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The Scottish Fiscal Commission also said that there is “considerable uncertainty” about the resources that will be coming to the Scottish Government from the UK Government, and that uncertainty adds to the fiscal constraints that we have. Moving to multiyear budgets absolutely helps us collectively to have a line of sight on resource and capital and on how we can get to a more sustainable position while investing in public services.

Ross Greer spoke about devolving further powers to local government to provide greater revenue-raising abilities, and I am keen to do so. We have already made significant progress on delivering a fiscal framework with local government, and we have delivered on our commitment to enable councils to apply a premium of up to 100 per cent on council tax rates for second homes from 1 April this year.

Parliament has also passed legislation to give councils the power to introduce a visitor levy in their area to support investment in the visitor economy. The programme for government makes it clear that we will intensify work on designing a potential cruise ship levy, so we will engage with local authorities and stakeholders over the coming months to develop more detailed proposals.

Yes—subject to all the consultation that we need in order to take on board stakeholders’ views of the cruise ship levy. It is important that we get that right, but we are keen to move forward as quickly as we can.

We are also carefully considering the responses to “Infrastructure Levy for Scotland—Discussion Paper”, which we published in June. If that levy is taken forward, it will provide local authorities with an additional mechanism to secure developer contributions to fund infrastructure in their area. Councils will also be able to decide whether to implement a workplace parking levy, depending on local circumstances.

We will continue to evolve the joint work on the fiscal framework, and I am happy to discuss with members from across the chamber further proposals to strengthen the powers of local government.

I have said that the Scottish budget for next year will be very challenging, and the decisions that the Chancellor of the Exchequer takes on 30 October will play a big role in determining our funding. Our budget will be focused on delivering the priorities that the First Minister set out in the programme for government. We are spending £134 million this year to mitigate the worst of the UK Government’s damaging welfare policies. If the chancellor changes course on those, we will have more money for further action on those priorities. I had a very valuable meeting with the Finance and Public Administration Committee yesterday as it looked ahead to the Scottish budget. I welcome further engagement across the chamber.

The motion calls on the Scottish Government to use

“every power at its disposal to address the urgent social, economic and environmental challenges that Scotland faces”.

That is what we are doing, but we can go only so far with our current powers. We need change from the new UK Government. It needs to increase funding for public services, invest in infrastructure to support our economy and deliver our net zero ambitions, and end the dreadful social security policies of the previous Government. It needs new fiscal rules that focus on public sector net worth, thereby allowing greater investment in the fabric of the country. Those are the changes that are needed to help us to address the challenges that we face. If the UK Government is up for it, we will work together to achieve that.

I move amendment to motion S6M-14825.3, to insert at end:

“, and calls on the UK Labour administration to scrap the fiscal rules of the former UK Conservative administration.”

Will the member give way on that point?

I thank the Scottish Green Party for lodging the motion. It is absolutely right that the fiscal levers that are currently available to the Scottish Government are inadequate. We have all felt the impacts of the high inflation, austerity and economic turmoil of the previous UK Government, and our public services and communities have borne the brunt.

We have done our best to mitigate those impacts, but we are doing so without the full set of fiscal powers that other countries have. My amendment adds to the Scottish Greens’ motion and calls on the UK Government to scrap the fiscal rules of the previous Government. We want new fiscal rules that enable greater investment to support public services on the transition to net zero.

Last week, I met the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and raised the need for investment in public services and infrastructure in the UK budget. I pointed out the Treasury’s finding that departmental budgets had not been reset to account for inflation, which means that they are £15 billion lower this year in real terms than 2021 spending plans. If we had our share of that, I would not have needed to make the spending reductions that I announced last month.

I want to work with the UK Government to address the challenges and, of course, to put our public finances on a more sustainable footing. The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s commitment to multiyear budgets will help, but it is not sufficient: we need a wider range of fiscal tools to manage our budget.

Will the member take an intervention?

Will the member give way on that point?

Transport Scotland officials have been in on-going discussions with Dumfries and Galloway Council regarding decriminalised parking enforcement, but it is yet to receive a completed application. Once an application is received, it can take in the region of 12 months to bring DPE powers into force, due to the time that it takes to draft, consult on and lay the necessary Scottish statutory instrument.

Local authorities are best placed to determine whether taking on DPE powers is the best way to address illegal parking in their areas, but I encourage those without DPE to consider investigating whether it would be beneficial.

Tax policy for 2025-26 will be announced as part of the Scottish budget, and we continue to monitor closely the impact of our tax policy on the wider economy.

Since the introduction of Scottish income tax, in 2017-18, more taxpayers have come to Scotland than have left, with net inflows averaging almost 4,200 people per year. The latest available data, from 2021-22, shows that net migration of taxpayers was positive across all tax bands, with taxable income increasing by £200 million as a result.

As I said in my original answer, data shows that the net migration of taxpayers across all tax bands was positive on the number of people coming to Scotland, which has increased taxable income by £200 million.

The real-time, pay-as-you-earn tax data for 2023-24 suggests that growth in PAYE income tax receipts in Scotland outperformed that in the rest of the UK, with tax receipt per head figures growing at the fastest rate since data has been available. On top of that, as I mentioned earlier, the Royal Bank of Scotland’s growth tracker reported Scottish business confidence at an 18-month high.

Those are figures and facts that the Scottish Tories do not like to hear, because they do not seem to ever want to hear or say anything positive about the Scottish economy. That does the Scottish economy, our businesses and our hard-working workforce a great disservice.

The simple fact is that, if the Tories—or Labour members, for that matter—want the rates and bands of the UK Government to be matched, they need to set out where the £1.5 billion of cuts in current spending would fall. Modelling that was published in February estimates that the Scottish Government’s policies will keep 100,000 children out of relative poverty in 2024-25—policies such as the Scottish child payment, which are possible because of our progressive income tax model. It is incumbent on Opposition parties that are calling for lower taxes and, at the same time, higher spending to explain how slashing social security spending and investment in public services will make Scotland a better place.