Chamber and committees

Good morning, and thank you all for your powerful statements about the current situation. We want to hear from you to help to shape and scope our investigation. It is important that we hear your views not only on the short term, but on the medium and long term. What should the committee be looking at? What are your main priorities?

Joe Reade, you talked about the need to start with a blank sheet of paper. If we are to inform the next islands connectivity or ferries plan, what should be put in place? What medium and long-term measures should we consider? I would like to hear from the other members of the panel, too, if there is time—the convener will keep me right—but I invite Joe, who raised the issue, to go first.

The Scottish Government’s spend of £600 million in what is, in effect, a reserved area represents a considerable investment. The provision of such digital connectivity must be for a purpose. How are you ensuring that the R100 programme, and the 4G and 5G support, fits in with the Scottish Government’s aims and responsibilities in devolved areas? I am thinking, in particular, of the green recovery, the wellbeing economy, city deals and the work of the enterprise agencies. How are you ensuring that there is synergy with your national strategy for economic transformation to make sure that we are getting best value for that additional complementary spend?

Aspirations are all well and good, but l will ask about delivery. From a commercial point of view, the cities were already connected to the levels that were required, so I go back to Colin Smyth’s point: how are we ensuring that the additional Scottish Government spend of more than £600 million is leveraging economic growth in other areas? I ask about that aspect in particular, given that we are the Economy and Fair Work Committee.

You have gone through the Government’s plans, but what difference will that money make? You have talked about aspirations, but how will you know that your plans are being delivered? What will success look like in places that are being connected as a result of Scottish Government spend?

I am very familiar with the digital boost fund; I was instrumental in delivering it as part of economic recovery. We have had evidence, particularly from women who are involved in business that, because of the nature of their business, they have had challenges in accessing the fund. Therefore, I would be grateful if the cabinet secretary would agree to look further into access to that for women, and for businesses in rural areas, as has been raised previously.

Good.

I want to talk about private sector finance. I will put my first question to Nick Halfhide.

How well does the public sector currently leverage support and finance from the private sector for nature restoration and nature-based solutions? What are the key barriers and hurdles to achieving that? What returns is the private sector looking for from nature-based solutions?

I will change tack slightly. I was struck by what Julie Waldron said about needing a nature-based equivalent of Sustrans or heritage conservation areas. City deals are another mechanism that is bringing together public and private finance in strategic planning. Some city deals have been established for some time. Are the city deals adequately aligned with nature restoration goals and use of natural infrastructure to achieve net zero, or do we need to look again at some of the city deals through a net zero lens?

On the testing, we have had a great deal of focus on a place-based solution to net zero and it was interesting that you were talking about the role of local authorities not just on the demand and supply side but on the enabling side. On the private sector side—home ownership, for example, and green mortgages—local authorities may not see that they have a key role in helping to promote that in a place-based, street-by-street process. Is that something that you mean when you talk about local authorities enabling and leading on the information sharing?

That would be helpful. We are constrained in the amount that the Scottish Government can borrow, but there might be possibilities if we are creative about how we look at things with regard to local authorities.

In relation to the local authority role, I have a question for Emma Harvey. My colleague will go into some of the skills that are required, but we need something almost like a regulatory standard to achieve investability. There is a difference between a project and the process. What policies and mechanisms can be put in place so that local authorities can achieve that standardisation to help scale up the level of investment opportunities for them?

Professor Parsons, do you have any comments on leveraging private finance?