of the Democracy Collaborative, which is led by Ted Howard, I realised the huge potential of community wealth building. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but the bottom-up approach centres around democratic ownership of the economy and community self-determination. I am saying that it is not just a one-size-fits-all approach, because what happens in the central belt and in Glasgow will be different from what happens in rural areas such as the south-west of Scotland.

I lived in California for many years, where I witnessed wealth inequalities and the consequences. The Democracy Collaborative has outlined what I want to see in Scotland—wealth redistribution and benefit to our communities. That approach is in sharp contrast to what the UK Government is doing with its hard-right, individualist policies. By its fundamental design, today’s corporate capitalist system takes wealth that would otherwise reside in local communities and concentrates it in the hands of a small elite. The Office for National Statistics reported that there are an estimated 27.8 million households in the UK and that 263,000 of them control 45 per cent of our country’s wealth.

Ted Howard’s model of community wealth building proposes an economic model with more local, good-quality jobs; improved access to public contracts for local businesses, which is particularly important for our agriculture and forestry community; more land being placed in community ownership; and support being offered to businesses that are exploring employee ownership.

Community wealth building supports renewable energy development, with the wealth that is generated being distributed back to the community. For me, that means the potential to develop renewable offshore energy in the south-west—perhaps in the Solway Firth. I would be interested in exploring that potential in the next round of ScotWind licences. When I visited Eyemouth harbour last year, it was evident that high-value jobs worth millions of pounds had been and will be brought to the community through renewable energy investment.

When it comes to how money is spent and how services are commissioned by our institutions, cost is often the dominant determining factor in who gets the contract. Environmental credentials, social value and decent employment conditions tend to be weaker considerations. We need that to change.

As others have said, with community wealth building we can create legal change in our procurement processes. That can ensure that small local and medium-sized enterprises and employee-owned businesses support local jobs and have a greater tendency to recirculate wealth directly to our communities. For example, it can allow our agriculture community to provide local produce to our schools, hospitals, social care settings, prisons and other institutions, which is something that I have been pursuing in my area but in relation to which I have faced local bureaucratic barriers. Therefore, I welcome the Government’s commitment to reforming procurement processes, and I ask for a commitment that that will be taken forward at pace.

Ahead of the debate, I spoke with Rob Davidson, the community wealth building manager with South of Scotland Enterprise. The minister has described some of the work that SOSE has already done with registered social landlords. SOSE hit the ground running at the beginning of the pandemic, giving practical support to businesses fae Selkirk to Stranraer to promote community wealth principles.

Down the line in our inquiry, we might have more clarity on how health inequalities impact assessments are used. Claire Stevens said that she would support further use of those assessments. I am interested in hearing whether you think that it should be a requirement for public sector organisations to conduct health inequalities impact assessments so that health is considered in every portfolio.

Is the introduction of the living wage one of the policies that is working? As of April 2022, it is £9.50 an hour. Is that giving people enough money to manage their families and homes? Is that part of something that works?

I will be pretty quick. In our private sessions, one person who gave us information said that inequalities impact assessments are not being made routinely in planning, for instance, and that wider engagement is needed in thinking about how people access services. Do the witnesses have any thoughts on how inequalities impact assessments could be done better in order to tackle health inequalities?