Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any economic analysis undertaken by South of Scotland Enterprise (SoSE) on any economic benefits of attracting private investment capital into tree planting, peatland restoration and nature bio-diversity, and, if so, whether any such analysis considered (a) both the short-term direct employment and local spend gains and multipliers and any longer-term effects in drawing resources out of the SoSE area through the returns on external private investment requiring to be paid, (b) how much of the flows of finance from carbon trading would leave the SoSE area and how much would be retained and (c) the effect of private external finance on (i) local land values and (ii) the number of farm enterprises in the region.