 Okay, can I take the opportunity to remind members that Covid-related measures are in place, and that face covering should be worn when moving around the chamber and around the Holyrood campus? The next item of business is a debate on motion 2, double four, two, in the name of Tom Arthur on Scotland loves local. I'd invite members who wish to participate in the debate to press the request to speak buttons now or as soon as possible or place an R in the chat function if they're joining us online. I call on Tom Arthur to speak to and to move the motion minister for 11 minutes. I am delighted to bring this debate to Parliament, allowing all MSPs the opportunity to show their support for love's local, supporting local businesses, jobs and building community wealth. Now is a good time to reflect on this in the run-up to Christmas. The last 21 months has taught us a lot about what really matters. We have all lived our lives a bit closer to our homes, appreciated what is on our doorsteps more, rediscovered green spaces, our local shops and businesses and reconnected to our local communities and all they have to offer. Our constituents, communities and local businesses, the length and breadth of the country have rolled up their sleeves, mobilised and worked creatively and with agility to develop local solutions to look after one another and support those who need it. We have realised that being able to go to the shops and buy whatever you need is a privilege not to be taken for granted. Today, I want to celebrate the contribution of our local businesses and communities to Scottish life in supporting us in providing opportunity and employment. I ask Parliament to support us to do the same in return. Loving local is not only about helping people to live well locally. It also has so much potential to support our strategic ambitions for a just transition to net zero and for an inclusive wellbeing economy, as well as tackling inequality. It is about bringing the Government's programmes together in each place to deliver shared priorities. Our joint ambition must be a future rather that has good places and localism at its heart, where we embrace local supply chains, build community wealth by getting behind local businesses and enterprises, support community regeneration, revive our town centres, grow accessible transport, active travel and services, work together with communities and move towards net zero and everything that we do. Our shared experience during the pandemic has demonstrated the potential of local communities and businesses to use their local knowledge, expertise and commitment to successfully respond and adapt to big challenges in their own way. It has highlighted the extent to which local economies are determined by their context, the characteristics of a place and the people who live there and the regional and national policy framework in which they operate. That is why we take a place-based approach. At its heart, any place-based approach is simply a practical way of looking at how to tackle challenges and take advantages of opportunities at a scale that is meaningful and helpful. To support places, we need to really understand the everyday experience of people's lives and respond with local initiatives that are designed to improve the lives of businesses and communities across Scotland, in our cities, towns, neighbourhoods and rural and island geographies. I am pleased that we are being able this year to launch our Scotland loves local programme, which aims to encourage people to think and choose local. This £10 million multi-year programme is designed to support recovery and influence behaviours, to embed the loves local culture, which we started to witness during the pandemic. It encourages a safe return to our town and city centres, taking care to follow guidelines to look after each other. I am looking forward to seeing the benefits of that funding, as I am sure we all are. The funding enables projects that support local businesses to love local in the festive season. For example, digital trails in Oben, projects to improve town and city centres such as streetscape improvements in Dunun, a cultural and arts project in Helensburgh and a marketplace project in the western Isles. I know that a head of small business Saturday last weekend, the First Minister and the economy secretary Kate Forbes urged people to support their local independent traders this festive season. I am sure that I will. All shops and services should be supported, including butchers, because the green partners are against that. I do not know what motivated that. I think that this is an opportunity to celebrate our local businesses and local communities, and that is the tone that I am going to set out at the start of the debate. It will be up for the member and I will swear that he wishes to follow. I encourage members, as well as supporting our local communities, to encourage constituents and family members to buy the Scotland loves local gift card for loved ones this Christmas. The gift card is an innovative way of keeping spend local for longer, so people can treat themselves to the best retail, hospitality and experiences on offer in their area, whether in store or online. The key thing being that any online has to have a bricks-and-mortar presence in the local authority area. In June, I was delighted to be able to launch the Scotland loves local awards and was pleased to see the wide range of award winners who were presented with their awards recently at the Scotland's Towns Partnership conference, which I attended. The awards recognised and thanked some of the people working tirelessly to support resilience and vitality over town centres, through embracing creativity, commitment to tackling climate change and being a hero for their high street. I would like to congratulate all award winners. I also highlight to you a couple of examples. Congratulations to East Ayrshire Council and Kilmarnock Business Association, who were awarded a judges special prize in recognition of the wide-ranging impact of the local gift card to help fuel local recovery. Well done to the young people in Strathairn and Strathallan, who developed a community radio station broadcasting locally. The award recognised the talent, champion and the creation of a community hub, promoting local businesses, creating jobs and helping the local economy. Looking to the future, we are exploring the opportunity to support low-income households using love local cards and a pilot project with Citizens Advice Scotland. That seeks to offer an alternative to food bank referrals alongside our primary cash first response to the juice food insecurity. That is an example of how we are working across portfolios on our overall localism ambition, which our Scotland loves local programme is supporting. Continuing with support for businesses across portfolio, we are working with Scotland's town's partnership to support our local food and drink sector, to encourage retailers to buy locally and source more Scottish produce and raising consumer awareness of our fantastic local offerings. We have also worked on a range of initiatives to support local tourism recovery. That includes the destination and sector marketing fund, the ScotSpirit holiday voucher programme, which represents social tourism at its best, the tourism and hospitality talent development programme, designed to motivate and develop local talent. We have also allocated £4 million to the days out incentive scheme. In order that loving local can become a long-term strategic approach, we are working collaboratively through our community wealth building approach, the draft NPF4 housing 2040, the town centre review and the route map to deliver car kilometre reductions, setting out our vision to create places that people want to live, work, enjoy and settle in, places to thrive and bring up families, places that meet the needs of local people and support their health and wellbeing. That is why we will take action to make housing and places that work together seamlessly, so that people can live in communities and 20-minute neighbourhoods with ease of access to their thriving town and city centres via public transport and active travel. Collaboration and partnership is and will continue to be vital to everything that we do. Our business improvement districts are a good example of loved local and the mechanism for businesses to work together with their communities. Their hyper-local knowledge, leadership and partnership has ensured that many of our city, town centres and neighbourhoods have remained resilient. For example, Stirling and Alwa Bidd led strategic partnerships with their local authorities and chambers to ensure that PPE and emergency grant support was awarded to their members. Bid for Robin led a town-wade communication and support campaign and set up a business counselling service to support struggling business owners. That service was then made available to businesses nationally. The action taken by communities in response to the pandemic was recognised in our Covid recovery strategy as a key part of the resilience of our communities. Communities used their distinct local knowledge, expertise and commitment to successfully respond and adapt to big challenges in their own way. Our vision for community led regeneration, supported by our place-based investment and our empowering communities programmes, enables our communities to shape their own futures. The investment is helping them to develop community assets, enabling them to generate their own incomes and in turn supporting the creation of new jobs and access to services that benefit the people in their communities. I thank the minister for that intervention. There have been successful examples across Scotland and others that are less successful. How many new jobs does he hope that might be created through some of the work that is being done, both by the Scottish Government and local councils in terms of regenerating high streets? Minister, I can give your time back. I cannot give an exact number, but I will say it with regards to regenerating high streets as much as that is an important aspect. I think that we have to be more ambitious and more broadly at the community wealth building model in the opportunities that it presents, leveraging big spending public bodies locally to support SMEs, to support social enterprises. I think that what we can see is more money circulating within our local economies, moving away from that model of wealth extraction. The opportunities, I think, are really quite exciting. I think that when we advance the community wealth building agenda over the course of this Parliament, it is something that all parties can come together and work on. Indeed, I want to commend the excellent work that is taking place in local authorities, led by political parties of all persuasion right across Scotland in supporting the community wealth building agenda. The potential for supporting dynamic local economies in job growth is limitless. I hope that we can work on constructively throughout this session of the Parliament. As I said, we cannot achieve our ambitions, Presiding Officer, without working with and for our communities, without real participation and engagement and harnessing our collective resources for local impact. Before concluding, I would like to say that I am looking forward to presenting the surfer awards tomorrow evening, meeting some of the people who will be receiving those awards and hearing more about their endeavours and the conditions required for success. The awards provide welcome recognition for those who support their community to thrive, and that is what Loves Local is all about. We should not lose sight of the sense of connectedness, belonging and strength that our local communities and businesses have shown. I hope that members will continue to support Loves Local ambition and encourage their constituents to do so too. Safely visiting local markets, shops and businesses if they can, and enjoying all their local neighbourhood has to offer. I move the motion in my name, and in doing so, I commend all of us to think globally and live and love locally. Thank you very much indeed. Before calling the next speaker, I can advise the chamber that we have a bit of time in hand, so I encourage members to make and take interventions. You will get the time back. I have a gentle reminder to those members who are looking to participate in the debate but have not yet pressed their buttons to do so as soon as possible. I call on Douglas Lumsden to speak to and move amendment 242.2 for around seven minutes. I remind members of my register of interests, which shows that I am still a councillor at Aberdeen City Council. It is absolutely right that we recognise the contribution that our local producers continue to make to our economy and to the wellbeing of our communities. I would just like to add my congratulations to everyone who is up for an award