Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 13 January 2011
13 Jan 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Freight Facilities Grants
I congratulate Cathy Jamieson on the motion and her eloquent presentation of it. I also declare an interest as the honorary president of the Scottish Association for Public Transport.
The debate is set against the background of great shifts in natural resources. The price of oil was $10 per barrel in 1999—the year of the Parliament’s inauguration—but we are now on the edge of the $100 barrel, a figure that was not expected before 2030. That has already affected the USA, where the 50 cents gallon has given way to the $3 gallon, a fact that underlies the declining fortunes of the American middle class and the emergence of the sub-prime generation.
One result of that has been the declining profitability of road transport. In Scotland, we are presently menaced by rises in fuel duty. One hopes that that will be reversed, but it will not be the last such situation. In October last year, the coalition Government tabled the introduction of road freight lorry user charging following success in Switzerland and Germany with the Brummi-Maut—the lorry toll. That is bound to have a significant impact on road haulage in Britain.
Meanwhile, despite the recession, rail freight increased by 65 per cent between 1997 and 2009. Freight grants have, yet again, made Aberdeen a major centre of freight transfer, with three depots. Large amounts of goods for supermarkets run in dedicated trains from the English midlands to destinations in Aberdeen and Inverness. Given the right regime, rail is expected to rise fivefold during the next 20 years. Much of that could now be put at risk.
Some might ask whether, if growth is coming anyway because of rising fuel costs and so on, we need the freight facilities grant. In Germany, for example, a market has been enforced by restrictions and taxation on road haulage rather than by subsidy. In the case of the capture of supermarket traffic, those restrictions were probably the driving functions, rather than subsidies.
However, an important further challenge is waiting for us, and that is rail’s contribution to Scotland’s renewables revolution. We will require seamless transit from European factories to Scottish assembly plants. One key site is the Fife energy park at Methil, which is the host to Burntisland Fabrications Ltd’s assembly plant for jackets for offshore wind farms. The components for those can come from up to a dozen different countries. In the opinion of Neil Henderson, the BiFab site manager, a railway siding into the Methil yard from the Thornton to Levenmouth branch line, which is mothballed at the moment and would require £46 million to be restored for passengers and freight, would, in his words, be “a godsend”. It would add to a number of important local shifts from road to rail, notably that of the Diageo distillery, which produces whisky, Gordon’s gin and Smirnoff vodka—as Michael Caine would say, not a lot of people know that—at Cameronbridge. Diageo has been trying for some time to get rail access from Network Rail. Surely it is time for rail access to that major region, which has a lot of social problems and enormous possibilities, but which is also an area in which freight facilities grants could be an implement of revitalisation. I plead with the minister to grant that.
17:22
The debate is set against the background of great shifts in natural resources. The price of oil was $10 per barrel in 1999—the year of the Parliament’s inauguration—but we are now on the edge of the $100 barrel, a figure that was not expected before 2030. That has already affected the USA, where the 50 cents gallon has given way to the $3 gallon, a fact that underlies the declining fortunes of the American middle class and the emergence of the sub-prime generation.
One result of that has been the declining profitability of road transport. In Scotland, we are presently menaced by rises in fuel duty. One hopes that that will be reversed, but it will not be the last such situation. In October last year, the coalition Government tabled the introduction of road freight lorry user charging following success in Switzerland and Germany with the Brummi-Maut—the lorry toll. That is bound to have a significant impact on road haulage in Britain.
Meanwhile, despite the recession, rail freight increased by 65 per cent between 1997 and 2009. Freight grants have, yet again, made Aberdeen a major centre of freight transfer, with three depots. Large amounts of goods for supermarkets run in dedicated trains from the English midlands to destinations in Aberdeen and Inverness. Given the right regime, rail is expected to rise fivefold during the next 20 years. Much of that could now be put at risk.
Some might ask whether, if growth is coming anyway because of rising fuel costs and so on, we need the freight facilities grant. In Germany, for example, a market has been enforced by restrictions and taxation on road haulage rather than by subsidy. In the case of the capture of supermarket traffic, those restrictions were probably the driving functions, rather than subsidies.
However, an important further challenge is waiting for us, and that is rail’s contribution to Scotland’s renewables revolution. We will require seamless transit from European factories to Scottish assembly plants. One key site is the Fife energy park at Methil, which is the host to Burntisland Fabrications Ltd’s assembly plant for jackets for offshore wind farms. The components for those can come from up to a dozen different countries. In the opinion of Neil Henderson, the BiFab site manager, a railway siding into the Methil yard from the Thornton to Levenmouth branch line, which is mothballed at the moment and would require £46 million to be restored for passengers and freight, would, in his words, be “a godsend”. It would add to a number of important local shifts from road to rail, notably that of the Diageo distillery, which produces whisky, Gordon’s gin and Smirnoff vodka—as Michael Caine would say, not a lot of people know that—at Cameronbridge. Diageo has been trying for some time to get rail access from Network Rail. Surely it is time for rail access to that major region, which has a lot of social problems and enormous possibilities, but which is also an area in which freight facilities grants could be an implement of revitalisation. I plead with the minister to grant that.
