Hansard

I regret that, like his colleague Mr Cole-Hamilton, Mr Rennie has perhaps not been listening to what I have said. To clarify on the record, I note that those are not the comments that I have made today.

We need to look at other, broader opportunities to raise revenue in Scotland. There is a significant fiscal challenge ahead of the Government; the Opposition is well aware of that. I have seen Mr Rennie’s amendment to the motion, which is very critical of where we are currently. However, we exist in a Parliament of minorities, so we have to work together to address the budget gap. That is why Mr McKee’s role is so pivotal in terms of the efficiencies and reform that he will have to drive.

More broadly, the Government believes that those who enjoy the privilege of travelling on private jets should make a fairer contribution to the public finances, but we want to go further, which is why we are seeking the devolution of further powers to address the issue of private jet ghost flights. When a private jet completes a one-way trip, it often flies on to its next location with no passengers. Air departure tax is a tax on the carriage of passengers, so such flights would be exempt from it. However, those flights still produce emissions and support the activity of the super-wealthy. With estimates suggesting that up to 41 per cent of private jet flights take off without passengers, it is only right that we explore every possible opportunity to bring that activity into the scope of our progressive taxation system, and we call on the UK Government to devolve the powers to allow us to do so.

We are improving fairness at the top end of the council tax system, which is allowing us to raise additional funding to support our public services. Currently, some high-value properties face council tax bills that are not materially different from those for far more modest homes. From April 2028, we will introduce new council tax bands for properties that are worth more than £1 million.

In our tax strategy, we have committed to exploring the reforms that are needed to continue to deliver more sustainable and growing tax revenues in the future. That includes considering the balance of taxes across labour, income and wealth that I alluded to previously.

To shape those next steps, we are opening up a broad, evidence-based conversation on how Scotland can tax wealth more effectively, bringing together experts and stakeholders from across the country. That work will look at new approaches to wealth taxation and at the opportunities and challenges for a fairer and more sustainable tax system. I extend an invitation to the Opposition to work with the Government on that and to be part of the broader discussion, so that we can find consensus as a Parliament on those matters.

We know that meaningful reform of wealth taxation in Scotland would need significant co-operation from the UK Government and a fundamental change in relation to where the powers sit. Indeed, as the Scottish Green Party acknowledged in its manifesto, the prospect of a Scottish wealth tax would be feasible only with independence—or at least with the agreement of the UK Government to further devolve those powers. Of course, the Scottish Government would far rather that those tax powers were devolved back to Scotland, because an independent Scotland would give us the power to redesign—with the people and businesses of Scotland—our wealth taxation and other far-outdated taxes to work more effectively.

The pressures on our public finances are real, and the constraints on what we can currently achieve are significant. I ask parties to engage constructively and openly with the Government about what further steps we can take to consider the right balance of taxation for Scotland. The Government is committed to ambitious reform to reduce costs while increasing the effectiveness of our public services and achieving better outcomes for our citizens.

What I am asking the Parliament to do today is to empower us to continue to implement a progressive taxation system—a system that asks the wealthiest to pay their fair share while helping the poorest to make ends meet, which supports our businesses to drive the economic growth that is needed and which allows us to deliver better public services for our people while supporting those who are most in need.

I move,

That the Parliament believes in fair, progressive and sustainable taxation to support the delivery of public services; welcomes the progress made towards the creation of a private jet tax and a mansion tax; supports actions to go further and seek the powers necessary to take action on so-called ghost flights of private planes; recognises that Scotland’s current powers limit the scope for additional wealth taxation, and endorses the Scottish Government’s plans to explore what further steps could be taken either within the current system or with full fiscal powers.