tomorrow night that the minister has mentioned. Over the past two years, businesses and citizens have been hit hard by the Covid pandemic. If we take Glasgow, for example, we can see from figures from the Scottish Retail Consortium that fruit fall within the city centre is down 22 per cent in November compared to the equivalent period in 2019. That is a picture that we have seen replicated across Scotland over the last couple of years. More and more people are switching to online shopping as a result of the pandemic, with obvious consequences for our high streets. To today, the Conservative Party is not just offering welcome words but concrete policy solutions to helping our struggling high streets and food sectors. Last month, 13 industry bodies wrote to Kate Forbes asking for rates relief for retail business in her budget tomorrow. Those organisations have warned the finance secretary that the retail industry was potentially facing scarring from the pandemic for years to come, and that many challenges that businesses were facing would be insurmountable without direct Scottish Government help. Does the member acknowledge that, in this year, the 100 per cent rates relief for retail and hospitality has been far more generous than any other part of the United Kingdom? Absolutely. It is fantastic that the UK Government has been able to provide the devolved Government with so much money that it has been able to offer that. What businesses are looking for is what is going to be in this year's budget and to see relief going forward. The Government needs to listen and act on that. Shop vacancy rates have had a six-year high in November this year at 60 per cent. The latest Scottish Retail Consortium and Local Data Company figures also showed that, on the high streets specifically, vacancies are still on the increase, and the Scottish Government needs to act on that also. According to COSLA, local authorities who many retailers turn to for help have had real-terms reduction in general funding of around 20 per cent once additional obligations have been factored in. Instead of helping local authorities to release funding for high streets, the Scottish National Party devolved Government's solution is to further ring-fence funding for projects that are at Holyrood dictat. No longer can local authorities focus on local solutions to local problems. Instead, they have their hands tied behind their backs with ring-fence funding for national projects. The Scottish National Party devolved Government talks a lot about partnership work, yet the one body that does the most to protect our high street from any other is our local authorities. The Scottish National Party continues to reduce their funding hand over fist. Jackie Dunbar. Does he think that the pedestrianisation that his administration and Aberdeens push through in Union Street helps the local shops in that street? It is fantastic that you have brought that up. Of course, that pedestrianisation project can only go ahead, because £20 million from the UK Government is part of its levelling up fund. The administration in Aberdeen is looking to enhance the area where the SNP all it has is talk and wants to manage decline. If the SNP were serious about protecting our communities, it would be given the local authorities the fair funding settlement that they have asked for. I hope, but I doubt that the cabinet secretary will have any good news for our friends and colleagues in local government tomorrow. Of course, the last two years have not been the start of the issues for our local high streets. The challenge that they have been facing has been gone for the last 14 years. Many major brands have moved to out-of-town sites or online. Another example of the SNP taking their eye off the ball. To rebuild our communities from the pandemic, we need to tackle the long-standing problems that have emptied our high streets and undermined local businesses. High business rates, poor infrastructure, overzealous planning policy—we need to transform our high streets into more diverse places where people can go to live, work, eat, do activities and shop, but councils need Government assistance to be able to do that. Local governments were given the ability to introduce rebate schemes, which, as a leader of a local authority, I was itching to use. However, they were given the power, but they were not given the ability to raise any funds to pay for any scheme. That was just a way that the Scottish Government passed in the buck to local authorities. The member raises an interesting point from the perspective of being a leader of an administration about having to make challenges around where money is allocated and a limited ability to raise funding. Does he recognise that that is perhaps the position that the Scottish Government finds itself in? If he wishes to go and see further funding for local government, then what other portfolios would he take it? Does, for example, he still support all health consequentials going to the national health service? It is rather strange that we hear an SNP minister talking about how the Scottish Government can spend its money when we see the amount of ringfencing that local government has. If there was the same ringfencing that came to a Scottish Government budget, I am sure that we would hear about it rather loudly. We need to look at ways to exempt high streets and town centres from business rates and relax planning laws for redevelopment in those areas. In fact, our manifesto was packed full of measures to help our high streets. Those included changes to small business bonus scheme, delaying the introduction of new non-Covid business regulations until 2023, and superfast fibre broadband to all businesses by 2027. In food production, we promised a Scotland-first approach, a national food strategy to promote local produce, doubling the size of the food and drink sector by 2030, a farm-to-fork review of Scotland's food policy as a key element of Covid recovery. The purpose of those policies is to boost demand for Scottish produce, strengthening producers' bargain and powers, supporting them to upscale and export better-label Scottish produce, including dumpings, and ensuring that public procurement utilises Scottish produce wherever possible. We want to promote Scottish produce at home and abroad, without fear of a Twitter onslaught or threats against those businesses being made. I hope that I will ask you to join me today in condemning those who are damaging Scottish businesses by attacking them or threatening them on social media just because they dare to promote Scottish goods in England on small business Saturday. Colleagues, what we have here today from the devolved Scottish Government is a motion that contains no commitments at all, no policy drivers, no help for local authorities and no funding to help our worn-out high streets. One shop owner in a small town in the borders posted on Facebook the other day just how exhausted she was, how much the pandemic had hurt not just financially but emotionally, the sleepless nights of worry, the fears of another lockdown, the worry about her staff and her supply chains. It is not just about the finances for many of those businesses, it is about their heart, their soul, their family businesses, their contribution that they are making to local communities. For those businesses, all they are looking for is a little bit of help, a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, not just warm words and nice warm platitudes. Tomorrow, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance will stand up in this chamber and set out the Scottish Government budget for the next year. I hope that it will include some of the measures that I have mentioned. I hope that it will provide funding and support for our small businesses. I hope that it will provide that little bit of reassurance that our businesses are looking for in the future. I hope that it will provide for the great work, and I completely agree with the minister here, for our business improvement districts. I hope that, Presiding Officer, it will give more funding to local government so that we can actually get on with the business of supporting our high streets. Warm words are great but we want action. I submit the amendment in my name. Thank you very much indeed, Mr Lumsden. I would encourage the debate to continue with the making and taking of interventions, as has just been demonstrated. I call on Colin Smith to speak to and move amendment 2442.1 for around six minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is a privilege to represent the south of Scotland. We do not have any cities yet, but it does have many unique, proud, diverse towns and places. Prior to being in MSP, I also had the privilege of being a councillor in Dumfries and Galloway, representing the Dumfries Town Centre ward of Nith for a decade. At the time that I was elected in 2007, a major developer was on the cusp of building a new shopping centre in the town with Debonhams as the anchor. To support the project, the council bought a shop in the high street on land that would be the entrance to that planned centre. Then the global economic crisis landed, the recession began, the high streets were hit hard and the developers' plans were dropped. Since then, there have been a number of initiatives from the council to support town and village centres. I am pleased to have proposed a number, including a town centre housing fund in various public realm improvements. Those interventions were an attempt to make our towns that bit more attractive. To recognise that, after 40 years of retail growth that was increasingly on Greenfield out of town sites and after 20 years of the growth of internet shopping that now makes up over a third of retail sales in the UK, consumer behaviour had changed with convenience and price, often the main driver in our increasingly busy lifestyles. Consumers were no longer prepared to change their lifestyles to visit the high street shops as often as they maybe once did. They wanted a retail offer that suited their new lifestyle. There was a need to try to reimagine our town centres to celebrate their history and identity, to give people new reasons to come into and indeed live in our town centres again, to then support the smaller retail sector that remained. There are wonderful examples of developing that sense of place that do work across the region, the Wigtown Boot Town, the Castle Douglas Food Town, the Cacubri Artists Town, most recently Moffat Dark Skies Town. I am tempted to say Dumfries, the football town, but maybe after the last few weeks, possibly not. However, those efforts are increasingly being swamped by the sheer weight of the economic and social tsunami that our retailers are facing, which has been exasperated by the pandemic but by no means was caused by it. There has been an acceleration in shop closures yet the cost base in our towns remains far too high and simply cannot compete without town locations and online shopping. Many of the landlords who can often be absentee pension funds—I remember phoning one landlord to complain about the trees growing through the windows of the property and the pension fund denied that they even owned the building and the reality is that they probably did not even know that they did. Those companies are often absentee to seeking rent levels from a bygone age and they really are divorced from the current reality. We need to cut costs and raise footfall for those who want to do business in our towns. That is why in Labour's amendment today we set out two measures that we have asked the Government to consider as part of their budget. First, we want to see at least 50 per cent rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure properties, similar to the level that is offered to businesses in England in the new financial year to ensure that Scotland's businesses are not put at an economic disadvantage. Secondly, we need an immediate fiscal stimulus to encourage people safely back into our town centre shops. The spend local voucher scheme in Northern Ireland is a great example of how we can eject cash directly into our local shops. The scheme was delivered by the department for the economy and offered all those aged over 18 in Northern Ireland a £100 voucher to spend in local businesses until the 14th of December. Data from the Northern Ireland retail consortium has shown that in November the number of shoppers increased to its highest level since before the pandemic and was down just 5.2 per cent on 2019 compared to the rest of the UK, which saw a fall of between 16 and 20 per cent. Retail Northern Ireland chief executive Glenn Roberts told the Belfast Telegraph that the scheme had been a quote, an invaluable short-term boost for thousands of local independent retailers. That is exactly the type of boost that we need from the Scottish Government. That is why Scottish Labour proposed an ambitious fiscal stimulus