Seòmar agus comataidhean

As you will probably know from reading last week’s Official Report, there was quite a lot of discussion and deliberation regarding all aspects of the green freeport proposals. One issue is the importance of attracting green jobs into green ports. I felt that there was an element of frustration from our witnesses last week that there does not appear to be a definition of what a green job is. For example, on two occasions, Derek Thomson from Unite the union asked whether someone making deliveries on an electric bike counts as a green job. Does the Scottish Government have a definition of what a green job is? We do not want to be comparing apples and oranges in our discussion, with everyone around the table having a different view of what a green job might be.

Thank you. That concludes my questions for now. I open up the session to colleagues around the table. First, we will hear from John Mason, to be followed by Liz Smith.

Assuming that every single job created in the green ports is in a completely new industry, a new manufacturing business or whatever it happens to be, people in other parts of Scotland and beyond who are highly skilled will still want to move there. Will that not exacerbate labour shortages and create inflationary pressures in other parts of the economy?

Okay. Just one last question from me. There was loads of information there and I am sure that other members will want to come in.

According to David Melhuish,

“the officials behind the UK Government’s freeports prospectuses ... were very impressed with the prospectus that was put together by the Scottish Government”.—[Official Report, Finance and Public Administration Committee, 5 September 2023; c 46.]

However, Unite the union seemed frustrated that there did not seem to have been much engagement with the trade unions. Its representatives said that the City of Edinburgh Council was not listening to them or keen to engage with them. There was almost an accusation that that was deliberate. What engagement is the Scottish Government having with its trade union partners on such developments?

One of the issues is that the United Kingdom’s standard of living is much the same as it was in 2003. We have been left behind by a lot of other countries. We have obviously had a financial crisis, with austerity, the pandemic and so on. Is economic growth not the answer? What does the STUC propose to stimulate economic growth so that the cake is bigger, which will of course generate additional tax revenues?

Thank you very much for taking the time to speak to the committee. The evidence that has been gathered from this inquiry, including an evidence session with the Deputy First Minister in early October, will help us to inform the committee’s pre-budget 2024-25 scrutiny.

That concludes the public part of today’s meeting. The next item on our agenda is consideration of our work programme in private.

Displacement is a key issue. For example, Cambridge Econometrics said that, of the enterprise zones that were set up in the UK, which lasted from about 1984 to about 2012, 50 per cent of the 126,000 jobs were, in effect, displaced from elsewhere. In a Scottish context, between 2012 and 2017, there was a net increase in private sector jobs in the enterprise zones that were set up in Scotland of just 16,000, compared to an initial forecast of 54,000, and 34 per cent of those were relocated from elsewhere through displacement.

What lessons are being learned from that? I understand that the UK had seven freeports, up until about 2012, when the last one, Liverpool, closed. Therefore, they have not had a great history of success in doing what it says on the tin.

With regard to that pressing urgency, I find the numbers that have been suggested to be quite fantastic: 25,000 jobs for Cromarty and 50,000 for Leith. With regard to Cromarty, you will be expecting people to move to those jobs, but what is being done to build the schools and homes that those people will need? You are talking about trying to get those people in early, so how is the infrastructure being upgraded to ensure that that can happen? You will have to provide a huge level of support in terms of the infrastructure behind the green port, to ensure that people have somewhere to live and take their kids to school, apart from anything else.

I will open it out to colleagues. The first person to ask questions will be our deputy convener, Michael Marra.

That appears to have concluded the questions from the committee, but I will just point out that, ironically, the council tax was meant to be a temporary fix when it came in more than 30 years ago. One of the difficulties that we have not touched on is that, if we did have a new system, whatever that system would be, the number of appeals would run into the hundreds of thousands, because that is what happened when the council tax came in, as I remember from my days on Glasgow City Council.

David, do you want to make any points that we have not touched on?