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Transport and the Environment Committee, 04 Mar 2003

04 Mar 2003 · S1 · Transport and the Environment Committee

Item of business

Planning

MacKay, Angus Lab Edinburgh South Watch on SPTV

I am encouraged by what Jim Mackinnon has just said, because he is talking about putting the horse before the cart, rather than the other way round. However, I disagree with the use of the term "problem" for what is happening in Edinburgh—I see that not as a problem but as a tremendous opportunity. I hope that the Executive's approach will be driven by a view that explicitly acknowledges that all cities and city regions in Scotland—but Edinburgh and Glasgow in particular—are the key engines of economic growth. When those economies are healthy, by and large, the rest of the Scottish economy is healthy; when they are not healthy, by and large, neither is the rest of the Scottish economy. I do not share what I think is the Liberal Democrat view that is being expressed, which is that Edinburgh is choking on its own success—far from it; Edinburgh is a very successful economy. The question is how we link that success into surrounding economies. For example, we have a burgeoning economy in Edinburgh and a tremendously buoyant labour market, with lots of job opportunities. The real challenge is not to move those jobs to other parts of Scotland but to ensure that the populations of Fife, the Borders and West Lothian have, as Jim Mackinnon said, appropriate transport links that allow them not only to share in that economic development but to remain part of their own local community, earn a living and export their income back to their community. Growth in house prices should not force them to compete with Edinburgh home owners. That economic development should be shared more widely. The challenge is then how we do that for each of the city regions of Scotland and ensure that Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow get a fair kick at the ball in order to compete with Edinburgh and complement what Edinburgh is doing. That takes us into broader issues, such as the economic and academic specialisations in the development of biotechnology, for example, that are clustered round the key academic institutions. How do we ensure that appropriate support is given to developing such clusters, as opposed to the support that is given to our light industrial economy and the areas where it might be developed? It would be a nonsense to say that we need to share the benefits or successes of aquaculture in our fish farming communities by ensuring that some aquaculture and fish farming takes place in the Firth of Forth. Other communities would benefit far more from support in those industries. Equally, I am not sure that we should simply decentralise throughout Scotland other sectors of the economy. We need to think about where we are strong and build around that to ensure that nobody misses out.

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Transport and the Environment Committee, 04 Mar 2003

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