package to aid economic recovery, which includes a £50 voucher for every adult to spend in bricks and mortar retail. It is also about long-term solutions. At the start of my comments, I mentioned a property in Dumfries High Street that would have been the entrance to a shopping centre that never happened and, frankly, never will. That property was community transferred by the council to a new community benefit company, the Midstiple Quarter. Kickstarting their work to literally take back the high street shop by shop. They are now investing in that property and the others they have acquired to deliver the mix of uses, a town needs quality retail space that is affordable to local businesses, community space and, crucially, new housing. Its cooperative principle recognises that local people have the innovative solutions for their town and should have a local stake in its future through community ownership. That really is love local. I commend the Midstiple project to the minister and invite him to visit to find out himself the difference that he is making. More importantly, I urge the Government to ensure that, at the heart of its policies on town centre, it is investing to support that bottom-up community-led approach to regeneration, recognising in particular that developing housing in town centres does come with additional costs and needs to be supported. He talks about the Midstiple Quarter and about putting housing back in the town centres. Do you agree that some of that housing could be used to be passive housing, which will help to tackle fuel poverty as well? That is a very good point by Emma Harper. One of the issues is that that type of housing and even housing in the town centre costs more. It is easy for a social landlord to build a square box in a greenfield site. It is more expensive to do it on a brownfield site in a town centre, and that needs to be reflected when it comes to funding from government to social landlords and others to really focus on passive housing and other quality accommodation in our town centres. There is little I disagree with in the Government's motion. 20-minute neighbourhoods and 10 per cent of transport funding for active travel are labour manifesto commitments, although I am disappointed that maybe public transport has not merited a mention. However, I would make one point about active travel. I hope that lessons are learned from the spaces for people initiative that, although the many cases created welcome safe spaces, it also saw a majority of investment concentrated in just two cities. It took funding away from permanent active travel infrastructure for pop-up initiatives. In some cases, those temporary projects alienate communities and undermine active travel in some cases. There is also no recognition in the motion that in rural areas or market towns, do-serve communities often more than 20 minutes away. In-car use is not a luxury but a necessity, so we need to be careful not to make our town centres inaccessible for shop deliveries and customer parking too expensive. It will simply accelerate the contrumence trends that I outlined earlier around out-of-town shopping and online shopping. However, my main criticism of the Government's motion is that the love local campaign is very well-meaning, as it is in support, and a lot of really positive local initiatives do not go far enough. I think that we are often in danger of debating the merits of a sticky plaster when the reality is at the moment our patient needs major surgery. I am happy to move Labour's amendment in my name that strengthens and supports the Government's motion. It goes further than the Tory amendment in the level of support, and it recognises the urgency of the crisis that our town centres face by proposing an urgent and immediate response. We need to seize this opportunity, we need to be ambitious and if we are, we can deliver a real recovery for Scotland's towns. Thank you, Mr Smith. While encouraging interventions, I could also gently remind the chamber to make the interventions and responses through the chair. With that, we move to the open debate, and I call first Fiona Hyslop to be followed by Finlay Carson around four minutes, Ms Hyslop. Local businesses are the economic beating heart of our communities, and their contribution provides opportunity for regeneration, resilience and development. Our town centres also offer us a sense of culture and place, and we are rightly proud to support them through initiatives such as Scotland Loves Local. Particularly when we look at what our town centres have experienced over the last challenging 20 months. Local resilience and sustainability was always valued, but now it must be a premium. The Scottish Government love local initiative highlights the importance of choosing local and promoting community wealth, but community wealth is not just measured in cash numbers. A thriving town centre depends on its people. People provide drive, spirit and passion, and often it is our local business people who lead this. In my hometown of Llanlithgow, which the minister visited this summer, the two business improvement districts came together with the Llanlithgow community development trust in October 2019 to create one Llanlithgow, the first such bid in Scotland, which brings together local businesses of all sizes and the community groups that help them to thrive and survive. With the Scottish Government's business resilience funding, one Llanlithgow was able to offer a tailored response to local businesses, offering face masks or distancing posters to some assisting with advice on how to continue trading safely. With the help of volunteers, they organised a grand reopening hampers and provided an offered assistance to businesses on what government support they were entitled to. One Llanlithgow also used the resilience funding to establish digital markets, which made more than £7,000 for local businesses in their first 10 days of going live. The uniqueness of the collaborative approach that was hailed by the minister on his visit is one that is rooted in community support and resilience. Now, with the addition of Scotland Love's local fund, local organisations and businesses are continuing to work collaboratively, providing an outdoor market and developing their informative website, Llanlithgow. In other parts of my constituency, Green Action Trust in Broxburn and the Broxburn and Uphold Development Group both received £20,000 and £8,000 respectively. They plan to create a community green space, promoting physical and mental health. The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs visited Scotland in Broxburn in my constituency—it is a popular place—with the Scottish Grocer Federation only yesterday to promote the Scottish Government's Go Local programme, which drives sales of local food with 40 per cent of sales increase and close to £1 million in additional Scottish food sales in just the first 10 stores. In Bathgate, where I started my Christmas shopping at the weekend on small business Saturday, Shoe's Bathgate is very active. Its Facebook pages are filled with businesses, for example, the Phoenix Health and Wellbeing Centre and other businesses, encouraging shoppers to explore the high street. Scotland loves local and the gift card scheme. In my view, it should also be able to tackle inequality. Giving free money to all—as has been the approach of Northern Ireland, for example—is one way of doing things. However, in Scotland, my preference would be for councils or, as I think we heard, this is an advice, to provide funded gift cards to the most vulnerable in our community. Therefore, we are targeting poverty at the same time as supporting local businesses, so I hope that Colin Smyth can consider that approach. Our town centres show others who we are, where we have been and have the power to shape where we want to go. By supporting local love, we are not just investing in the local economy, we are investing in our people's local innovation and creativity, our culture and our sense of place. An important lesson is that the ideas will come from local businesses, not necessarily what can be seen as remote councils or, indeed, remote government, and that is a strong lesson that we should learn. Our local businesses have suffered under lockdown because they closed to keep us safe. We must now, in turn, keep them safe. We must ensure that they thrive, and we must do that by coming together as a community and continuing to shop local and support Scotland's local love. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. For many, Covid-19 has dramatically changed how we shop, particularly for food during the lockdown. Currently, with the right support, it looks like that welcome trend may continue. The main people shopped less frequently, but more locally. The shift to buying local was partly down to necessity, however, as many larger supermarket chains closed their doors to new online orders because of manpower restrictions, our local businesses really stepped up to the mark and went above and beyond to open their doors. In many cases, like the example of Ron Dairys in my constituency, increased deliveries of milk to those self-isolating, which was literally a lifeline service. Hopefully now, thankfully, it is set to benefit greatly in the months and coming years ahead. A recent survey revealed that 84 per cent of people now want to buy more local food and drink than they did previously. It is welcome news for anybody, particularly for family businesses across the country. That trend has been highlighted, and a recent survey carried out in Fees and Galloway that found growing numbers now intended to buy directly from producers and retailers in their communities. That is great news for many on our local high streets, which have seen their businesses suffer badly from the pandemic and online trading. However, given some of the comments from the speakers today, it is apparent that greater support is needed to our struggling high streets, and hopefully that will come forward in the budget tomorrow. Food and drink in Fees and Galloway is now the largest, fastest-growing and most valuable economic sector. It is worth £1.2 billion and crucially employs more than 9,000 people. I point out that that figure does not include local butchers, bakers and farm shops. The food and drink sector is the engine of our region's economy, and everything that is possible must be done to ensure that it continues. It needs more than just nice slogans and good intentions. Meaningful support must be given to improve local infrastructure. A problem that is particularly acute in my constituency is that, despite having one of the biggest beef and lamb producing areas in Scotland, it has limited processing capacity and no abattoir. It means that local authorities support local producers in participating in public procurement, not using centralised procurement for marginal price per unit gains that benefits no-one. Crucially, it only works against producers like Galloway dairy farmers, which are right in the middle of the milk fields of Scotland. Local food and drink producers must be supported by their ambitions by a boots-on-the-ground approach and not by a one-size-fits-all growth pathway that regularly misunderstands the drivers of rural enterprise. Local groups are best placed by recognising and supporting... Certainly. Jim Fairlie. I would like to ask Mr Carson. Would he accept and give credit to the fact that the fastest-growing sector in Scotland is actually the food and drink sector, with ambition 2030 to double its value between now and 2030? Would he not accept that that would not have happened without the intervention of the Scottish National Party Government when Richard Lochhead took on as the first national food and drink policy for Scotland? Finlay Carson. I absolutely accept Scotland's going further than many had thought, but I am not going to thank Richard Lochhead for anything when he did what he did as agriculture minister, given a lot of the failures he did. However, we must realise that diversity in business is something to celebrate. That diversity of breed, of approach and of business model is what creates resilience, especially in rural communities such as Dumfries and Galloway. There must be an honest investment in local organisations and local enablers who understand how to make things work. It is important that we recognise examples of good practice where, against all the odds, small organisations and small producers are doing some outstanding work, such as supply change development work, which is done by the Galloway cattle society, which has turned that at risk native breed around and is now working directly with supermarket giants Aldi. Indeed, there is every chance that Galloway beef will be on the menu in many households this Christmas. I would also like to praise the collaborative approach taken by Dumfries and Galloway Farmers and Community Market Association, a network of about a dozen community markets that creates trading opportunities for more than 70 local businesses, sharing knowledge, equipment and expertise that ultimately makes local food and drink accessible to rural people. Galloway quite justifies its reputation of a land of high quality primary production and of food manufacturing knowledge and expertise, yet he is also, sadly, a sector of underdeveloped potential. However, we can all ask for change and encourage and support that change, leading to greater job growth and creation across the region. More thought must be given to ensuring key procurement contracts for hospitals and council services are awarded to local businesses. The Covid pandemic has absolutely proven that shorter supply chains are more resilient and more sustainable supply chains. The Scottish Government must do more to work in tandem with farmers, growers, processors, wholesalers, distributors and retailers to lessen our need for food imports and to grow and promote our UK and Scottish food and drink industry. More young people should be nurtured to consider moving into agriculture and the fishing sectors in the near future if we are to prosper and grow. Unlocking the synormal potential means growing and seizing emerging markets and opportunities. With businesses— You need to close now, Mr Carson. That is certainly well. We have some fantastic businesses that I would love to have mentioned in Dumfries and Galloway, but let's look at a shorter, more resilient, fairer supply chain that Covid has presented to us and ensure that we don't let it go. Thank you, Mr Carson. You can write to those businesses, I'm sure. Jim Fairlie, to be followed by Claire Baker, around four minutes, Mr Fairlie. