 The next item of business is a debate on motion 4050 in the name of Alex Cole-Hamilton on economy, cost of living crisis. I would invite those members who wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons now, and I call on Alex Cole-Hamilton to speak to and to move the motion. Up to seven minutes please. Thank you very much indeed, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm very pleased to bring this motion before the chamber on behalf of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in our parliamentary time. What began as a struggle to get by during the pandemic is quickly turning into a cost of living catastrophe for thousands of people across Scotland, and it is not clear that there is any end in sight. The 54 per cent rise in energy costs has left millions of people across the UK unable to pay their bills, and if we think things are bad now, they look likely to get even worse by the time that next winter rolls around. In October families could face a further £145 a month price hike, which has led to warnings that one in four adults in the UK will be unable to afford gas or electricity at all, and on top of that there's a rising cost of food. The price of pretty much everything, Deputy Presiding Officer, is ballooning, while taxes rise and inflation causes the amount of money in people's bank accounts to shrink. Many people who have donated to food banks for four years are now relying on them instead. This is Scotland. It is 2022, and many people are literally cannot afford to eat or put their heating on. This is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Enough is enough. Both the Scottish and the UK Governments are sitting on their hands while people's bills skyrocket. The meager support at night so far will barely make a dent in those eye-watering increases. The First Minister urged people to vote for her party in the upcoming elections, pledging that SNP councillors would help ease the cost of living squeeze, putting aside that lack of detail for a moment. Nicola Sturgeon neglected to admit that her Government was exposing people to the crisis by hiking railfairs, by forcing up council tax and leaving disability benefits up to 6 per cent behind inflation. Those are all devolved powers. Those are the choices that the SNP Green coalition Government has made. It is hard to see how endlessly slashing council budgets help to provide them with support to people that they so desperately need. Unlike Scotland's current Governments, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have a plan to tackle this crisis. Unlike the pitiful action to have taken so far, our plan would make a meaningful difference. My party's cost of living rescue package includes proposals to cut VAT to 17.5 per cent. That alone would be worth £600 to the average Scottish household. It would kill two birds with one stone. Christine Grahame, just for clarity, VAT is reserved. Alex Cole-Hamilton. I am grateful to the member for the intervention, but as I said, there is action required from both our Governments in the UK and the Scottish Government as well. It would kill two birds with one stone, giving businesses a boost by encouraging spending, lowering prices for consumers, and that would be at the heart of the response to this crisis. We could and should also increase and expand the winter fuel payment and warm home discount. The recent 6 per cent increase to several Scottish social security benefits was necessary and welcome, but the Government is not going far enough when it comes to disability benefits, which are being raised by just 3.1 per cent. That is almost 4 per cent, less than the figure for inflation announced last month than potentially 5 per cent, less than the figure that experts are predicting. It is simply not good enough for many Scottish households. Latest figures predict that the country faces a 10.9 billion tax hit this year due to the Conservatives choosing to increase national insurance. The very last thing that struggling families need right now are more taxes to pay. The Scottish Government must also announce protection for households experiencing council tax rises due to the cuts that they have made to council budgets, cuts that should never have happened and which my party has opposed since the start. There are some energy companies who stand to benefit from this crisis. They are profising while people literally cannot afford to buy food. Now is the moment to impose a Robinhood tax on those energy companies making super profits to help fund the support that people need. While we are at it, why do not we take an opportunity to finally crack down on the tax avoidance schemes that have been going on far too long? Sadly, you do not have to look very far to find people with exorbitant amounts of wealth going out of their way to bend the rules and to avoid paying their fair share. It simply has to stop. Members of the Scottish Conservative Party will agree with that wholeheartedly. The Scottish Government must also reverse its recent 3.8 per cent rail fare hike. The SNP and the Greens should be making train tickets cheaper, not increasing the costs. The Government has known for two years that it would be running ScotRail, and the Green Party had a specific manifesto promise to bring down rail costs. Instead, together, it has driven up those costs. Those costs have risen 4 per cent and promised a review—more talk—while they put the prices up. That is a betrayal of everyone struggling right now. Make no mistake, a vote for the Government amendment today is a vote against cheaper rail fares. The Scottish Government could also activate an emergency nationwide home insulation programme to increase energy efficiency. We can help protect the environment and save people cash in the process. That would be an obvious step to take. We should be able to agree that