Seòmar agus comataidhean

I think that they get it, increasingly. My sincere hope is that they take the approach that once a strategy is published it will become a defining mission. There is a lot to be considered about dealing with structural inequalities in participation and about the benefits of a thriving economy. I think that the enterprise agencies are getting there. A more nuanced approach is being taken. Clearly, enterprise agencies are—to go back to the previous question—leading the charge on net zero, for example. They have expanded their approach.

Yes, we are absolutely doing that. The primary way that we do it is through working with Co-operative Development Scotland and the enterprise agencies to support the growth of co-operatives and other alternative business models. The matter is very much on our radar and we have mechanisms to work with and invest in alternative business models.

We have extended the deadline for the voucher scheme because we understand some of the challenges for businesses. The overall value of a voucher is determined by whether a household or business property is likely to get access to commercial build or R100 build. The voucher is worth less for those that are in the scheme’s scope. That might have come into it, but the deadline has been met. In terms of overall contract delivery date, you are probably more interested in the R100 north lot contract, which is expected to be let by 2026-27. The delivery years for the central lot and the south lot are earlier because the more remote and rural areas will require more investment and will take longer.

The rural tourism infrastructure fund is close to Fiona Hyslop’s heart and it is extremely close to my heart, considering my constituency interests, which have significantly benefited from the fund, which she announced when she was a minister. It was a pioneering fund at the time, and it has unlocked huge amounts of economic potential in some of the more remote and rural areas. It was a very forward-looking initiative, for which I thank her. I am absolutely still committed to RTIF.

On VisitScotland’s overall budget, its core budget has returned to pre-Covid levels. In doing comparisons for all the public bodies, I would encourage the committee to look at the pre-Covid position, where we stripped out Covid consequentials. There was a significant amount of Covid consequentials in the VisitScotland budget. I do not for a minute argue that there is not an on-going Covid impact, but I do not have Covid consequentials in any part of my budget, because there are no Covid consequentials from the UK Government sitting separately. That is the position for VisitScotland. We have done all that we can to protect the budgets of the key enterprise bodies, including VisitScotland’s.

I think that we can make progress. That goes hand in hand with other work that we are doing on community wealth building, for example. On the economic opportunities that sit outside the traditional model of the past few years—the Companies House registered business—there are alternatives. We want to continue working with Co-operative Development Scotland and the enterprise agencies to support such opportunities.

To be honest, we will probably not do that—unless the member or others can provide me with substantial evidence of a disconnect between the overall cost and the voucher scheme. The voucher scheme is supplemented by UK Government vouchers, which increases the overall pot that is available. The value of the voucher is determined by whether a business is in scope for R100 or not. If you are referring to those that are in scope, I point out that it is much harder to justify an increase because they will ultimately get broadband. However, I appreciate that they want it earlier; that is absolutely understandable. I have bigger concerns about businesses that are not in scope and are not having the overall costs covered.

On timetables, my intention is to publish that strategy following the UK spring statement, at least four weeks prior to the summer recess. If we are unable to meet that deadline for reasons that are outwith my control, the normal process is to consult the Finance and Public Administration Committee. We will make sure that the committee is sighted on that. That is my intended timetable for May.

It is challenging to put a specific figure on the overall cost of phase 2 now. There is a moveable feast when it comes to what we could do on each recommendation. My officials might be able to flesh that out. One of the recommendations is about investing in a marketing campaign. I would like that to be as impactful as possible, but we do not have a specific figure. Generally, we are talking about £25 million of resource and £24 million of capital—those are the figures that we are using at the moment, but I caveat that by saying that we will identify funding for the recommendations as they require to be implemented in the light of particular pressures.

Another example that I can give relates to the skills agenda, which Fiona Hyslop will know well. There is probably an unlimited requirement for investment in reskilling and upskilling in tourism. Although there will be funding identified for that, it needs to reflect the situation at the time.

On the issue of confidence, I take the point that, if funding for a specific requirement does not appear in the budget, that raises questions. That is why it is important that there continues to be engagement with STERG so that it is conscious of our commitment to continue to progress our commitments and knows that we are willing to work with it as and when its recommendations are required as part of the recovery. That process starts right now. In fact, it started over the Christmas period, even though the tourism industry has been focused on the immediate challenges.