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I warmly welcome today's motion. It is all about government providing big picture thinking and local communities filling in the details. According to their individual needs and situations, that is exactly how it should be, and that is how we get community-led regeneration. Like many of my colleagues, I made a point on Saturday going out to visit a range of local businesses and around my constituency to highlight small business Saturday. There is an incredible range of fantastic small businesses right across Persia, South and Cynrosia, and I could start to list them all, Presiding Officer, but I don't think that you are going to give me the length of time that I would need to do so. As we all know, brevity is not my strong point at the best of things. Small businesses are a vital part of our communities, and they absolutely deserve our support. That support has probably never been more needed than now, with the Covid-19 pandemic having had such a big impact, particularly on the retail and hospitality sectors. Online shopping and large chains might offer convenience, but the independent retailers right on your own doorstep offer that as well. As well as much more, individuality, craftsmanship and personal services are only some of the benefits that they can expect from shopping with good local businesses. A well-known butcher in Persia city centre beating Lindsay from Lindsay Butchers and Sons is one of those folk who just quite simply is part of the community. He knows his customers by name and often knows what they want before they even say a word. Boris Johnson once crowded a pound spent in Croydon that is far more value to the country than a pound spent in Strathclyde. He was wrong, of course, as he always is, but let's rewrite that phrase. A pound spent in Creeff will do far more good for the local economy if it stays in Strathairn, and you can swap Creeff for Cynrosse or Mevin or Ocdrardder. The principle remains the same. I'm delighted to admit to the minister who mentioned our new local radio station, Radioairn, so thank you very much for that, minister. That's what is meant by phrases like circular economies in sustainable communities, and that is absolutely what Scotland loves local has to be all about, encouraging and enabling local people to spend their money in local businesses and by giving those businesses access to the technologies that will help them compete with the corporate giants and creating environments that will help increase footfall and activity so building local wealth. When it comes to David versus Goliath, let's always try to be sure that we get right behind David. The Scottish Government has launched the £10 million multi-year Scotland loves local fund to support local people, businesses and community partnerships. £2 million has been made available with sheer sporting up to 100 organisations to bring new creative projects and activities to towns and neighbourhoods. In my constituency, that fund will help to support the Murray Fountain, an iconic local Victorian landmark in James Square in Creeff, and it will help to launch a delivery of the multi-channel Christmas campaign across Perth, where Christmas is made. That campaign includes Perth City and Towns Gift Guide and a promotion of the Scotland loves local gift card to support and encourage and incentivise shopping locally. However, it is not all about shopping. Scotland loves local agenda is also about tackling inequality and promoting community-led regeneration. As I am to see any silver line in the dark land of Covid, something that has come shining through has been absolutely wonderful in the way that communities in my constituency, as they have across the country, have come together to help those in need of support and to help one another. Through the toughest part, I absolutely appreciate the member taking intervention. Would you agree that a one-size-fits-all growth plan does not always address the issues right down in a rural area? We should look to more government support going to local groups to deliver some of the ambitions, particularly in the food and drink industry. Tim Fairlie? I do not have a lot of time, so all I am going to say is that the Government is doing exactly that, Finlay. I do not know where you have been sitting. Through the toughest part of lockdown, more than 7,500 food parcels were delivered by 16 community organisations around Perth and Crennross. Community groups such as Letham for All broke, not broken and Crennross were all just fantastic. I am delighted, incidentally, to see the diggers have moved in this week to start the transformation of the Letham Recreation Centre in a new community hub run for and buy local people. I said earlier that I was not going to start listing local businesses, but I want to highlight one great wee company that deserves our support right now. I would refer that to Mr Lumsden. Michelle Marrits is a driving force behind Clutney McTooth, and I have known her for a very long time. When I ran events before I came into this place, if I was looking for great quality local producers, Michelle was always one of the first names on my list. She began her business where stall at a school fate and she moved on to farmers markets, and she now is a shop in Abernethau, a mail-order business selling traditional Clutney dumplings. So I was absolutely disgusted to learn that she has been subjected to simply appalling levels of online abuse by ill-advised morons. If that is not parliaments that use such a word, I still think that we need to call out that kind of moronic behaviour. You could close now, please. She was given this abuse for promoting her business as I would have done myself in her shoes at a festive food and drink market in Downing Street. I would urge you all to go and order your Christmas pudding from Clutney McTooth in solidarity, but I'm pleased to say that you can't. Her order book is now full, although I do understand that you can still pick up a Christmas gift or two from her shop in Abernethau. I call Claire Baker to be followed by Eleanor Whitham. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I welcome this afternoon's debate. While it is framed by the Scotland Loves Local campaign, which I think is a positive initiative and I do hope that it will increase that activity in high streets and independent retailers, it is also an opportunity to discuss the pressures that are facing retailers and recognise an important role in supporting communities throughout the pandemic. Scotland Loves Local is a promotional campaign that is always important in retail, but it won't by itself change the trading environment for our high streets. That needs greater intervention, and I recognise that the pandemic has had a significant impact on the viability of many retailers on high streets. However, for some larger retailers, particularly supermarkets, the pandemic was a boost to their businesses, and our business taxation system should recognise that. Government investment for recovery must now be focused in a fair way that supports employment skills and SMEs. Vibrant local high streets can retain resources and wealth in their local communities, and more than ever, we need to be supporting towns and providing resources to remote local high streets and businesses. When we are thinking of ways to support local high streets, we should recognise the importance of collaborative working. In my region, Burnt Island and now Kinghorn both host the Fiverfest week or fortnight, which are popular and highly independent businesses in the town, as part of the totally locally campaign. We also had small business Saturday on Saturday, and I was spoilt for choice in Burnt Island on who to choose, but I did go to Sunrise Bakehouse, who had a fairly new business who was thriving. I have seen Burnt Island High Street transform from a faded, tired high street into one that regularly features in national newspapers and on television, so why is it so successful? I have a few factors to consider. It has cheaper business rates in larger towns, it has additional attractions and having a fair in the summer. We do not want to encourage car use, but it does have ample parking, a free parking, as well as a train station. It has grown as a town with new housing developments, it has anchor shops that draw on other businesses, and many of the businesses are run by people who have a strong commitment to the town. The traders work well together and they promote each other's business, and I hope that it continues to grow and succeed. There is relevance here to the proposal for the 20-minute neighbourhoods. The minister has described the fourth national planning framework as the driver for this, but the idea does need more substance and it will need investment. At the moment, it is a vision, but it needs a number of policies and interventions that will work together to make sure that it can deliver. Cercodia is just a few miles up the coast from Burnt Island and its fortunes are very different. It is facing challenges similar to many larger high streets across Scotland. I first want to recognise the businesses who are opening in the town and the high street, and many of them are independent retailers rather than the large chains, and they are trying to change the offer on the high street. I also recognise the role of Fife Council and the efforts that it is making to regenerise the town centre. However, the failure of some large retailers, under significant pressure from the pandemic, from online competition, from the poor management and speculative practice of some owners, does present huge challenges. Large, empty retail units—Cercodia even has an empty shopping centre—requires investment, imagination and incentives, and government intervention that will break the opaque ownership of buildings and support investment in local regeneration. In evidence from the retail sector at the Economy and Fair Work Committee last week, we heard of the importance of business rates relief for the sector during lockdown and restrictions, and our amendment calls for a continuation of those policies using consequential spending, which will also provide Scottish retailers with a level playing field to the rest of the UK. The Scottish Retail Cercodia also talked about broader cost pressures, rising energy costs, inflation and staff shortages. If we value high street retail and if we recognise their broader benefits, there is a need for intervention. The co-op party of which I am a member has launched its Unlock the High Street campaign. It calls for ownership transparency and new routes for community co-operative ownership—an issue that Colin Smyth talked about—as well as how we reform taxation to ensure that small businesses are not disadvantaged by online sales. The Scotland loves local gift card is good, but it does lack incentives other than appealing to local businesses. It should at least have a financial top-up from government. As others have highlighted, Northern Ireland had the same similar card. It had funds on it. People then spent that money in their town centres and it was a kickstart for the retail and hospitality sector. Our amendment calls for a similar policy, and I