across this chamber today. I would like to finish with the words of the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Amerson, who once wrote that, to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded. Thousands of our neighbours, friends and, indeed, our constituents are being strangled and suffocated by this crisis. They have not breathed easy for a very long time. We, in this Parliament, are in the immensely privileged position of being able to take action that would, in some way, lighten their burden. Presiding Officer, it is our duty to do so. I move amendment 4.050.3, up to six minutes, please, cabinet secretary. Thank you, and I begin by moving the amendment in my name. I begin by thanking Alex Cole-Hamilton for bringing a debate on this important topic to the chamber. We are, indeed, facing the worst cost of living crisis for generations. Rising inflation, caused by the effects of the pandemic, Brexit and the events in Ukraine, are placing increasing pressure on household incomes, meaning that households could be set to experience their biggest fall in living standards for 50 years with a disproportionate impact on lower-income households. The cost of living pressures facing households are undoubtedly immediate and acute, and the Scottish Government is taking a range of actions in the powers that we have to help people with the cost of rising bills. Our budget contains a range of measures that are available to help people to face a very real impact of this crisis, but this action needs to be matched by the UK Government and we have repeatedly called for it to take further action. Last month, my colleague, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy, wrote to the Chancellor for the Exchequer ahead of his spring statement calling for urgent action to support households with spiralling costs. The result, unfortunately, of that statement, was very disappointing to say the least. That letter included a set of suggested policy actions that fall within the gift of the UK Government. Although some of the spring statement announcements were welcome, others were not met. Notably, the removal of VAT from households energy bills, the reinstatement of the £20 universal credit uplift, an increase to benefits by 6 per cent in line with our Scottish Government approach and a windfall tax on those that are making huge profits from the pandemic or the current global situation. Failure follows the devastating impact of successive UK Government welfare reforms imposed since 2015, highlighted by the Scottish Government analysis that was published last week, where key welfare reforms were reversed, including the two-child limit, the removal of the £20 uplift to UC, and the benefit freeze. That would put an additional £780 million in the pockets of Scottish households in 2023-24 and could lift 70,000 people, including 30,000 children, out of poverty. The Chancellor did not take the opportunity to help those hardest hit and has not only failed to mitigate against rising costs but has increased them with a rise in national insurance and a below inflation rise in benefits and pensions. The cabinet secretary is right to point out the failings of the Tory Government, but would she also accept that this Government in Scotland is taking £5 million out of the pockets of children across Scotland by not rolling out the child payment fast enough to all those who need it and not doubling the bridging payments? You must have anticipated that I was just coming on to talk about our second tackling child poverty delivery plan published last month, which, of course, was widely welcomed by stakeholders across Scotland who have a deep interest in tackling child poverty here in Scotland. It sets out an ambitious action to provide immediate support to families impacted by the crisis and to drive sustainable progress towards the child poverty target that is set by the Parliament, backed up by £113 million of additional investment this year. That includes delivering a new parental employability offer to help parents to access and progress in employment, a new parental transition fund to tackle the financial barriers that parents face in accessing the labour market and taking immediate steps to mitigate the UK Government's benefit cap, supporting up to 4,000 low-income households each year. Of course, a cap that was introduced by the Tories in coalition with the Liberal Democrats back in 2013. We have already doubled our unique Scottish child payment to £20 per week from the start of this month, immediately benefiting around 104,000 children under the age of six. Now, of course, we will go even further. By the end of this year, we will increase the payment to £25, at which point it will be made available to eligible children under the age of 16, and we will provide £1,300 per child, per year of support, not available anywhere else in the UK. However, that is not all. We are taking wide-ranging action to support households and to tackle the crisis. From this month, we have uprated eight social security payments by 6 per cent, double the rate offered by the UK Government. Of course, the disability benefits that Alex Cole-Hamilton will know are administered by the DWP on our behalf under agency agreements at the moment. Therefore, we were constrained by having to apply the same rate as the DWP of 3.1 per cent. I do know that it is currently controlled at London, but that is only because the SNP has not chosen not to take full control of those powers. That is something that has had the ability to do for several years now. Cabinet Secretary, that is not the case. Disability benefits are a hugely complex area, and work is well under way, as Alex Cole-Hamilton knows, to transfer those disability benefits. Of course, while they are being administered here in Scotland, there are huge progressive changes being made to