17:22
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Alasdair Morgan)
SNP
The final item of business today is a members’ business debate on motion S3M-7567, in the name of Cathy Jamieson, on freight facilities grants. The debate wi...
Cathy Jamieson (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (Lab)
Lab
I thank members, particularly those who have stayed for the debate, for their support for the motion, which has helped it to be selected for debate. I also t...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
We come to the open debate. I ask for speeches of four minutes. The debate is oversubscribed, so I will stop members when they get to the four-minute mark.17:18
Christopher Harvie (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP)
SNP
I congratulate Cathy Jamieson on the motion and her eloquent presentation of it. I also declare an interest as the honorary president of the Scottish Associa...
Michael McMahon (Hamilton North and Bellshill) (Lab)
Lab
I begin by congratulating Cathy Jamieson on securing the debate and providing members with the opportunity to highlight the short-sightedness of the Scottish...
The Minister for Transport and Infrastructure (Keith Brown)
SNP
Would the member like to address the impact of the £800 million cut in this year’s capital budget? If Cathy Jamieson can describe the reduction of the freigh...
Michael McMahon
Lab
The minister makes a clever argument, but he can see the importance of his strategy—I will come on to that later—and he is undermining his position rather th...
John Scott (Ayr) (Con)
Con
I congratulate Cathy Jamieson on securing the debate, which is relevant to Ayrshire and South Ayrshire, in particular, which we both represent. The freight f...
Karen Whitefield (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab)
Lab
I welcome the opportunity to speak in this evening’s debate and I congratulate my colleague, Cathy Jamieson, on securing a members’ business debate on this i...
Keith Brown
SNP
Does the member think that the decision of the Labour Government to scrap the scheme five years ago and the fact that it spent less money in five years in En...
Karen Whitefield
Lab
We are talking about Scotland, and the minister is responsible for the situation in Scotland. Labour Party members criticise their party when they need to. W...
Alison McInnes (North East Scotland) (LD)
LD
I congratulate Cathy Jamieson on securing this debate, which provides us with an opportunity to discuss not only the future of the freight facilities grant b...
Charlie Gordon (Glasgow Cathcart) (Lab)
Lab
I congratulate my colleague Cathy Jamieson on bringing to the chamber a debate that is at once important and very topical.At the December 7 meeting of the Tr...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
At this point, I would be prepared to accept a motion without notice to extend the debate by 10 minutes to complete the business. I ask Cathy Jamieson to so ...
Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green)
Green
I add my thanks and congratulations to Cathy Jamieson for bringing the motion to the chamber for debate. I was happy to sign up to it almost as soon as it wa...
Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab)
Lab
I, too, thank Cathy Jamieson for the opportunity to debate this important issue. I also thank her for alerting me to something that I had overlooked complete...
Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab)
Lab
I, too, congratulate Cathy Jamieson on securing the debate. I welcome the new Minister for Transport and Infrastructure to his post. I want to tell him a lit...
The Minister for Transport and Infrastructure (Keith Brown)
SNP
Like other members, I congratulate Cathy Jamieson on securing the debate. I think that it was Aneurin Bevan who said that politics is the language of priorit...
Hugh Henry
Lab
The minister highlights a mistaken decision by Westminster-based politicians and a very correct decision made by ministers of the same party in Scotland.
Keith Brown
SNP
I acknowledge and welcome that intervention, but what has changed is the financial situation. I think that Hugh Henry would go on to say that that is the rea...
Michael McMahon
Lab
Is the minister not missing the point? The freight facilities grants scheme in Scotland was much more flexible and operated in an entirely different way from...
Keith Brown
SNP
Power is one thing, but resources are another. It would be useful if the member would acknowledge, even for one second, the disastrous effects of Labour’s ha...
Patrick Harvie
Green
Will the minister give way?
Keith Brown
SNP
I am sorry, but I have to make some progress.The new hospital in Glasgow is another project that will take a huge chunk out of a capital budget that has been...
Cathy Jamieson
Lab
Will the minister give way?
Keith Brown
SNP
I have to make some progress. We have concluded that we cannot fund new FFG projects for the time being. We have allocated £2.9 million to support the freigh...
Cathy Jamieson
Lab
Will the minister take an intervention?
Keith Brown
SNP
Although I have already taken two interventions and do not have much time left, I will take the member’s intervention provided that she is very brief.
Cathy Jamieson
Lab
Almost six minutes into his speech, I am glad that the minister has mentioned the Grangestone railhead. His predecessor was supportive of the project, on whi...
Keith Brown
SNP
I have been trying to deal with that subject. Cathy Jamieson made the point in her speech that the FFG scheme is suspended, from which I think she took some ...