hope that this is something that the Scottish Government will consider. Before I start my speech, I refer members to my register of interests. I am a servant councillor on East Ayrshire Council, which is one of two council areas in my Carrick, Cymnac and Dyn Valley constituency. Right at the crest of the first wave of the pandemic, councillors and officers in East Ayrshire recognise the real spirit being shown by our communities and local businesses. Working hand in glove with the local authority, everyone is collectively striving to keep folk safe and to ensure that we all have access to necessities. Neighbours met for the first time when new community resilience groups came together with the support of the council's vibrant communities team. Those newly forged and strengthened relationships are now vital for ensuring that we emerge from the pandemic in a way that promotes inclusive growth, local procurement and community wealth building, with the focus on community-led regeneration and sustainable 20-minute communities. Back in May 2020, while still deputy leader of East Ayrshire Council, I was proud to support the council in its trailblazing endeavour to support the Cymnac and Cymnac business associations and the business communities right across East Ayrshire by introducing the East Ayrshire gift card, which has benefited retail by increasing footfall and boosting the local economy, helping businesses to adapt and respond to the pandemic. It works as a closed-loop credit card. The gift card is now accepted and sold in over 180 businesses throughout East Ayrshire. Its flexibility, allowing it to be bought and spent in person or online, helped to keep local businesses trading throughout lockdown and enabled many traders to venture on to online trading for the first time at no cost to themselves, bringing them to the attention of new customers throughout the area. Although many of the businesses that were registered were in the larger towns, the council worked to ensure that businesses in more rural areas of the authority were signed up to reduce the need for people to travel and spend the card. That embodies the concept of the 20-minute neighbourhood. The card can also be redeemed online, and the team worked to introduce the shop api platform and help retailers to make the move to digital retailing. Following on from East Ayrshire's UK-leading approach to locally sourced school food, in December 2020, elected members identified an opportunity to help families who required support while also helping the business community who had been impacted by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. East Ayrshire gift cards to the value of £20 were included in the locally procured food boxes that were distributed on Christmas to primary school children who received free school meals. That was on top of the much needed £100 hardship payments from the Scottish Government. A total of 4,030 cards were distributed. The gift cards gave family flexibilities on how they managed their finances to best suit their own needs, and data revealed that they were used in a variety of ways from Christmas dinners, including butcher meat, baked goods, arts and crafts activities, clothing and even to make vehicles road safe. That was again repeated in Easter 2021, with the criteria extended to include nursery children. The value of the card was increased from £50 to £50, and we funded that from council budgets. 4,520 gift cards were distributed. Like the Christmas campaign, data showed that the majority of people used those cards responsibly to the benefit of their family. Using the gift card in this way takes the stigma away from families who are on food poverty. Nobody, including the shopkeepers, knows whether they have received a gift card as a gift or part of a care package. It also supports the shop local principle and feeds into the community wealth-building agenda. Gift cards must be redeemed locally—any stature—to help keep that wealth locally. The first year of sales of the gift card was just over £330,000. In addition to people purchasing the gift card as gifts, businesses also started to purchase them to gift to their staff at Christmas time or to use as incentives. As the minister also mentioned, I was delighted to see the Easter work on the Easter gift card at the inaugural Scotland Loves Local Awards last week. What an achievement, and I send a special thanks to Town Centre regeneration officer Tracey Murray, herself a former boutique owner who spearheaded the creation of the card. Thanks to her drive and innovation, the Scottish Government and Scotland's town partnerships have taken her acorn of an idea and launched the Scotland Loves Local Gift Card Nationwide. Colleagues, please keep your local gift card in mind this holiday season and support businesses at the heart of your communities. I thank the minister for his statement. Local is a topic that is close to my heart. During the first lockdown, I kickstarted a mutual aid group in Murray, inspired by countless examples across Scotland of communities pulling together, taking initiative and providing support by local people for local people. However, despite that groundswell in community activity, most people feel cut off from local decision making. The 2019 Scottish household survey found that only 18 per cent of Scots believe that they can influence decisions that impact on them and their local communities. Despite the growing movement to buy local and support local businesses, the supply chain and skilled workers are often not in place, particularly in remote, rural and island areas. A constituent in Inverness recently wrote to me after finding that there were zero companies providing internal wall insulation within a reasonable distance of his home. Just yesterday, in chamber, members raised concerns about the insufficient provision of local maternity care services in Murray. I have spoken before about the centralisation of air traffic control, moving skilled jobs from more remote areas of the Highlands and Islands. To reverse the situation, we can start by strengthening local supply chains. To support the local farming and food sectors, a healthy portion of public sector catering should be locally sourced. The good food nation bill should instruct public bodies to include a local food procurement target in their good food nation plans. In the housing sector, we must invest multi-year funding in skills development, training and apprenticeships to expand and upskill the workforce that can deliver green homes, particularly in remote and island communities. We must encourage house builders to use wood grown sustainably in Scotland to support our rural forestry sector. We should support more remote businesses such as Fulawool, who are using a grant from the island communities fund to shorten their supply chain. By creating their own renewable energy-powered spinning mill on their island, they will move jobs on to the island and increase their business resilience to climate and economic impacts. To build a net zero nation, we need to start local and bring everyone with us. That is why the Scottish Government and the Greens' shared policy programme promotes community wealth building and community-led regeneration. We all agree that active travel and saving things such as rural bus services are vital, but our high streets need people, particularly in our more remote and rural communities, to be able to access them. Will the First Minister agree with me that those people who perhaps rely on the car because they are older and isolated and live in remote communities still need to park in high streets to be able to access them? I think that people who need to use cars should have cars. There are good measures where, certainly in my town, we have very good measures for community parking spaces where they can put their cars. However, I will continue with what I was saying. The wants and needs of communities are too often overruled under our current planning system when developers are given the go-ahead for projects that conflict with local plans, which communities have worked hard to shape. Some communities are even compelled to dig into their own pockets to take such cases to court, such as the recent case of Carmanach Community Council defending locally important green belt land against luxury homes development approved by Glasgow City Council. It should not be this difficult for communities to influence what happens in their local area. I will push for the national planning framework to include a presumption against development that departs from local development plans. Further, I will work with my colleagues in government to grant land assembly powers to public bodies, to enable them to develop the land that is wanted by communities, not by profit-seeking developers. I call Colin Beattie to be followed by Maurice Golden. I very much welcome and support the Scotland loves local campaign. There are so many reasons why we should all endeavour to purchase our needs from local businesses and to support our local community projects. As never before, we have relied on our local businesses and communities to see us through the pandemic, especially during lockdown. Notably, we all encountered global supply issues, and most often that was in respect to the supply of food stuffs, many of which may be readily available locally. Today, we all see the shortages in the supermarkets caused mainly by Brexit compounded by Covid. By buying from local suppliers, we will encourage the expansion of the local supply chain, which will create more resilience in the supply of our food stuffs and reduce the pressure on longer and currently stretched supply chains. As local demand rises, we will see the expansion of local production. In turn, we will create more jobs and generate more local income, thus raising prosperity and creating sustainable new businesses and long-term economic growth. One of the most obvious reasons, of course, for helping to support our local businesses is to ensure that more money, quite simply, stays in the local economy. That helps everyone locally to become wealthier and makes our local businesses more resilient. The result has been smaller businesses that have the potential to expand and develop into bigger businesses, which can cater for more people locally than they could before. It is important that we nurture that and invest to retain those services. I am not expecting each community to start building TV sets or to set up a motorcar assembly plant, but there are many products that could be made locally in which they do not require expensive infrastructure or huge capital investment. Local councils must play a key part in driving this forward by encouraging and supporting the construction of local supply chains. It will benefit them and it will benefit us all. I have seen first hand in my own constituents saying that I am sure that other MSPs have witnessed the same in theirs, the way that our communities pool together in their resilience efforts during the pandemic, with their extraordinary work leaving a lasting impact on so many. This campaign not only recognises how much we rely on our local communities, but helps our communities to continue this vital work through investment. I was pleased to see that, within my constituency of Midlothian North and Musselborough, the investment put into supporting local community projects, businesses and social enterprises. For example, Wondal Keith recently received £20,000 as part of this year's £1.5 million funding boost from the Scotland Loves Local Fund. I know that the fund will really benefit Wondal Keith to achieve his primary goal to connect and support local businesses, including freelancers and home-based businesses, by providing a central networking hub in the heart of the town. However, the fund has also helped projects in my constituency to tackle one of the worst parts of the Covid-19 pandemic, isolation. Both wellbeing essential in Roslyn and Midlothian Cyranians, located in the Midlothian community hospital in Bonnerig, received £17,500, a great investment to very deserving projects, providing safe outdoor spaces for those who need to escape from today's mass digital culture, those who found themselves unemployed or suffering from poor mental health. Having those resources readily available in our communities to give a helping hand when most needed is crucial. It is that point exactly when we must bear in mind having the resources readily available in a post-Brexit and post-pandemic Scotland. I want to see our communities delivering the most sought-after services, and I want to see those services remain within the community. By doing so, we not only help our communities prosper, but create the ideal of the 20-minute neighbourhoods that we seek to achieve. We have learned from the pandemic that our surroundings can make a huge impact on our health and wellbeing. It has also made us reflect on our community surroundings