those disability benefits, as Alex Cole-Hamilton is more than well aware of. I have to make some progress. Over 450,000 low-income households are protected from council tax bills through our council tax reduction scheme, with almost 400,000 households paying no council tax at all. We have also increased the water charges reduction scheme discount to 35 per cent, making the average water bill for 2022-23 less than the average charge in England and Wales. A recent cost-of-living package means that 1.85 million of Scotland's households will receive extra help via their local authority by the end of April. In addition, a further £10 million for our fuel and security fund in 2022-23 will help households at risk of self-connection of their energy use. I want to say about rail fares, Deputy Presiding Officer, very briefly. For the past 10 years, we have taken action to keep rail fares down, and ScotRail fares are still, on average, 20 per cent cheaper than those across the rest of the UK. To encourage passengers back to Scotland's railway, ScotRail will launch a 50 per cent reduction in off-peak tickets between stations across Scotland in May, hot off the presses. I hope that that is something that members across the chamber will welcome. We have taken together more than £770 million to tackle the cost of living next year. That is a substantial package of support for low-income households in Scotland. I now call Liz Smith to speak to a move amendment 4050.1 up to five minutes please, Ms Smith. I move the amendment in my name. I can also begin by fully acknowledging that the current cost of living situation is a very serious issue for very many families across the country who see their household bills going only in one direction, particularly when it comes to utility bills, fuel and many items of food. I can also acknowledge that their anxiety has been heightened with concerns over the direction of some UK and some Scottish Government policies, all of which has come at the same time as increasing political tensions between Russia and Ukraine. As the IMF set out so clearly on Monday when analysing the threats to world economic recovery, this is not an easy time for anyone, and most especially for the most vulnerable families who are quite clearly having to face very tough choices. It may be true that the living wage was increasing and tax rates falling for those on universal credit, but that does not go nearly far enough to help lower earners who pay 38 per cent of their income on gross raise heating electricity in compared to 18 per cent for higher earners. For many of the items, which are at the very sharp end of increasing costs and therefore increasing prices, lower income groups are disproportionately affected, and we should be concerned about that, more of which in a minute. Seldom are economists united in their approach to economic analysis, but they are when it comes to the reasons for the current high level of global inflation. As are producers and suppliers involved in international trade who are confirming that much of the current level of inflation is a direct result of sharply rising shipping and transportation costs, which is one of the main reasons behind the chancellor's cut in fuel duty, and because of the increases in wholesale gas costs and disruption to many supply chains. However, the OECD inflation statistics are grim, as are yesterday's G7 statistics. However, there is another important issue, and that relates to shortages in labour markets. I have argued before in this chamber that I want to see much more done by the UK Government to ensure that there is greater flexibility within labour markets. For example, in both fife and Persia, unnecessary constraints have restricted the supply of seasonal workers for fruit and vegetable farming. The other factor is that, when it comes to inflation, there is a demand-led implication, because there are pent-up levels of demand that are rising as the Covid pandemic diminishes in scope. Businesses desperately need that demand, and so does the country when it comes to addressing weaker economic growth and investment. However, we all know that the policies to deal with demand-led inflation do not always sit easily with those to control cost-push inflation. We know, too, that the cost of the pandemic is well over £400 billion. We know that £6 million is on NHS waiting lists, and whether we like it or not, the need to go ahead with the national insurance increase was something that was generally agreed when it was first announced. I have heard the claims that VAT on fuel bills should be scrapped, but economic history tells us that that is not the best way of assisting those who are most in need, since it is not a progressive measure. Indeed, it might reduce bills by 5 per cent, but it would cost the Treasury billions of pounds, necessitating much more stringent measures across the economy, which we can ill afford. The UK Government has decided to look at other ways to mitigate the effects, whether that is through a UK Government loan to the energy companies of £5 billion to £6 billion, mitigating household bills by around £200, increasing the warm home discount or additional loans through which families can get immediate help and more substantial assistance, which is exactly what the consumer groups are demanded. We debated recently about EU replacement funds, but I remain rather surprised by the tone of the reaction in this chamber to both the levelling up fund and the shared prosperity fund, given the direct support that they will provide to local communities—I won't, if you don't mind—which is no doubt why local authorities have so warmly welcomed the extra support. As the Scottish Fiscal Commission has stated many times, it is vitally important to focus on where there is economic imbalance and, unquestionably, on weaker areas to help them