Chamber and committees

The result of the division is: For 6, Against 1, Abstentions 0.

Motion agreed to,

That the Finance and Public Administration Committee recommends that the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Green Freeports Relief) (Scotland) Order 2023 [draft] be approved.

I have one last question on the issue of the green economy, which you just touched on.

You said that a £13 billion green stimulus package could create 150,000 jobs in Scotland and suggested that there is a pressing need for the Scottish Government to maximise the impact of its spending priorities. Labour in the UK has said that it can no longer proceed with its £28 billion green prosperity plan because of affordability. How can Scotland, with 8.2 per cent of the UK’s population, afford to do something as ambitious as a £13 billion stimulus package?

The question is, that motion S6M-09584 be agreed to. Are we agreed?

Members: No.

One of the conclusions that came from the committee’s meeting on 23 May was that efficiencies made as part of managing budgets are not a genuine reform. I am sure that you would agree with that. What role do efficiencies such as sharing data or making use of artificial intelligence and digital technologies play?

Thank you. That concludes the committee’s questions.

Item 2 is formal consideration of the motion on the instrument. I invite the minister to move motion S6M-09584.

Motion moved,

That the Finance and Public Administration Committee recommends that the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Green Freeports Relief) (Scotland) Order 2023 [draft] be approved.—[Tom Arthur]

I thank the minister and his colleagues for their evidence. We will publish in due course a short report to the Parliament setting out our decision on the draft order.

I suspend the meeting briefly to allow for a change of witnesses.

The next item on our agenda is evidence on the draft Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Green Freeports Relief) (Scotland) Order 2023. I welcome to the meeting David Melhuish, director of the Scottish Property Federation; Derek Thomson, Scottish secretary at Unite the union; and Liz Cairns, researcher at Unite the union.

I intend to allow up to an hour for this session. If a witness wants to be brought into the discussion at any point, they should indicate that to the clerks, please, and I can then call them. I will direct my questions for Unite the Union to Derek Thomson, but if he would prefer Liz Cairns to answer them, I would be quite happy with that. We will simply suck it and see, so to speak.

We have your submissions, which I thank you for. We will go straight to questions.

My first question is to David Melhuish. In response to our questions, you talked about the five-year timespan being

“simply too short for the nature of long term investment in the two green freeports”

in Cromarty and Leith. You also said:

“we note that the green freeports will not be fully operational until at least 2024 or perhaps even 2025. We therefore suggest that the qualifying period should be extended to at least 7 years.”

What would be the benefits of that to your industry and, indeed, the wider Scottish economy? How much investment and employment do you realistically expect to come into those two green ports?

You have said in your submission that you

“cannot accept an economic situation which allows for private sector employers in Freeport areas to increase profits as a result of government subsidies while vital local public services that our communities and those in greatest need depend upon, are allowed to wither on the vine.”

Where is the evidence that that will happen? The whole point is to create economic growth, which will increase tax revenues, which will allow further revenues overall for the Government to invest in services.

I will put a lot of these questions to the minister when he gives evidence, to find out what he has to say.

David, what kind of jobs and what kind of businesses do you envisage will go to the freeports?

I do not think for a minute that there will be 100 per cent displacement, but I do not think that there will be zero displacement either; it is bound to be somewhere between the two. That is a concern. Do our guests have any evidence on what level of displacement they think there is likely to be? I will ask the Scottish Government about that specific issue, but are you able to give us best and worst scenarios?