Meeting of the Parliament 27 February 2025
I am pleased that the Deputy First Minister has raised the EY survey. I read a very interesting quote from Ally Scott, who is the managing partner of EY Scotland. He said:
“We still hear frustrations from clients and the market that Scotland’s tightening economic policies, including the latest income tax hikes and issues around city and infrastructure quality, are causes for concern.”
I am happy to give praise where there is good progress, but there are still issues.
I return to the point on broadband. Constituents have told me that they are now expecting that it will be the end of the current decade before they get superfast broadband—nearly 10 years after it was promised—and that that is holding back economic progress.
Let me turn to private sector investment. We are losing out on private sector investment that is going elsewhere. I commend to ministers—if they have not already listened to it—the evidence that we took yesterday in the Economy and Fair Work Committee in which Jane Wood of Homes for Scotland, among other witnesses, highlighted the key question that is being asked by investors, which is: how easy is it to do business in Scotland? We are in competition for capital with other parts of the UK and other parts of the world, and, unless we have a more business-friendly environment, we will continue to struggle to attract that level of investment.
I will give just one example of where private investment is being deterred that was given to us by Homes for Scotland. The average decision time for a major housing application in Scotland today is 59.8 weeks, against a statutory timetable of 16 weeks. If that sort of issue is not tackled, we will continue to see challenges in attracting investment.
In the housing sector more generally—I made this point in an intervention a moment ago—we have seen investment driven out of Scotland due to the moronic policies that Patrick Harvie put forward when he was the minister with responsibility for tenants’ rights in the coalition. The rent freeze, the rent cap and, now, the proposed rent controls in the Housing (Scotland) Bill have had a disastrous impact on inward investment to Scotland in the build-to-rent sector.
We know that there is a housing emergency, and the Scottish Government has accepted that there is, but its choices have contributed to that situation.