to thrive. I would ask the Scottish Government to consider whether that prosperity fund is not something that they should be warmly welcoming, as have many. Obviously, any funds are welcome, but does the member not recognise that the new arrangements will see £32 million allocated for Scotland for 2022-23, a £151 million short of the £183 million estimated to be an appropriate replacement for EU structural funds? If you have anything to say, why don't you intervene instead of speaking for the Secretary of State? I'll be the one who does the refereeing here, but could we have Ms Smith responding to the cabinet secretary's point? I'm sorry, cabinet secretary, but I have given way to you. The only reason I was asking was about time, but let me say very clearly that one of the reasons about the EU fund is that there is still money coming in from the EU into Scotland, and therefore the taper effect is not the statistics that you have just quoted. I also say to the cabinet secretary that there are many people in local councils, including in SNP-run ones, who are very much welcoming this figure. I know that I have to finish on that, so I can now just move the amendment. Thank you, Ms Smith. I now call on Pam Duncan-Glancy to speak to you and to move amendment 4050.2. Up to four minutes, please, Ms Duncan-Glancy. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I move the amendment in my name. People in every neighbourhood across Scotland are struggling to make ends meet. Middle-income households are squeezed, and people on low incomes and those who cannot work are being pushed further into poverty. This cost-of-living crisis is an emergency. It's set to get even worse, and both of Scotland's Governments are letting us down. Their failures and inaction mean that choosing between heating and eating is now a reality for thousands of people in Scotland. Neither are doing enough, and in some cases they are actively making things worse. The Chancellor's spring statement package was, quite frankly, insulting. The same day that the independent office of budget responsibility confirmed the biggest hit to household incomes on record, Rishi Sunak announced measures that will barely scratch the surface, failing to heed Labour's calls on the necessary steps to ease the cost-of-living crisis. Instead of siding with Labour and introducing a windfall tax on big energy companies, Rishi Sunak and the SNP refused to target energy giants that are raking in profits of £44,000 a minute. The Tory response was pathetic, but the SNP aren't doing enough either. Their motion today passes the blame to Westminster, yet when it came down to it, their flagship cost-of-living action plan was simply to tweak the Tory's offering, handing households a pitiful £4 a week off their bills. Meanwhile, the Scottish Labour Party and our colleagues in Westminster have been doing the jobs of both the SNP and the Tory Governments for them. Here in Scotland, we presented a fully-costed plan that would provide more than £1,000 of support to those who need it the most. By using the powers of this Parliament, we can reduce costs for everyone and we can put money in the pockets of people who need it the most. We can cap bus fares, we can use the powers of the newly nationalised ScotRail to cut rail fares by a third over the next three months, we can reverse the rise in water charges and give every household £100 rebate. Crucially, we can target a £400 payment to households who are hardest hit, using data that the Government already holds to ensure families with a disabled person in them, older people, unpaid carers and people on a low income receive the help that they desperately need now, as well as increasing the Scottish welfare fund, so that local authorities have the resources to lift up those who might fall through the cracks. Instead, the SNP copied the Tories and, in doing so, have in some cases lined the pockets of the most well-off people in the country by using the same scattergun approach, based on the unfair and outdated council tax, they first took office promise into scrap. 15 years later, there is no sign of a new system. The one thing that the SNP does have a good record on then is breaking the promise, and they have done the same when it comes to a publicly owned energy firm too, right when we needed it the most. Fuel poverty is higher in Scotland than in the rest of the UK and it is a looming reality for many more. It is high time that the SNP took real tangible action to tackle it. Instead, it is on track to miss its targets by seven years. The SNP should now stick to the word, deliver both on the promise to replace the council tax with a system based on property value and ability to pay, and urgently create a publicly owned energy company that protects us from the future against unfair fuel rises and an over reliance on big private energy corporations. Rather than coming here today and asking for more powers, they should be properly using the ones that they have. That starts by addressing the failures with the Scottish child payment. In the absence of a full roll-out, the SNP Government is short changing children by £5 million a week, and it includes addressing the eligibility and adequacy of newly devolved benefits too. Instead, they are again copying the Tories. Changing where the benefits paid from is not an improvement in itself, it is not enough. We have an opportunity to create a whole new system, that is what devolution is for, and we should use it. We need real radical action now to tackle the rising costs, raining down on households today, energy price hikes, food price rises, increased water charges and higher public transport costs. It can be done by this Parliament and by this Government, and Scottish Labour's plan is clear on how to do it. We have even identified the money to pay for it. Our policies would