Chamber and committees

Mr Robertson can come in on that on a moment, but first, just so that I am clear, I ask whether those are Treasury accounting rules or Scottish Government rules. Where is the blockage?

I will come to Scottish Enterprise in a minute, but first I have one more question for SNIB. I noticed that, according to the accounts, in 2023-24, which was the most recent financial year, you spent £96,000 on contracting with a public relations firm. What was that for?

I have one question for Scottish Enterprise. Your accounts for 2023-2024 show a significant change in emphasis in spending priorities, with a shift away from business growth and towards innovation and investment.

Scaling up businesses is one of the key objectives of the national strategy for economic transformation—NSET—so why has there been that shift in priorities? Is it simply driven by the reduction in your budget?

I have one more follow-up question, which might be for Professor Roy.

Do you have a view on how effective the Scottish Government has been to date in drawing in private investment through city region growth deals, the Scottish National Investment Bank and the green investment pipeline, for example? Has that been successful overall or have there been weaknesses in the experience?

Good morning, professors. I will follow up on the convener’s line of questioning about who pays. Professor Bell, I was interested in something that you said about transitioning from gas boilers to heat pumps. I will give a small illustration.

I visited a new housing development in my region a couple of months ago. They were nice new-build houses, with a very high specification, and were heavily insulated. I had a conversation with a house builder about the heating system. All the houses are having gas boilers installed. I asked why the builders were not putting in heat pumps, and the answer was that the customers do not want them, because there is an additional cost—£8,000 per property, I think they said—and, in that market, the customers are not interested in paying that. I would like your perspective on that.

I will also put my broader question. It seems to me that, on the issue of net zero, it is easy for politicians such as us to set targets for 10, 20 or 30 years in the distance, then pat ourselves on the back and say how well we have done. The practicality is in trying to implement measures such as heat pumps when the public says, “Wait a minute, we are not prepared to pay for that.” The question of who pays therefore becomes absolutely crucial. Professor Roy talked about the situation with the public finances. The Government will struggle to pay. What is the scope or opportunity for private finance to come in, and is enough being done in the financial markets to bring in models, opportunities and products that can help to fund the just transition?

I have a couple of follow-up questions. On that last point, it is really interesting to look at where the public are. I hear this pushback all the time—people say that, even if we get to net zero tomorrow, if the rest of the world does not, it will make no or little difference. The challenges that we face, whether in Scotland or the UK, are exactly the same challenges that other western economies face. Everybody is on the same trajectory as we are on, everybody is pushing back on targets and everybody is going slower because of the fiscal and economic challenges. Trying to win the public over against that backdrop is much more challenging, is it not?

Professor Roy, I will put to you the same question that I put to Professor Bell. Do you think that the financial products are there? Over the past couple of decades, lots of different schemes, such as the green deal, have come in. All those schemes seem to come and go, and people do not have any sense of what they are. If you came to me tomorrow and said, “Put in a heat pump and there will be some scheme to help you fund it”, I would not know where to start, because those schemes change with such regularity. First, is there a need for certainty on what is on offer from the Government and the public sector? Secondly, are the financial products there?

My questions follow the convener’s initial ones. You have all seen quite substantial cuts in your budget for the current financial year. During our evidence sessions on the budget last year, I challenged Neil Gray, who was, at that time, the economy secretary, about that. We have seen a change in Government personnel since then, with Kate Forbes coming into that role, and I think that there has been something of a change of tone from the Government, with perhaps more focus on economic growth.

Against that backdrop, my question is about your expectations—which might be too strong a word; “ambitions” or “hopes” might be better—as you look ahead to the coming budget round. Are you optimistic that the Government’s change of language will translate into a better budget settlement?

Who wants to start? You are all looking at each other.

Your submission includes numbers on the multiplier effect in public spending, which suggests that, if public money is put into an area, it will generate more economic activity there.

You would therefore expect to see the impact of this reduction in the current year.

Thank you for that. I know that other colleagues have more specific questions for VisitScotland, but I will follow up on one point. You said that there was some activity that you had been hoping to do that you had to cut back on. Can you expand on what that is?