Chamber and committees

Briefly, for the record, we acknowledge that there is no proposal for any tourism tax in West Lothian and that Linlithgow palace is closed because of unsafe masonry.

On the point about that culture change and the fact that business improvement districts could do more, what would enable them to do more? You talked about their doing bigger projects. However, is there not a risk that, if they do small things, business improvement districts have the challenge of justifying what they are doing? How do we get that trust among all the public sector bodies to empower business improvement districts to do more?

I will come first to Anthea Coulter and then to Mark Darragh. We have heard that considerable funding is now available for town centres. We also know that there is a great deal of entrepreneurship, not just in the third sector but in the business improvement districts. Would that enable better collaborative working with councils? There has been a period of austerity in which councils may have been risk averse, because things have been tight financially. What enablers would help a culture of bigger projects, potentially? People want to see value from a BID, which they might not see in a small project. Are capabilities opening up that perhaps were not there five years ago?

Thank you. Does Tim Lord have any reflections on international and historical lessons that we might learn?

As well as this crisis, we are facing the climate crisis. Reference has been made to the trillions of pounds in funds that need to be invested. We have heard from Dr Hannon that a fabric first approach will be essential to help in the immediate term. Is there no way that we could ask the private sector to mobilise in order to help with that investment in the short term? Such investment might not be as attractive as offshore wind investment, for example, but it would make a real difference to people’s lives this winter if such mobilisation could take place.

That question provides quite a large canvas, but any reflections would be helpful.

I was going to suggest to the convener that we might move on, so that other members could come in. However, if other panel members have anything to say on energy market reform, I ask them please to indicate through the chat function or to bring it in when somebody else asks a question.

I think that Tim Lord might want to say something. I will pass back after him.

Thank you. Clearly, a lot of this is reserved to the UK Government, but it is very helpful to have a rounded analysis. I will hand back to the convener.

I will bring in Dr Hannon, who might want to reflect on any other international comparators, either historical or contemporary.

Okay. Dr Lowes, did you indicate that you want to come in?

Thank you. The other area that I want to cover is energy market reform. I come to Dr Hannon first on that. You talked about decoupling gas, for example, when it comes to price setting. I am interested in your views on energy market reform—what is needed and when—and whether we should be shifting to make sure that the energy market is designed to ensure secure, affordable and sustainable energy. If you could unpack the separation of gas from that price setting, that would be helpful as well.

Good morning, panel, and thank you for joining us. Please feel free to expand on your previous remarks. I am interested in the historical context that we have just heard about from Dr Lowes and that rapid acceleration of electrification, particularly in Scandinavia, in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of us are old enough to remember the 1973 oil crisis, and the very practical implications that it had.

My question is first to Dr Lowes. What can we learn from the speed of the response in the 1960s and 1970s? Indeed, are there any lessons that we should learn from that? What should we expect now?

My second question relates to what we now see on our high streets. I represent West Lothian, which is one of the youngest constituencies in Scotland. We have a lot of hairdressers, beauty salons and so on. The people of West Lothian want to look good, but I also get complaints from some constituents, who say, “Is that all we have?” However, those services provide an experience—they are part of a leisure experience, and they bring people on to the high streets, which means footfall, as they can then buy other things. How should we consider that dimension? That is a very real situation in many towns in Scotland.