Meeting of the Parliament 09 June 2026 [Draft]
I apologise, Mr Hoy; I would like to make a little bit of progress.
For all three things, we have the powers here, but we fail to focus on them. On place, if we examine the figures, we see that there are parts of the United Kingdom where gross domestic product per head is growing far faster than it is in Scotland. Greater Manchester has had a GDP-per-head growth of 15.4 per cent in recent years, and in West Yorkshire it is 7.5 per cent, whereas Scotland’s GDP-per-head growth in a similar period has been 4.3 per cent. We need to look at the Government’s pledges to put regional economic partnerships on a statutory footing, but we must consider what they will do and how they will work. What power from this place will we push out so that they can deliver in partnership with industry?
The cabinet secretary was right to point to the importance of people and skills, but the reality is that the number of modern apprenticeship starts is falling and we have barely got going on upskilling and reskilling. Yet we have to wait for the organisational reform of SDS into the Scottish Funding Council. I worry that we will not have the scope or capacity to implement the changes that we need in terms of upskilling and reskilling, let alone deal with the increasing difficulties that young people face in getting into the workforce at all.
On partnership, we need a much greater focus on the issue of the time and uncertainty that the Government introduces into investment pipelines—I accept that the cabinet secretary referenced that. Let us take renewables: it takes seven to 10 years from start to finish to get projects through the planning and consenting regime, in comparison with Norway, where similar projects take three to four years to go through that process. We need a comprehensive mapping exercise from the Government, understanding where it has touch points and where it increases time and uncertainty. More importantly—I say this to people from all political parties—I think that there is an overwhelming tendency for politicians to assume that everyone in business is driven only by the profit motive. Actually, the profit motive is vital for business. Yes, we need to be cautious about profiteering but the fact is that we need to work in partnership and understand how businesses can generate a return, because that is what economic growth ultimately requires.
My time is up, but I will say that this is perhaps a hopeful start. We need a renewed discussion around the economy, one based around decentralisation, people and partnership.
I move amendment S7M-00290.3, to insert at end:
“; notes that the Scottish Fiscal Commission has projected Scotland's ‘Tax base performance gap’ for 2026-27 to be £785 million while data shows that GDP increased by 8.4% between Q2 2014 and Q2 2024 for Scotland compared to 14.3% across the UK as a whole, and believes that understanding and addressing these gaps is imperative in order to grow jobs, wages and opportunities, as well as maximising revenue for funding public services in Scotland.”
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