help make ends meet today and tackle the long-term structural poverty and inequality too, which, for so many, has meant that this crisis has not just caused a tightening of the purse strings, but has left them not a stone's throw away from destitution. That is an emergency. We need more action now. I now move to the open debate. I call on Christine Grahame, to be followed by Finlay Carson, up to four minutes. I welcome this short debate and acknowledge the concerns and anxieties that households face, skyrocketing costs of living and energy costs. It is a short debate, so I will not repeat all the mitigations that the cabinet secretary has already outlined in her speech. However, those are solely required because of the oppressive policies of this Tory Government, which knows and by its actions cares less about the poverty that is inflicting on most vulnerable in society. This economic disaster has been brought about and can be traced right back to the days of the Liberal-Tories coalition of 2010-2015, when austerity was seen as the solution to the bank's collapse. Billions were taken from health and local government budgets, attacking the standards of living of ordinary decent folk while the rich actually got richer and while the economy was encouraged to function on consumerism, fueled by low interest rates and credit, both commercial and individual. It was a house of cards primed for collapse. Brexit was then pursued in the middle of a pandemic, and an oven-ready deal turned out to be a pig's breakfast, compounded now by an energy crisis. This economic house of cards was collapsing after nearly 12 years of Tory rule. Who will suffer? Not the chancellor and his tax-avoiding wife declaring as a non-domestic taxpayer that she did not intend to permanently reside in the UK, saving herself millions in UK tax. While the rest of us pay hikes and national insurance on others, lose universal credit. Not Boris Johnson, who apparently does not know what a party is, although he did have £50 to pay that fine. Not Heartless Pretty Patel, who is paying to export miserable desperate souls to a country with dubious human rights. They are so removed from what is decent and what the reality of ordinary lives are that I despair. It will, as always, be the pensioners, those on low pay, the disabled, the single-payment families who pay the price for their selfishness and incompetence. The solution offered by the Opposition parties here is to raise public funds from our health and education budgets to try once again to ease poverty entirely as a result of the actions of this UK Government. Much has been done by the Scottish Government but mitigation has its limits. Already £600 million a year is spent doing just that. Do our people deserve this? Did they vote for this? Consider this. At the last UK election in 2019, Labour returned one MP, Liberals one MP and the UK party of government, the Tories six. The SNP has 45 MPs. In 2021, at the Scottish Parliament election last year, the Tories returned 31 MSPs to the SNP's 64. Throw in the 62 per cent vote to remain in the EU and the people have spoken election after election. Independence would end mitigating the actions of governments and consequences of policy that we did not vote for. For the first time in generations, run our own economy with that competence, so lacking from the Tories, with the goal of a socially just society that protects the vulnerable, not the privileged. Time for mitigation to ensure that even the remnants of the Labour Party and the Liberals in here can see that, although they keep propping up this failed UK government, rejected time after time again by the Scottish electorate. I call on Finlay Carson to be followed by Jackie Dunbar, up to four minutes please, Mr Carson. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. We are, without question, facing one of the worst costs of living crisis for generations. Keeping costs in checks is becoming increasingly difficult with many families now forced to make decisions that nobody should have to face in this day and age. Energy bills in particular have gone through the roof for a number of reasons, not least as a direct consequence of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. We know that the energy price cap changed this month, meaning that 18 million households are now facing inflated prices with predictions of even higher costs looming large. Yesterday, the chief executive of Scottish Power, Keith Anderson, warned that another steep rise is expected in October, revealing that his company had received over 8,000 calls last week alone from customers worried about their ability to pay. Higher energy costs then have a serious knock-on effect on food prices. We have many distributors facing uncapped energy costs and they are now having to pass on increased costs to customers. It is imperative that both the Scottish and the UK Government do considerably more to tackle this crisis. That is not the time to be playing political games and we should be working together to help the millions affected, particularly the most vulnerable during this time. Right across the country, people are worrying about the cost of living, but it is worth pointing out that those living in rural and remote communities, such as my own of Galloway and Western Free, are facing more dramatic circumstances than in urban areas. Many households have no access to on-grid energy supplies, instead they have to rely on solid fuels and having gas and kerosene delivered to tanks at their homes, all of which are uncapped and unregulated. One of our retired constituents lives in a 200-year-old house, with heating oil as his only option, going through around 3,400 litres a year. In October 2020, he paid £31.5 per litre. Last month, he paid £1.20—an annual bill of £1,200 rising to more than £4,500. His electricity has increased