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You are right; it is about what fits best. There is no presumption that to have in Scotland one system of collecting council tax would be most appropriate.
Road haulage transport is currently the only viable way in which can get our product to market. That is where we stand. The latest issue of "Scottish Transport Statistics", which was published on 26 August 2005, shows that UK HGVs in Scotland lifted a total of 173 million tonnes of freight in 2004.
I was assured that introducing a bill was the best and simplest legal way forward. After I had started down that road, it became obvious that Aberdeen would also benefit from such legislation.
What is left for the Local Government and Transport Committee to do is to determine the best outcome. The question, which is similar to that in an earlier debate this afternoon, is whether we should allow local authorities to operate individually as they see fit.
On the fear that tenants' rights will be at risk, we have the chance to deliver the best ever tenants' rights package. On the fear that the homeless will be at risk, there will be a new obligation to house the homeless.
On balance, therefore, we decided that the best way ahead would be to offer the new scheme—payment of the graduate endowment and access to the new bursaries of up to £2,000 a year and the extra student loan of £500 a year for students from the poorest families—to new students who will start their first year in the autumn of 2001.