Hansard

It has been a real pleasure to have been involved with the bill. A number of people—the clerks, as ever, the witnesses and the people and representatives of the south of Scotland—need to be thanked for that. Elected representatives from the south of Scotland visited our committee on a number of occasions, of course, and there is no doubting the enthusiasm and energy that they brought and the additional contribution that they made.

Like others, I thank the cabinet secretary for the role that he has played in bringing people together. Those who were sitting in the public gallery half an hour ago might have thought that the process was not very conciliatory, but making legislation is based on debating issues—sometimes in a very heated manner. I think that we have come up with a good bill, but the proof of the pudding will be seen, as my colleague Colin Smyth said, in years to come. There has been a consensual approach.

Many members have talked about manifesto commitments, and my party—the Scottish Green Party—also had the creation of such an agency as a manifesto commitment.

Comparisons have been made with the Highlands and Islands on a number of occasions, but I do not think that we can always make direct comparisons. There is much to be learned—good and bad—from the experience in the Highlands and Islands. After the second world war, the Highlands were shaped by the hydro schemes, which were introduced by the then Secretary of State for Scotland, Tom Johnston. Subsequently, the Highlands and Islands Development Board was established. As humans, we can be very cynical and we tend to reflect on the negatives rather than the positives, but an awful lot of positives came from that work. The new iteration is Highlands and Islands Enterprise, albeit that it has a slightly changed focus.

Partnership is always important. Throughout the bill process, we have discussed the role that the agency can play in galvanising support and bringing people together on the common objective of making the lives of people in the south of Scotland better. As someone who is enthusiastic about the role that the state can play, I hope that people will reflect on the enthusiasm for the new agency and that they will not be so scared of state involvement. Partnership with communities is very important.

Funding has been mentioned. There was never going to be a like-for-like comparison between the south and the Highlands. As a member for the Highlands and Islands region, I have been keen to stress that this should not be about having a competition between north and south; it should be about making things better for the south. As others have said, a gauge of success will be not only retaining the existing population—there is no doubt that better education facilities and an increase in the availability of skills, leading to increased wages will help in that regard—but growing the population.

It was not that the issue had been forgotten about, but, having heard the views of Dr Calum Macleod of Community Land Scotland that part of the new agency’s remit should be to establish “a community assets team”, I was pleased to have a part in ensuring that the bill says that. In the years to come, people will appreciate that such a team has brought people together.

The engagement started long before we began work on the bill. As has been said, the process has had a long genesis, and it is important to congratulate Professor Griggs and the south of Scotland economic partnership.

Co-location will be crucial as the agency moves forward, because there is no doubt that relationships are improved if we can see the whites of people’s eyes.

My colleague Colin Smyth made an important point—this is something that we can learn from the Highlands—about it being very easy to create a three-figure number of jobs in an urban area and to laud that, but having a small number of jobs in a rural area is also important, if it means that the rural school can be retained along with everything else that goes with such jobs.

I look forward to the success of the new agency.