from around £1,000 a year to more than £2,000. In total, his annual bill for fuel has risen from £2,500 to more than £7,000, an increase of nearly £4,500 a year. Energy bills now take up almost 80 per cent of his pension. Coupled with a serious lack of affordable housing in many rural communities, there is now a serious danger that that will lead to many families quitting rural life simply because they cannot afford to exist there any longer. Rural dwellers also face damaging health inequalities, facing them to travel greater distances in order to access health services, resulting in increased travel costs because public transport is simply not fit for purpose. The Green SNP coalition may point to free buses for many, which is fine if you can find a bus. As public transport in many rural areas has been cut during the pandemic and is still not restored to pre-Covid levels despite commitments to do so, the same applies to rail services. We have urged the Scottish Government not only to reduce rail fares now that it is taking over Scotland, but to increase services. We have already seen the price of some rail tickets being reduced south of the border, as the UK Government encourages more people to get back in the trains. I am pleased that ScotRail has now followed suit. The time for action is now before growing numbers of struggling families slip further into poverty. We know that Scotland's block grant has increased by more than 10 per cent the largest rise in the history of devolution. The finance sector cake fobs has already announced £150 council tax rebates similar to the one announced by the UK Government, but it is just a drop in the ocean to what is needed. An S&P has not yet matched the income tax cuts that have been awarded to taxpayers south of the border. It means that millions of taxpayers here are set to pay more than their counterparts in the south. We want to see the S&P agree to identical cuts as a matter of urgency instead of damaging hard-working people's livelihoods. We want to introduce a help-to-renovate scheme to make houses more energy-efficient to reduce heating costs and help to achieve net zero in the long term. More help is needed now. The UK Government-leveling up fund will provide nearly £1.5 billion in city and growth deals in every part of Scotland. That can and should be used to improve local infrastructure, public transport and services. I hope that all local authorities of whatever political colour will take full advantage of that. Finally, instead of the S&P Green Government Minister continually bleating on about the powers that they want, maybe now is the time to start using the powers and the additional funding that you already have. The rising cost of living affects all of our constituents. We have talked time and time again in this chamber about the risk of putting people in the position of choosing between heating and eating. For a large number of our constituents, that has or will very shortly become the stark reality. One in seven UK adults are already behind on at least one household bill. Rising energy costs and the spiralling cost of food is pushing more people to have to make that decision. Do I heat or do I eat? Our Scottish Government can only go so far with the limited powers and the funds that it has, while fighting against the tide of disgraceful decisions at Westminster that continue to have devastating effects on thousands of people across Scotland. The spare room subsidy that the Liberal Democrats supported the Tories to push through Westminster in 2013 is one of them. That alone costs tenants affected by the bedroom tax between £14 and £25 a week. The removal of the £20 uplift of universal credit, reducing household incomes by £1040 a year, is another. Over the past six months, food and security levels have risen to the highest yet, affecting 5.7 million adults. One in six people who receive universal credit needed to visit a food bank at least once since the start of December, and almost 2 million people currently go without food. Yet the UK Government has rejected calls to uplift benefits, providing no security to those who are struggling to buy the bare essentials. Food and security in households in receipt of universal credit was 37 per cent lower when the uplift was in place, compared with before the pandemic, pointing to the critical role that the £20 uplift had in protecting families from food insecurity. The UK Government should have used its spring statement to follow Scotland's lead and match the 6 per cent upgrade on social security and increase all bonds of the minimum wage to match the real living wage, to ensure that we are protecting those on the lowest incomes throughout the country. However, once again, there was no support forthcoming from the chancellor. We also saw the devastating rise of the energy cap of 54 per cent, and the UK Government failing to make changes to VAT on household energy bills, which would have at least provided some short-term relief to households. The Scottish Government has significantly taken actions to mitigate where it can address the pressures of the cost of living crisis, doubling the Scottish child payment to £20, with a further increase to be seen in 2022. Operating Scottish benefits by 6 per cent put in money in the pockets of those who are most in need. There have also been other interventions, the introduction of 1,140 hours of free childcare with its extending and its illegibility, free bus travel for under-22s, committing £1.8 billion to accelerate the deployment of heat and energy efficiency measures, and we continue to have free prescription charges, free eye examinations, free tuition, increases to school clothing grants. Almost £6 billion has been invested to support low-income households in Scotland over the past three years. As we rebuild from the pandemic and face this cost