Meeting of the Parliament 28 May 2024
Scottish Labour welcomes the completion of the bill process and giving local authorities the power to implement levies to help to pay for services to support tourism. We believe that it is right that councils have those powers and that, as various members have pointed out, a balance is struck between the framework that is set nationally and how the provisions are implemented locally. It is right that local authorities make those decisions themselves.
I appreciated the minister’s words when he re-emphasised that the Government does not wish to be prescriptive about how the money is used and does not believe that that would be appropriate.
Miles Briggs pointed out some of the challenges with framework bills, which we have talked about on numerous occasions in the Finance and Public Administration Committee. There is a challenge in getting a framework bill right, setting the outline, ensuring that the Parliament has proper scrutiny of it, and giving individual local authorities the freedom to make that work. There is a tension to be governed in how we legislate in those areas.
An ancillary benefit comes through empowering and building trust and capacity in local government, which has been in decline for so long. It is important that we support local government in that way.
Our tax base should be more varied, resilient and responsive. We should not think of the process as just an extractive process by which we try to take as much money as possible to fund the public services that we all want. We also have to think about taxation that is purposeful and behaviours that can incentivise and encourage. We should think about the intent of taxation in its broader sense.
The support for the tourism industry is critical, but it is also disruptive. Ross Greer pointed that out well. Different challenges present themselves in rural areas and in urban areas in bringing tourists, who are absolutely vital to our economy and society, into Scotland. We need to have a balance in respect of attractiveness to ensure that we bring people here. We need to ensure not only that Scotland is an attractive place to come to physically but that coming here is affordable for people. Daniel Johnson rightly set that out at some length. How do we get tourists to come here? He clearly pointed out the VAT issue. We should think sensitively about the weight that we put on our critical businesses as they try to build their own industry and ensure that we look for them to succeed.
I want to say a little bit about funding. I am absolutely clear that the funding from the levy should not—indeed, it cannot—be used to plug the gaps resulting from the huge cuts to council budgets that we have seen over many years. It cannot be used as a substitute. For example, the SNP Dundee City Council’s plan to close Broughty Ferry castle, Mills observatory and Caird Park golf facilities, which are vital tourism facilities in my home city, is driven by the Government’s decision to target local authorities for cuts year on year.
Jim Spence published a very useful column in The Courier today, in which he said:
“There’s scarcely a whimper from those in city chambers as the fiscal knife is plunged deep into Dundee’s back.
Instead there’s hand wringing acquiescence from our councillors and SNP MPs and MSPs as the city is skewered with cuts to services.”
It is absolutely right that we consider that context when we think about the money that might be generated by the levy.
Mark Griffin pointed out the Accounts Commission’s figures showing that 23.6 per cent of cuts have already been made to leisure and culture in Scotland, with very huge challenges being faced as a result. We also know that the broader cuts to our local authority budgets make health poorer and lead to declining education, less-safe streets and less-sustainable communities as we address the £6 billion black hole resulting from the Government’s decisions.
Colleagues are right to welcome the minister’s constructive engagement during the bill’s passage—I welcome that, too. We are glad to see movement on the measure, but it is vital that the levy is delivered sensitively, for the good of all our communities.
18:25