Chamber and committees

It will not necessarily be needed for a bit of time, but when do you expect the framework to be in place?

On a similar point, there are some areas where you have indicated that you are looking for parity, largely, with the UK scheme, so that Scottish freeports are not at a disadvantage. What engagement are you having on the freeport projects—if, for example, there was a need to change the five-year transaction date? How is that engagement happening?

Thanks. The convener, Liz Smith and others have spoken about the impact of displacement as well as the costs involved, such as the advertised cost of £5 million in terms of land and buildings transaction tax, and how that might be offset by increases in income tax take. How detailed will that information be on income tax? Will you be able to determine from local tax figures whether there is displacement? Will that be an opportunity to see where displacement is happening and its impact? How soon would we be able to see that?

Because there could be various reasons for people choosing to relocate. It might not be because of tax.

I was interested in the discussion that was had with regard to Michael Marra’s question about top-rate taxpayers, of which there are 18,000. You have said that we do not yet have the data from the Scottish context; however, we obviously have historical UK data. What analysis can be done on the tax mobility of those individuals, admittedly within an international context? Of course, such mobility would probably be even more beneficial within a UK context.

My last question is about house prices. There was an underestimate of the revenue from the land and buildings transaction tax. Given that there now seems to be a slowdown and houses are taking longer to sell, would you anticipate that there might be an overestimate for next year?

I was pleased that the Cromarty Firth bid was successful, but one of the issues that we all recognise is that a huge amount of other investment is needed, in infrastructure for example. Transport infrastructure in the Highlands is not particularly good, and housing will be needed if those jobs are created and people move to those areas. David Melhuish, how important do you feel that that could be?

Have you tried to do so?

Good morning. I should say that I supported the Cromarty Firth bid; that is not a declaration of interest or anything, but I think that it important to say that. Ross Greer talked about the east-west divide, but there is also the north-south divide, and undoubtedly there is an important need to invest in remote and rural areas, particularly across the Highlands and Islands.

My first question is for Derek Thomson and Liz Cairns. You have talked about not being engaged in the process and have said that you are not sure what green jobs are—I do not think that you are the only ones to find themselves in that position—but what engagement have you looked to have or have you been having with the two successful bids from Port of Cromarty Firth, Global Energy Group and Port of Inverness as well as, obviously, the consortium led by Forth Ports?

Obviously, a lot of work still needs to be done, given that the bids have only recently been successful, but do you think that, at the moment, the UK Government, the Scottish Government and local government are working together enough on delivering the peripheral infrastructure? I say “peripheral”, but perhaps it is also key.