Chamber and committees

Mr Birt, if you want to comment on any of that, you can, but I was going to move on to the council tax freeze. I picked up that you are not all that enthusiastic about it. Does the council tax freeze aim to achieve a target that you are aware of, or does anything good come out of the council tax freeze?

I want to follow up on what Martin Booth and Kirsten Hogg said about multiyear funding. Are local authorities and voluntary organisations looking for slightly different things? Presumably, it would make a big difference for Glasgow to know that a 5 per cent budget increase or decrease was coming down the road. We heard that for a voluntary organisation to know that it would be getting 50 per cent of its budget would not be very helpful. However, we have raised with the SCVO before the fact that, even if an organisation knew that it would get 50 per cent or 75 per cent of the budget allocation in the previous year, that would make a big difference, because it would not have to make people redundant. In that scenario, the organisation would at least know that it would be getting something. Are we talking about two slightly different things?

On the transparency point, is there a danger that we are getting too much information and that we are just getting lost in it? The Scottish Parliament information centre makes the point that there are 157 pages just on how the budget tackles inequalities. I confess that I have not read the 157 pages. I think that the convener has touched on it, but maybe we need a different kind of information.

Are they not both true, in a sense?

Is it possible for politicians to be honest with the public?

Professor Bell, you were nodding at some of that, but should I be worried about the ballooning social security budget?

I will start with Dr Sousa. In your written submission, you comment that the SFC is quite optimistic about Scottish earnings growth—more optimistic than the Office for Budget Responsibility. Are you convinced by the SFC’s arguments?

Professor Bell, do you want to come in?

Do either of the other witnesses want to say what is a good thing that comes out of the council tax freeze?

I will give you a chance to comment, Mr. Birt, but I want to touch on another area before my time runs out. The social security budget is increasing from about £5 billion to £6 billion, which is dramatically more than the budget for almost any other sector. Now, I know that it is demand driven, and we have been given evidence that it is therefore harder to control, but is there a risk that it is running out of control and we need to somehow tack it in? I will come to you first, Mr Birt, because you would like the budget to go even higher with respect to the Scottish child payment.