and the importance of the need to protect and preserve those surroundings. By supporting local love, we also support our need to protect our communities from climate change. By reducing the need for goods to be flown or trucked in from elsewhere, we are reducing the carbon footprint and contributing to a more sustainable future for jobs and our economy. That aspect should not be downplayed. A significant impact can be made if we buy a local on a wide scale and every initiative to do so helps. We can all play our part in that. I would ask that we all continue to think local, to choose local and shop local. I very much look forward to seeing how the campaign grows with the future investment promised by the Scottish Government, fulfilling an ambition that we can all share. The pandemic hit our economy like a truck and our world-class food and drink industry has taken a heavy hit, whether producers, retailers or hospitality venues. Today, I will focus my remarks on them. Ogilvie Spirits and Glam's producer of Scotland's first potato vodka, Angus Soft Fruits, working alongside UK and international growers to ensure a year-round supply chain. PJ Sterling of Arbroath M&S said that it could not source any better strawberries in the world. I cannot mention Arbroath without recognising the famous Arbroath Smokey, supplied by renowned local fishmongers such as Spinks and Swankies, or that other famous Angus delicacy, the Forfer Bridey, that is a mainstay of so many local high street bakeries. I could go on, but the point is clear. Scotland has world-beating food and drink businesses that are worth protecting, and the Scottish Conservatives have a plan to do that. We want to see food and drink firms flourish on the high street, so we would relax planning laws and delay new regulations until 2023. The more people visiting hospitality venues, the more people there are to support retailers. We would encourage customers to buy more local produce from those retailers, and we would ensure that public procurement always favoured Scottish produce, a Scotland-first approach. For producers, we would launch a comprehensive farm to fork review of food policy as a central part of our economic recovery. That would mean increasing producers' bargaining power. I wonder if Maurice Golden understands that, at the moment, councils can actually make those decisions as it stands in terms of procuring locally. East Asia procures a huge amount of its food in other goods locally already. That can actually happen right now. I think that most people would recognise that public procurement being sustainable has been failing us for a number of years. In fact, the Public Procurement Act didn't deliver what it should have done, and too often local suppliers are being left out of public procurement, and that needs to change. It's a shame that the member doesn't agree with that. Therefore, all those actions would help to strengthen our food systems. The pandemic showed how resilient they are, but we can't just continue to rely on just-in-time supply chains. In all, our plan could double the size of Scotland's food and drink sector by the end of the decade. The British Government has already started work. The UK budget provided £1.9 billion for Scottish farmers and to guarantee them extra funding for the next three years. The British Government has also delivered a freeze in US whisky tariffs, a huge win for our food and drink exports. Establishing a network of Scottish trade hubs across the rest of the UK would deliver another boost. I'm confused at the farm-to-fork ideals that you're spouting here when the UK Government is making trade deals with agri-producers all over the world to bring cheaper products into Scotland. I'm not surprised that the member is confused. He's a general demeanor of that ilk. Let me be clear. Action is needed. Shop vacancies are at a six-year high. Retailers speak of insurmountable challenges and over a dozen industry bodies have written to the finance secretary for help. We hear that call and we want to see a full year of 75 per cent rates relief. We forced the SNP to deliver rates relief last year and we want food retailers and hospitality venues protected again. Let's everyone buy, eat and promote local every chance we get. I welcome the debate and the opportunity to firstly pay tribute to all of our local businesses who have lived through an unimaginable 20 months. On small business Saturday last weekend, I was pleased like many members to pop into the excellent local businesses in the community where I live. The pad restaurant in Neilston, for example, who have managed to keep going, I am very glad to say through the support of local people using their new takeaway service during lockdown and coming back into the restaurant when it was safe to do so. Despite being caught up in the many challenges of changing restrictions, including that quite frankly ridiculous debate about the definition of a cafe, Lynvia and Linda, who run the pad, have told me about how much they have valued the support of local people. Despite all the challenges, along with many other local businesses, they have also sought to give something back throughout the pandemic, including preparing afternoon tea boxes for older people and those shielding. That is just one example of the many generous acts carried out by local small businesses in the pandemic. Many also offered free meals for key workers, discounts and preferential shopping times. There is great resilience on our high streets and a sense of wanting to come together, but I worry sincerely about the ability of businesses to survive and thrive. It is clear that we owe them real and meaningful support in order to navigate what continues to be an extremely difficult set of circumstances. We know that Scotland has lost almost 20,000 small businesses during a single year of the Covid crisis, and too many businesses have just found it too difficult to remain open. We have seen, quite frankly, the hopes and dreams of many small and medium business owners completely shattered. I am sure that members across the chamber will agree that our local businesses are at the heart of what keeps our communities full of life, and we have heard excellent examples of that from around the chamber this afternoon. Indeed, the minister and I hail from the same part of the world, and I have seen him tweet his childhood memories of Friday nights with the Alpino Chippey, a film from Fox bar video and a tub of central cafe ice cream. I have similar memories, so allow me to put on record for the first time my endorsement of central cafe ice cream in this chamber, although possibly too much of that was consumed during lockdown. In all seriousness, I know that the minister understands the importance of those businesses to towns such as Barhead. That is why it is so vitally important that we do more and that we go further. As colleagues have said, I think that the principles of Scotland, love's local, are indeed very worthy and very good. I will declare an interest, of course, as a councillor in East Renfrewshire. I know that the council has benefited from many of those initiatives, which I know that the minister has seen from himself. However, as I have said, I think that we need to go further and we need to consider what else we can do and look at, for example, that voucher scheme and whether it would be better, as Colin Smyth and others have said, to look at the Northern Irish method to put actual spending power into people's pockets into our town centres. I hope that the minister will listen to Elena Whitham and the idea of using the gift card in a targeted way for those who need financial help rather than have a blanket approach that Northern Ireland has. Does he welcome the pilot of the citizen advice distribution that the minister mentioned in his opening speech? I welcome that. That is happening in our community in East Renfrewshire. However, what I am trying to say here and the point that I am trying to make is that we need to listen to all of those ideas. We need to put money into everyone's pockets so that they can spend it in communities. I think that that is vitally important so that people are going into town centres and are spending more money. I hope that the minister will listen to what we are suggesting, because we do it in a spirit of collaboration and indeed consensus. I think that, very wordily, we mentioned the 50 per cent business rates, which I think will give businesses the breathing room that they require to survive as we go into next year. Indeed, as I have already mentioned, I think that that voucher that we are proposing in terms of £50 for every adult aged 60 and over to spend in non-grocery businesses with physical premises in Scotland will give businesses the booth that they need to thrive. I have said, Presiding Officer, that these are our communities. They are important to all of us. They are important to our constituents and we need to help these businesses to be at the heart of them. Before I call Emma Roddick, the last speaker in the open debate, can I remind members that they should stay in the chamber for at least two speakers following them? Of course, those who have taken part in any debate should be in for closing speeches. I was absolutely delighted to be welcoming funding for various parts of the Highlands and Islands, including more than £17,000 for projects in Orkney, 10,000 each for Nurn in Shetland and 20,000 for Inverness in the surrounding area, and the list goes on. Extra funding to bids in Nurn, Kirkwall and Inverness could go a long way, as will more money for Shetland food and drink and living lyric, which I am sure will use to champion at the moment criminally underappreciated local produce, such as that that is offered by the island larder, which I enjoy immensely when I visit the islands. That is what good governance looks like. It is funding at a local level that has purpose, principles and policies to back it up. Investing in local places cannot just stop at giving funding for projects, so it is disappointing to me that the Tory amendment seeks to remove nods to wider actions such as safe spaces for walk-in, wheeling and cycling at the end of the motion. We are past the point of talking about those things in isolation. If we want people to return to high street shopping, those high streets have to be accessible and they have to be nice places to spend time. If we are going to tackle climate change, infrastructure for people, for bikes and for public transport has to be front and centre. If we leave town centres as polluted and attractive spaces for cars to use as rat runs, then there is nothing to encourage people off their sofas and off the internet and on to our pavements and into local shops. I agree with the line in the Tories amendment that things were not working pre-pandemic. I just do not agree with the conclusion that they draw that the solution is to focus solely on throwing money at the issue without addressing the causes of low footfall. No amount of rates relief or eat-out-to-help-out-ask vouchers will be enough to tide high street businesses over if there is nobody coming through the doors. What we had before was not great. The pandemic, for all the barats that brought us and all that we have lost. I thank the member for giving away. I think that what we were trying to say is that there was been problems for a long time before the pandemic and I agree with the member on that fact. It is just that we have had an SNP Government for so long and that has not been addressed for a long period of time. Emma Roddick, we have had an SNP Government for a long time. We have also had a UK Government for a long time that has refused to give the Scottish Government fiscal powers to make the change that you are asking for today. Financial support for business is vital and it is being delivered by the SNP Government as we have heard today. That is being delivered despite on-going restrictions on economic decisions that we can make in this place without the permission of Westminster. However, our businesses should be thriving, not just relying on short-term funding or other financial support. Pontification and demands made by the Opposition might make better headlines than the Scottish Government's approach, which takes into consideration transport, spaces, climate change, housing and so many other policies that have an effect on the experience of business owners in this country. However, those headlines are not going to help anyone but them. The round-headed, thoughtful approach is certainly... Paul O'Kane, and I remind the member. I thank Emma Roddick for taking the interventions. Does she accept that Northern Ireland has had an experience with the voucher scheme, which has worked exceptionally well and has been supported by members of commerce? I am sure that the member will not disagree with me that my point was that that is not good enough on its own. We have to consider the