Chamber and committees

There has previously been criticism that there has been no international input into such reviews. My understanding, which is from Government gateway reviews, is that that would not be normal in any case and that any international research or comparisons would have happened at the very start of development of the legislation and the regulations. Is that correct?

Can you give us an advance on “in due course”? In what timeframe can we expect to see that happen?

Thank you.

We think that Grangemouth is special and important. This is probably the first time that a parliamentary committee has had such a focus on one town. The just transition will have an impact on everyone in Scotland, but everybody automatically thinks about the north-east. However, we have decided to look at Grangemouth first. If we can learn lessons here, we can help the rest of Scotland.

Adam Gillies, I was very struck by your perspective. You spoke about the 20,000 additional jobs that we have been told will come with the freeport and the fact that you do not want those workers to drive in and drive out of the town but to stay, and that if they are going to travel in, you want them to have the necessary rail links—the public transport—which in and of itself is about town centre regeneration.

This committee has just done an inquiry into town centre regeneration, and one of the issues was about ensuring that it is community led—you have said that that is what you want—but also that there is revenue that provides resource, as in people, to help you to do what you do. Do you have access to community development workers or people to whom the community council can say, “This is what we want done” or “Can you look at these reports?” which you are getting from left, right and centre? Is there anything like that just now?

I was also very struck by what was said about spending the £10 million quickly. That is the capital funding, but there is also £2 million revenue funding, so it would be interesting to know what is happening with the revenue funding, because from our last inquiry, we know that capital might be easier to come by but that the revenue that is needed to sustain the people to staff this is not there.

Perhaps Michelle Thomson can help me on this—or perhaps the witnesses can. Is there a Grangemouth business improvement district—a BID—or something similar in that area? I represent the Linlithgow constituency next door, where they have brought together community interests, through the community development trust, and business. There is a levy collected for that, which helps to employ staff to do this kind of work.

Diarmaid, I think that you said that you were thinking about looking at Hawick or different areas in the Borderlands. It is about how you build in people support for the decision makers, which should be the community. Is that the sort of thing that you were thinking about?

Adam, does that make sense? Is that what you are looking for?

I am very struck by the fact that you are the person who is talking about the strategic aspects and are also the person who is talking about the non-industrial future industries side—the existing businesses that can grow with that income coming, we hope, from those 20,000 additional workers.

How do we mobilise the—dare I say it?—non-industrial site aspects of Grangemouth to get connected? When we talk about community, we are not talking only about communities of individuals but local businesses. What is your view on how that can best be done?

With that, I will pass you back to the convener.

On housing, one issue about the plant is that some of the workers could go anywhere internationally and get paid. You want them to live and spend money in Grangemouth, so what is needed is not just social housing but any type of housing that attracts people to stay and spend money in the town. Do you see that as part of keeping the skill base that we know will be needed for the just transition?

It is quite high.