Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you very much. That concludes questions from committee members.

I am going to ask one more question. Given the talk about increasing taxes, I think that the Government is going to play it safe and impose fiscal drag on us all, as both the Scottish and UK Governments did last year. Professor Heald has said that income tax rises are always popular among those who will not have to pay them, but when the SNP brought in the “Penny for Scotland” campaign, which added 1 per cent to the basic rate, our opinion poll rating went down from 48 per cent to an eventual 27 per cent. I was standing in the constituency with the highest unemployment in Scotland, and people who did not have a job denounced us for that, believe it or not, even although one would have thought that they would have benefited.

My question is on an issue that we have not touched on. Yesterday, it was announced that some pension funds, such as the Strathclyde Pension Fund, are so awash with money that they are going to reduce local government contributions by about two thirds over the next couple of years, which will be a wee boon to local authorities. Is there a possibility that the Scottish Government could tap into pension funds to fund some of its capital projects? João, do you want to have a go at that one?

I was thinking about such funding being used for housing, for example, for which there would be a return to a pension fund in the long term. I appreciate that although funds are there specifically to maximise income for their members, some pension funds, over recent years, have looked at whether investments are ethical—in tobacco or carbon-intensive industries, for example.

You can have that when you are the convener.

Alastair, in your submission, you talk about how research and development in Scotland is still punching well above its weight, at 13.25 per cent of UK research and innovation funding, compared with 8.2 per cent of the population, but that funding is down from around 15.4 per cent just a few years ago. Will you talk about how important that is and how important the university sector is to Scotland’s economic growth, wealth and prosperity?

No one else has indicated that they want to come in, so I will make a couple of comments.

What has been done in Dundee with life sciences and gaming is phenomenal. Scotland really is on the global map when it comes to its universities and knowledge economy, which is important. However, have you tried to get a roofer, a plumber or an electrician these days? There is a real issue with the balance between people going to university and those not going to university. For example, we talk about building houses and the importance of affordable housing, but there is a chronic shortage across the construction industry. Sadly, some teachers in schools—I certainly found this in my area—say to children, “You will be a bit of a failure if you do not go to university,” so the people who would go into apprenticeships and probably go on to have really good and highly skilled careers are not doing so. We have chronic skills shortages in engineering and construction, for example. Where do we strike the balance?

What we need and want in Scotland is for our universities to remain cutting-edge, but what about the rest of the economy? What about the situation with apprentices perhaps not being valued as much and, therefore, not enough people doing apprenticeships? Of course, without those basic skills to support the universities and other sectors of the economy, we cannot grow as well as we could.

I am not sure that it is on the immediate horizon, but it is something that I wanted to throw into the mix. Stuart Hay wants to come in, but Michael Marra wants to make a comment on universities first.

Okay. There is no comment on that.

Adam Stachura, I will ask you a question and put the same question to the IPPR and the Poverty Alliance. Age Scotland’s submission talks about

“fair and multi-year funding for third sector organisations”,

and says that

“comprehensive investment in the support provided by these organisations is needed.”

The submission goes on to say that

“The continued delivery of significant funding programmes and activities which connect people, such as older people’s groups, is crucial”

and that

“We would like to see appropriate resourcing to address and reduce excessive waits for healthcare”.

How much are we talking about? It is one thing to say “appropriate resourcing,” or that we need to spend more, or that we need to make a significant investment, but the committee is taking evidence on the 2024-25 budget to make an impact on the Scottish Government’s decision-making processes. What additional resources are we talking about? How, specifically, will that be funded?

Is there anything that you want to add, Philip?

Professor Heald, you said that you

“do not accept that the Scottish Government has prioritised economic growth or has demonstrated a strategic approach to tax.”

Given your expertise in the area, what do you think the Government should or could do differently?

Thrusting economists.