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The authorities in Aberdeen and Edinburgh have called for the power to implement a tourism levy so that they can invest in things that attract tourists here in the first place.
In quiet meetings, the SNP gives businesses warm words, be they about hospitality—with hotels struggling with the implementation of the visitor levy—or about the Scottish defence industry.
The changes to the planning system that were announced yesterday were an improvement, because they will remove the infrastructure levy, increase the capacity and expertise in planning departments, and create a best practice hub in the centre.
I would have much preferred to see the Government taking an approach similar to that employed on the tourism visitor levy. It encouraged local democratic control, in that councils could choose not only how they would implement the scheme but whether they would implement it at all.
One of our requests of the UK Government is about shifting the balance of levies from electricity to gas in order to free up the abundance of renewable energy that is flowing into electricity to make it much more affordable.
The next item of business is a stage 1 debate on the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill. I will allow a moment or two for front bench members to organise themselves.
Concerns have also been raised about the licensing of short-term lets and the tourism levy. We could even consider highly protected marine areas here—in rural communities such as the ones that you and I are from, there is a real concern about that and the wider investment coming in.
Those are only 50 per cent of those costs, to a maximum of 3 per cent of the rent levied. Modest safeguards have therefore been put in place for the private sector, which help to make the bill proportionate and legal.