Chamber and committees

You have certainly made a good point about the need to change our materialistic direction of travel. Tackling that will be very challenging for us, especially when everybody is looking at their screens and being told what they need next in their lives to make them brilliant.

Mark Griffin has another question.

I thank Stephanie Callaghan for bringing up that example.

I will bring in Linda Somerville then Iain Gulland, then we will have to wrap up this incredible conversation.

Good morning and welcome to the 10th meeting in 2024 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.

I remind all members and witnesses to ensure that their devices are in silent mode.

The first item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items 4 and 5 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

Thanks very much. As I said, welcome to this evidence session. Oh—I am sorry. Stacey Dingwall, would you like to introduce yourself?

Matthew Brown has experience of community wealth building in Preston. When you were starting out on that community wealth building journey, was there confusion and was work needed to try to get people to understand that it is not just a values-driven form of economic development but is more than that?

Does anyone else want to come in on the general sense of community wealth building, how the approach differs and why we might need new legislation? I get a sense that this is happening in Scotland. What have we come across that would make us say that we need legislation? Louise Kirk referred to financing and a more co-ordinated approach. Does anyone else have thoughts?

A few people have indicated that they want to come in. I will take Linda Somerville, Rob Davidson and then Neil McInroy. I also want to ask Matthew Brown how Preston did this without legislation.

I think that the committee would support that. From all the work that we have done over the past wee while, we are aware that, when it comes to community needs, Scotland has a nuanced landscape, and we need to seek to support that.

When you talk about decluttering, do you have in mind the removal of legislation that is in the way? My sense is that the cluttered landscape is also a problem for communities. There is a tremendous amount of opportunity for communities—Angus Hardie might want to comment on that—but there is no coherent framework to enable them to find their way to all those opportunities.

Stephanie Callaghan has questions concerning the area that has just been touched on.