wider picture, which is what this motion does. I want to finish today by saying that this week I encouraged my constituents to respond to the consultation on the national planning framework 4. I want to repeat that call today. Too often we do not feed into local development plans or national frameworks, we wait until a planning application that we absolutely hate comes in and then say, hold on a minute. That is too late, so please get involved now, tell us what your priorities are and share your thoughts on how we create better places. Thank you. We now move to closing speeches. I call on Paul Sweeney up to six minutes, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It has been a real pleasure to listen to the speakers in this debate today and it has certainly been a really insightful experience. The common theme that came out today was the sheer impact that the pandemic has had on the resilience of local high streets and small local businesses. As my colleague Paul O'Kane from West Scotland highlighted, 20,000 small businesses across Scotland are shutting up shop throughout the pandemic. I figure that the Federation of Small Business has described as catastrophic and I think that we can all agree with that. The question now is how does this Parliament respond to this crisis in our midst? I think that the broad observations today has been a big shift from a local business to global multinationals and that is a trend that we really need to seriously address. Whilst we commend the motion in the Government's name today, it does not go far enough to address the sheer scale of the problem that the country now faces. Our towns and businesses, in many cases, are the source of middle-class prosperity. They drive local employment, ensure accessibility and create that local economy and an ecosystem that truly benefits local wealth creation. Unfortunately, they are suffering and this Parliament needs to step up. Extending 50 per cent rates relief would be a very welcome and immediate measure and I urge the finance secretary to give that serious consideration in the budget tomorrow. However, we also need a fundamental review of business rates as an efficient tax system. Alternative options such as revenue profit sharing, land value taxation have to be seriously explored by this Parliament and we need to give that full consideration. However, our primary focus surely must be on what we can do to maximise high-street occupancy. Too much focus is often on how we maintain value of property and rental rates at the expense of occupancy. We have seen that blighter high streets for too long. As colleagues like Claire Baker from Mid Scotland Fife, who is referring to Burnt Island as a great model, Ms Burgess from Helens and Islands region referring to how we can address the ownership of real estate in our country is a major issue. Expanding community and municipal ownership using existing models such as the housing association model and using that capacity to buy up more of our commercial real estate assets within town centres could be a way of driving that wealth back into communities because ownership of the assets allows us more custody and control over how they are utilised for the benefit of the public good. As my colleague Collins Mouth, South Scotland, mentioned, recognising the model in Dumfries, where expanding co-operative control, that model has realised meaningful and tangible benefits for the community, and that is a model that we surely have to husband and try and expand and scale up across the country. Indeed, it is a trend that Scotland once was proud of. In Glasgow alone, there were once eight independent retail co-operative societies in the city, with a quarter of a million members and 10 per cent of all retail spend in Glasgow, 50 or 60 years ago, that was swept away in the intervening decades. It is a model that we really need to try and rebuild in Scotland. There are only two independent retail co-operative societies left in Scotland, the Scottish Midland, Scotland's Midco-operative Society and Clydebank. We can use them as a basis to rebuild that amazing infrastructure that captured wealth and kept it within the community, and it has been siphoned off to whoever knows where around the world by multinational chains. We need to look at that model in a serious way. As I have heard already from Doug Slumstone from North East Scotland and others, the proper funding of local government is also essential to ensuring high streets flourish. We have seen really good measures when it comes to the restoration and regeneration of local high streets, as colleagues have mentioned across the chamber. Frankly, the majority of our high streets in Scotland are not currently places that people want to spend their time. They are often bleak trellis boulevards with steel austere shutters on them after hours, and it creates a pretty bleak environment where people do not want to be. By creating a more pleasant and pleasing environment for residents and visitors, we can attract consumers back to our high streets. Let us ditch the shuttered shop fronts, plastic signage and deserted pavements. We should be emphasising that our local high streets are open for business, welcoming and safe. Sadly, that does not always feel like the case. I would like to point to a particular example in Glasgow where the heritage shop front improvement schemes in the city have been a stand-out example of how to address that with schemes currently on the ground in Govan and also in Sarasun Street in Postal Park, the latter project that I was delighted to assist with securing funding for in 2018. Jackie Shearer, the managing partner of the Postal Park business improvement district, was last week named as the winner of the Scotland Loves Local Place Leader Awards, which was a fantastic accoled in recognising what North Glasgow has achieved in building a better urban environment. The focus of that has been on kicking out new shop fronts on the one's traditional Victorian high street and stripping back all that crud, horrible plastic signage that has uncovered amazing heritage features, stained glass and hand-painted signage from the Victorian era. It is showing that by taking that back to the original idea of what a shop should look like, you are making a much more attractive environment. People have been stunned by the results for a relatively little investment. We can do practical things at a small and larger scale to achieve those opportunities, but things such as the heritage shop front grants fundings are threatened by local government cuts. Capital availability to continue those grant schemes is limited. The measures and planning powers, for example, do not stipulate that people who are setting up a new shop have to adhere to planning and design standards when it is sitting at a shop front. We end up with cluttered and badly planned local high streets that contribute to blight and undesirability. We need to look at how we use NPF4 to drive better standards using examples in Scotland where there are really good ways of doing that. Along with a fair funding settlement for local government, which Labour has called for for a long time, it has caused an estimated of £1 billion needed to properly fix local government in Scotland. We also need to look at how we design our urban environments to ensure that the NPF4 and the planning frameworks are properly resilient enough to ensure that best practice is captured and expanded nationally. I welcome the Scotland loves local campaign. It is a huge merit, but we know that it does not go far enough given the scale that was outlined in the debate today—the scale of the damage caused to high streets, the scale of the dilution of local ownership and business ownership in Scotland, seeding it to multinational control. Mr Sweeney will not, because Mr Sweeney is now closing. Right on the cusp of my limit—sorry, sorry about that—you are beyond the cusp of your limits, Mr Sweeney. I would be grateful if you would resume your seat, Mr Sweeney. I call on Jamie Halcro Johnston to wind up up to seven minutes, Mr Halcro Johnston. The Deputy Presiding Officer was throwing free minutes around earlier. There is a far more rigid approach now. Never has the support and promotion of local businesses across Scotland been more essential. A pandemic and the associated restrictions that are brought in on public health grounds have created untold worry and uncertainty for businesses of all sizes. Even those whose doors remained open throughout were impacted, as vital links in supply chains were pulled to breaking point and customer numbers were reduced under the weight of travel restrictions. Staff affected by illness and self-isolation pushed operations across sectors to the brink. It is positive that so many have weathered the storm so far, but we must not forget that there are those who did not—almost 20,000 in Scotland alone, according to the Federation of Small Businesses. Nor should we overlook the huge cost incurred in interventions in our economy. The value of business support payments and programmes to save jobs, like the UK Government's hugely successful furlough scheme, saw some of the worst potential outcomes avoided with billions of pounds of support in Scotland alone. Most businesses are more fragile than they have been before. Drawing down on reserves and borrowing, as well as human cost to individuals, have made our enterprises less resilient. What lies ahead remains to be seen, but there is certainly some hope for the future and green shoots of recovery. Tomorrow, the Scottish Government will outline its proposals for next year's budget. This is a crucial time. A positive response from the Scottish Government, one that creates the conditions for our economy to thrive and to prosper, will, I am sure, be met with support from across the chamber. The Scottish Conservatives believe that support needs to continue. That is why we have called for changes to business rates, giving a freeze on poundage and 75 per cent relief across a number of key sectors. More than ever, we need a budget that backs Scottish businesses. With a local debate, there will be some cause for local reflection. My region is not only large in geography, but diverse in spirit. It is difficult to do its economy justice in just a few minutes. What I will say is that, as one of the privileges of being a member of this parliament, is the ability to see local businesses in action, to speak with the people building, creating and driving action in our local areas. In the Highlands and Islands, we have a disproportionate number of smaller businesses, and they are so often more than just part of our economy that they are absolutely vital to the communities that they serve. In our remote and rural communities, we see more directly the contribution that they make in terms of employment, access to services and community life as a whole. They are what tie our communities together. However, there have certainly been challenges. In the Highlands and Islands, one of the major limitations is found in infrastructure. At a time when remote working and online retail has become so important, news at the R100 project roll-out of broadband in my region is delayed from the end of this year to the end of 2026 is concerning. So, too, is the apparent lack of certainty within the Scottish Government on the future of dueling schemes for the A9 and the A96, as well as the slow pace at which upgrades on these choke points have taken place. For our island communities, we saw first-hand this year and, too often in previous years, how the disruption of vital lifeline ferry links harms local businesses and local communities. On a more positive note, the Scotland-loved local awards mentioned in today's motion played a positive part in highlighting great things happening in our local areas. One of the winners was Nairn, which scooped the climate town of Accolade. That is well-deserved recognition of the work undertaken by community groups across the town to show how more sustainable approaches to living can work in practice. It is fitting that this award comes to the Highlands and Islands, which has been leading the charge in Scotland and the UK as a whole in combating climate change. Business, working with Government, academia and other sectors, have made great strides in terms of renewable energy in the north of Scotland, and particularly in my home of Orkney. We are also seeing great local projects where materials are better utilised and recycled, building on our local heritage of re-use, working with the resources available and respecting the land and seas that surround us. That will increasingly be part of doing business, and I am pleased that the Highlands and Islands is leading the way. The region also faces the same challenges seen elsewhere, too, and many have been touched upon in today's debate. More retail has, for understandable reasons, moved online. What will be essential is ensuring