There is still financial support available in the budget for tourism more generally. It is not a case of our not investing in tourism. We are talking specifically about the STERG proposals.

I will stop there. I think that there was a second part to your question, which I am afraid I cannot recall.

It is good to join you this morning, convener. I appreciate that you have had a long evidence session already this morning, and that the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery provided you late last year with a detailed written response to a range of questions, so I will keep my opening comments fairly brief.

I will start with a comment that you will not be hearing for the first time, but I need to be clear at the outset: this project has been hugely challenging. The Scottish Fiscal Commission, which is the key forecasting body, states in its economic and fiscal forecasts report:

“Overall the Scottish Budget in 2022-23 is 2.6 per cent lower than in 2021-22, after accounting for inflation the reduction is 5.2 per cent.”

It is against that backdrop that we are discussing the local government budget this morning.

Our budget has had a laser-like focus on three key challenges: tackling child poverty, climate change and economic recovery. We are endeavouring, in the budget, to strike a balance that will, with limited resources, ensure parity of funding across sectors. The budget that has been published for next year confirms that even in the face of the significant economic uncertainty that has been caused by the pandemic, we are providing councils with—among other things—a real-terms increase of more than 5 per cent to their overall budgets for our shared priorities for the coming year. Local authorities have been key partners with the Government—perhaps never more so than during the pandemic, as we tackled it together to protect communities, businesses and public services. They will clearly play an important leadership role, as we move forward.

I recognise the importance of planning as part of the process. Our transformation of the planning system will help both to streamline the system and to free up resources to enable the good-quality development that we will need in the future. To support that, we will introduce new fees regulations that will help to ensure that applicants, rather than the taxpayer, cover the costs of processing planning applications. We are also investing in digital transformation of the planning system. I mention that because I know that it has been raised in the past.

I will stop now and hand over to my colleague, Shona Robison, who will say more about the settlement in relation to her portfolio.

Prior to publication of my budget this year, and in previous years, I have met Gail Macgregor regularly. I cannot remember the details off the top of my head, but there were probably three or four intensive meetings in the immediate run-up to the budget. I meet Gail regularly to talk more generally, but in those meetings I had very intensive conversations with her in order to get a full understanding of the pressures that are facing local authorities—I do not dispute that there are pressures—and to understand our shared commitments.

Sometimes, during the yearly debates, as the convener understandably put it, we lose sight of the fact that many commitments are shared by COSLA and the Scottish Government. I say COSLA because it is the body that represents all local authorities—each local authority will have slightly different nuances.

The other thing that we have done this year, which is unusual, is that Shona Robison and I have between us endeavoured, over the past two months, to meet every single local authority—their chief executives and local authority leaders—to make sure that we have a handle on their local circumstances. Although COSLA will, understandably and rightly, present a blanket approach for local authorities, we wanted to ensure that we also understand the challenges that are faced in each area, so the invitation to meet went out to local authorities. I cannot recall precisely how many I have met and how many Shona Robison has met.

We have endeavoured to get the high-level view from COSLA and to get into the detail of each local authority area. The challenges that Inverclyde Council faces are different from those that Moray Council faces, and those are different from the challenges that Glasgow City Council faces. The conversations that we have had hugely informed our budget. A lot of financial commitments might not be taken into account in the annual debate about core budgets.

There are two issues that I hear about regularly from individual local authorities and from COSLA. The first relates to the challenges around social care, which is why we have significantly increased social care funding. Incidentally, I point out that I have tried to ensure that consequential funding for health and social care has gone to local authorities precisely because I know of the social care pressures that they have cited.

The second issue is income inequality and the fact that the pandemic has exacerbated the challenges that are faced by the most vulnerable people in society, which is why we are rolling out free school meals further, in collaboration with local authorities.

I do not want to speak for COSLA, but I think that it and individual local authorities would agree that the two examples that I have cited are important shared commitments, which is why they have been prioritised as part of the overall local government settlement.