Chamber and committees

Good morning and welcome to the 16th meeting in 2022 of the Economy and Fair Work Committee. I have received apologies from Gordon MacDonald MSP. John Mason MSP is attending as his committee substitute.

Our first item of business is the final evidence session on our town centres and retail inquiry. I welcome Tom Arthur MSP, the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth. From the Scottish Government, I welcome Catherine Brown, who is head of the retail and cities unit, and David Cowan, who is the head of the regeneration unit.

As always, I ask members and witnesses to keep their questions and answers as concise as possible. I also ask the minister to be as specific as possible in his answers and to avoid generalisations. The committee is at the stage of considering its recommendations and we want to them to be as relevant and constructive as possible.

I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.

You mentioned a number of reports in your opening statement. The committee is aware that there are a number of strategies around town centres, at the moment. In the first session in the inquiry, we heard from Professor Leigh Sparks. Although I think that there is broad support for the direction of travel from the Government, there is some concern about the way in which the documents work together, whether they complement each other, and how effectively ministers and Government are working so that the strategies are delivered collectively. Will you say a bit about that? You mentioned the retail strategy, the response to town centres and the national planning framework. There is quite a lot going on, but is it working cohesively?

I am going to ask a question about the retail workforce before I hand over to Fiona Hyslop. We heard from Close the Gap during a previous evidence session, and some questions were asked about the retail strategy and recognition of change in the workforce. The example that Close the Gap used was that there has been a reduction in front-of-shop work, which tends to be female dominated, and an increase in logistics—whether in warehouses or in other types of work—which tends to be male dominated and in which the jobs are better paid. As we see a shift in the workforce and retail is delivered in that new way, how can we ensure that the existing workforce, and women in particular, have opportunities? There is some concern that the retail strategy does not reflect those challenges.

I am sorry to interrupt, but the question was more about skills and the opportunities for skills training.

Before I bring in John Mason, I have a question on e-commerce. We had an evidence session on e-commerce and omnichannels, and Gillian Crawford was one of our witnesses. I think that she suggested that Scotland is underperforming when it comes to e-commerce businesses and that we do not collect statistics on it or invest in our workforce. She said:

“we know that if we do not have a thriving e-commerce sector in Scotland, that money will flow into the hubs in Manchester and London, where fantastic e-commerce businesses are being built around airports and transport links.”—[Official Report, Economy and Fair Work Committee, 4 May 2022; c9.]

I think that she was expressing the view that we are missing the boat on e-commerce and that we do not put enough investment into building e-commerce businesses. During that evidence session, we also heard about the digital boost programme. People welcomed that programme but felt that more resources could have been put into it. Michelle Thomson and I met representatives from a business last week that had developed a website, but they were not aware of the support that is offered through Business Gateway and the digital boost programme.

Therefore, there are two issues. One is about the digital boost programme and what kind of investment is going into that. There was a recognition that it was a good programme. Could it get some more investment? The second issue is about how we grow our e-commerce sector and recognise it as an important sector. We have heard suggestions that it is not valued enough in Scotland.

Colin Smyth is next.

The committee might return to that in the report. The issue was raised in evidence that we heard on one of our visits.

We took evidence from Culture Counts, which talked about more practical measures, such as a business rates scheme or giving access to properties for the cultural community or for artists to set up workshops or studios. A more sympathetic rates or financial regime to support that would be a helpful practical measure. The witness from Culture Counts gave an example of a town—Dunoon, I think—that had taken the role of artists to its heart and artists had successfully settled there. Some of that success was about having access to buildings and a sympathetic financial regime to support it.

Thank you very much for your evidence, minister. It has been helpful for our inquiry. I also thank Catherine Brown and David Cowan.

Thank you, minister. Do members have any questions?

As members have no questions, we move to agenda item 3, which is formal consideration of motion S6M-04636. I invite the minister to move the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Economy and Fair Work Committee recommends that the Registers of Scotland (Information and Access, etc.) Miscellaneous Amendment Order 2022 [draft] be approved.—[Tom Arthur]

Motion agreed to.

A short factual report of the committee’s decision will be prepared and published.

I thank the minister and his officials for joining us. We move into private session for the remainder of the meeting.