that small and local suppliers are not squeezed out. Our high streets and town centres will need to change, and it will be a matter of more than just the lick of paint and more car parking. Consumer behaviour has shifted, and that shift has been accelerated by the pandemic. We value these hubs of community life, and it must be the priority of any Government to ensure that they have a future. But, sadly, support for small local businesses is not always universal. As has been mentioned today, earlier this week we saw reports of one Scottish producer that was targeted by people out of a misplaced ideology when promoting their goods in England. That has sadly been all too common in Scotland in recent times. It should serve as a reminder that entrepreneurs put their heart and their soul, as well as their livelihoods, into their enterprises. Therefore, I hope that today all members would recognise the positive work of businesses and condemn the negative and hate-fuelled online bigotry that sometimes can blight them. I think that I heard the minister do exactly that, and I certainly know that Jim Fairlie did, and that is very welcome. There have been many excellent contributions today. My colleague Douglas Lumson spoke about the impact of the last two years on business and the sensible support that can be offered, particularly in retail. Few of us can miss the empty units in our commercial areas that he touched on. He also reflected on the role of local authorities. Sadly, however, not only the powers but the resources for councils to build positive economic conditions have been contailed by this Government at a time when they are needed most. Maurice Golden's contribution focused in more detail on the food and drink sector, citing the issues that are faced by a number of businesses in his own region. The need for a comprehensive review of food policy is long overdue and has enormous potential benefits for Scottish producers. He also spoke of the importance of encouraged trade within the UK, making the local truly national with the support of Scottish trade hubs. Finlay Carson highlighted how local businesses increase services, often providing lifeline links for those who are unable to access shops themselves. That happened across the country, and I am sure that we have all got plenty of examples in our own areas. I certainly can think of many in Orkney. The prosperity of local economies will not happen simply by warm words. Tomorrow, we will see how far the Scottish Government's commitment to local businesses is, and whether they are listening and able to understand the concerns of those who are driving forward our economy. I hope that Scotland's businesses are not left disappointed. It has been one of those debates that has encouraged members to talk with great pride and enthusiasm about the produce, businesses, communities and experiences of their local areas, and rightly so, from cluty dumplings to Friday nights in bar head. I am not sure whether those were shared Friday nights. If not, it is not too late, and I would encourage members to continue to tell the stories with enthusiasm about their local communities and what makes them diverse, creative and unique places. Whatever other differences that we might have in politics, that is something that unites us across the political spectrum, across all political parties. Colin Smyth was the first to paint that picture about his own local area. The comment about football was the only one that I did not understand, but that says more about me than it does about him. However, most of that debate has been characterised by positive ideas and positive assertions about the value of that creativity and uniqueness in local communities. I welcome that very much. It is almost a tradition in the Parliament that, in the debates in the days before a budget, Opposition amendments are about pre-empting the budget. I think that the political parties understand that the Government will not be able to support amendments that do pre-empt tomorrow's budget. However, I welcome the positivity that has been evident throughout most of the debate, and I encourage members to maintain that. If they have positive suggestions about how the Government should take its budget through, I am quite confident that it will come with proposals about where money should come from, as well as where it will go to. The Scotland Loves local programme is an example of something that crosses numerous ministerial portfolios. As Tom Arthur said in the opening, it is something that will only succeed through collaboration across political parties, ministerial portfolios, across all parts of the Government and with the public, private and third sectors working together with communities. If we get that right, the economic benefits will be very evident. Encouraging more people to spend more of their time and money in local businesses will build stronger, vibrant and sustainable communities, breathe life back into town, centres and cities and make sure that we are on that road to recovery following the disruption of the pandemic. There has been a lot of emphasis in the debate on retail, of course. That is very understandable, including the context of online retail. It is important to remember that many independent businesses, with their routes firmly in their local communities, also sell online. For some, online sales can be what helps to keep them in business, what helps to keep their doors open on the high street. We need to encourage and support them to make use of those opportunities. I want to mention Paul Sweeney's comments towards the end of the debate about the domination of multinationals. That is an important point, and it is a concern that has been shared across many parts of the political spectrum. It is very clear that there are far too many opportunities for corporate tax avoidance by those large multinationals. That is a big driver of what has led to the domination of multinationals on the high street. There are aspects of that that are out with the control of this Parliament, but we want to look at devolved and local taxis, including with the Citizens Assembly, on local government finance, which will happen later in the session. I encourage everyone to engage with that. The national strategy for economic transformation, which is eminent, will also offer opportunities to look at wider business ownership models and the support that they need. As I said, many ministerial portfolios are responsible for the agenda and are engaged with it. As the active travel minister, understandably, I want to take some time to talk about the way that how we move through our communities is profoundly connected to how we shape them and how we are connected to them, including the businesses that operate within them. As Emma Roddick mentioned again towards the end of the debate, the contribution that walking, as well as wheeling and cycling, can make to the Scotland loves local programme, and the localism agenda more widely is extremely important. The concept of 20-minute neighbourhoods, for example. The role of public transport too was mentioned. I think that it might have been Colin Smyth who mentioned that. I hope that he is happy to welcome the fact that we are going to see free bus travel for under 22s, and I know that people are pushing for that to be expanded to cover other groups. I want to hear those arguments made, but we are making a good start with that, encouraging it and making it available for under 22s. Making sure that people can access their local communities affordably and sustainably is critical. Walking, cycling and wheeling are part of a public health approach, as well. We want to make sure that people get the benefits of that active lifestyle, but it is about much more. It is about being connected to a local community. Fiona Hyslop mentioned that a little bit about measuring success in broader ways. It is not just about direct economic impact, it is about people. It is about their connections and relationships to one another and their connections to their place. Colin Beattie also commented in the way that that relates to the issues of isolation and mental health. Those are really important points. How we are physically connected and moving about through our communities shape far more than just narrow economic metrics. People's travel behaviour and their experience of the transport system differs depending on many factors, such as income, gender, ethnicity, age and disability, among others. We need to understand those challenges as well. I think that the minister for culture, geography and the question that I asked Ariane Burgess, I will ask to yourself. How do you ensure that those who rely on cars because of their rurality are able to access our town centres too? Absolutely what they need to be able to do. I do not know anybody who wants to abolish the private car or make it impossible to use, but we have a car culture that is so dominated by the predominance of the car that many people who do not have one just have no access to the services and communities that they need. A great deal of what we need to achieve in a more sustainable transport system is also about a more socially just transport system. As we have heard, 20-minute neighbourhoods are based on the idea of us living in attractive safe walkable places where people of all ages and abilities can access the services and facilities that they need on a daily basis within a walk or wheel of around 20 minutes. Clare Baker welcomed that concept. I think that she was right to say that we have a great deal more to do if we are going to turn that vision into a reality. The Scottish Government is committed to doing that and I hope that we will have many opportunities to engage constructively with Opposition parties to achieve it. I want to mention the spaces for people programme. It was established in the early days of the Covid pandemic in a quick response to the need to create safe walking and cycling spaces along with physical distancing. It provided many examples of where previously congested streets were transformed for the benefit of people to walk, wheel and cycle in their local area. We know that when people move at walking, cycling and wheeling speeds through our communities, they are far more likely to stop, to pop into a shop or a cafe, to speak to their neighbours and to have that direct physical connection at a human level with their local community. The minister said that one of the consequences of the spaces for people initiative is that it took money away from permanent active travel schemes. Most of the money was concentrated on two large cities. In fact, investment in permanent schemes and other parts of Scotland lost out and that needs to be addressed. There is a great deal that we will and are learning from the spaces for people of what worked well and what needs to be improved. However, the Scottish Government is committed to a massive and unprecedented increase in investment in walking, wheeling and cycling. We need more than just that infrastructure. We need the behaviour change and culture change that comes with it. We need accessibility for bikes and the free bike scheme for young people, which is already rolling out. Pilots across the country are a big part of that. I am sorry that I am not going to be able to cover everything that I had planned to in my closing speech, but I want to close by thanking once again all members who brought positive and constructive ideas to the table and to this debate, and to make sure that we all commit to working together on the agenda. The love local campaign is about what happens within every community in this country. If we all commit to working together on it, we will improve our country everywhere. That concludes the debate on Scotland's loves local. It is now time to move on to the next item of business, which is consideration of business motion 2464 in the name of George Adam on behalf of the parliamentary bureau setting out a business programme. I call on George Adam to move the motion. No member has asked to speak on the motion, and the question is that motion 2464 be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed, and the next item of business is consideration of three parliamentary bureau motions. I ask George Adam on behalf of the parliamentary bureau to move motions 2465 to 2467 on approval of SSIs. The question on those motions will be put at decision time, and there are four questions to be put as a result of today's business. If the amendment in the name of Douglas Lumsden is agreed to, then the amendment in the name of Colin Smyth will fall. The first question is that amendment 2442.2 in the name of Douglas Lumsden, which seeks to amend motion 2442 in the name of Tom Arthur on Scotland loves local be agreed. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed therefore will move to vote, and there will be a short suspension to allow members to access the digital voting system.