Chamber and committees

Mr Lonsdale, I come to your submission. You have already spoken to the convener about different taxes that are coming in. You also say something really interesting:

“The devolution of these”—

meaning taxes—

“to local authorities appears to have been done in a piecemeal fashion”.

You strike up a contrast, saying:

“A kaleidoscope of differing local taxes may help plug gaps in councils’ finances. However, it can add complexity and cost to the operations of businesses and make budgeting trickier”.

This morning, we have been trying to find tax structures that are a bit more efficient. What would you like to happen to ensure that we do not have inconsistency and incoherence across the different types of tax, which is—in your view—knocking consumers?

I follow those developments regularly. I think that you are suggesting that, as things stand, the lack of coherence and there being too much inconsistency is creating a bit of a disincentive for consumers rather than adding the competitive edge that you would like to see, which would make businesses flourish. The Federation of Small Businesses is saying much the same.

Let me turn to Mr Lott. When the committee visited the University of Dundee, as you mentioned in your remarks, we heard a lot of really good things, and we were privileged to see some absolutely groundbreaking research. However, we also heard quite a lot about the difficulties that universities are having in attracting the people they need to attract. In part, that is because of visa issues, for which my party was partly responsible, but it is also because of the situation in some universities whereby it is much more difficult to bring your family.

Is Universities Scotland getting quite a lot of evidence on that? What do you suggest should happen to mitigate that? We desperately need those people in our world-class universities in order to improve the research side of things.

Yes, it is obviously putting considerable pressure on the social security budget. What about people who are economically inactive and do not have disabilities or health issues? Do you have any idea of the policies that will make a difference to getting them back into the labour market? Obviously that has a huge implication for increasing productivity and, in the long run, economic growth.

—the older generation.

Indeed.

Assuming that the amount is positive—I know that there is a lot of debate about that—if the money was spent on teachers or on improving resources in the state sector in England and Wales, am I correct in thinking that Barnett consequentials would flow from that?

Thank you. That was helpful.

Good morning. I have a point of clarification that follows on from Michael Marra’s question. You made it clear that the Scottish Government has not provided you with a public sector pay policy. Have you expressed concern to the Scottish Government about that? If so, when was that?

Which is obviously increasing as a percentage share of the total population.

What I am driving at is the policies that the Scottish Government needs to enact to try to address the big black hole in public finances. Some of that can be done through public sector reform, which you have set out, and some can be done with tax-and-spend policies. However, addressing economic inactivity in the Scottish population is a crucial element of your longer-term forecasts; indeed, it is a major issue. Do you have any indication from your analysis as to the policies that might be most effective in bringing those people back into work?

The nuancing of that will be very important with regard to the policies that might help us in the future. The statistics for the longer term that you have given us are pretty grim, and we need to do all that we can to try to address the issue.

I want to raise one point of clarification. Your report contains a very short piece about the UK Government’s raising of VAT on independent schools. Am I correct in thinking that, if that amount of money were to be positive, it would be spent in England and Wales and that, as a result, there would be Barnett consequentials for Scotland?