of living crisis, we have an opportunity to make Scotland a more equal and inclusive society. However, Scotland does not hold all the powers that it requires to achieve this. This will only come with independence. The UK Government has shown time and time again that it is unwilling to support the poorest in our society and does not have the same priorities as the Scottish Government to support all our citizens. That only reaffirms the need for Scotland's future to be in Scotland's hands. It is often easy in politics to give something a title and to forget about the magnitude and reality of what lies behind those words. We have already heard today about austerity, but what that really means is falling standards of living for the poorest in our society through Government cuts. The Government speaks of a budget of choices, but what it really means is cuts to the monies that are available to local government to educate our children, lift the bins and sell the potholes. I fear that the expression cost of living crisis is becoming another where there is much hand-ringing by Scotland's Governments but little real action. We know the reality of the crisis. Sleepless nights for thousands of people about how they will pay their bills, ensure that their children have enough to eat and get to work as the cost of petrol and public transport goes up and up. We cannot allow this cost of living crisis to become another phrase time-worn by the inaction of the UK and Scottish Governments. As we emerge from the pandemic, during which many Scots have already experienced a collapse in their earnings, thousands of those who were in a position of just getting by are propelled into a position of poverty and precarity. This crisis is continuing to devastate family finances, and the UK and Scottish Governments are simply not doing enough and are not focused on the real needs. The Tories, despite promising cheaper energy bills during the 2016 Brexit referendum, have alternated between being completely silent on the issue and being completely tone deaf. Despite the crisis, they have hiked up taxes for working people and have dished out temporary loans, a heat now pay later measure that only exacerbates the issues in the long term. Let us not forget that, as the SNP Government, who has been presiding over the crisis in Scotland, has recently nodding through increases in water charges and increasing rail fares at a time where families are least able to afford it. In response to urgent calls for support, the SNP and the Green Government have failed to use the extent of the powers that they have and, instead, have offered one-off payments, equating to less than £4 a week. That is the equivalent of one single off-peak ticket from Paisley to Glasgow and, with current fares, hardly a measure that will soften the blow. Although Scots families are choosing between heating and eating, Government-owned Scottish Water and its subsidiaries are sitting on a cash mountain of more than £500 million. That is why Scottish Labour's amendment is demanding that the mountain is instead utilised to deliver a rebate of £100 to every household on their water charges. I have been reflecting, Presiding Officer, as I come to the end of a decade as a local councillor, about the importance of local government in delivering targets to support to those who would otherwise remain in crisis. Our local councils are quickly becoming the last line of defence in this cost-of-living emergency, but the amazing people I have had the privilege of working with in local government are being starved of cash and forced to make unpalysable decisions. We need more money, advice and right services, more funding for citizens advice, more community resilience groups and more support to help people to pay their bills. Copying the Tories and giving people a £150 council tax rebate just isn't going to cut it. If the Government is serious about tackling the cost of living, then it must properly fund local government to deliver the services that people rely on and give people real financial help that they can spend in their local communities to build up local economies. I point to the innovative work that has been done in the Labour councils across Scotland, such as the community wealth-building agenda in North Ayrshire in my own region and club 365 holiday hunger programme in North Lanarkshire, once again the last line of defence. It is clear, as my colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy has articulated this afternoon, that the Scottish Labour has a plan at every level of government to tackle the crisis and to help people through it. It is clear that the situation is grave for people across Scotland, and it will take more than warm words to heat homes and put food on the table. I now call Maggie Chapman, who will be the last speaker in the open debate and who is joining us remotely up to four minutes, please, Ms Chapman. Thank you, Presiding Officer. This is an emergency, but it is not an accident. The cost of living crisis is not something unpredictable or unplanned. An act of God or nature fallen from the sky equally upon us all. It is not the result of either Covid or the invasion of Ukraine, though both these tragedies exacerbate its effects and will continue to do so. No, it is the result of deliberate policies by the UK Government, policies specifically, if not explicitly, designed to widen the gulf between the poor and the rich, between those who suffer from the misery of cold, damp and hunger, and those who profit by it. We are here to our great sadness and collective shame, acutely familiar with the concept of the hostile environment, that malevolent invention of Theresa May's home office. Those toxic seeds are bearing their poisoned fruit now in the UK nationality and borders bill and in the proposal to outsource our obligations to the most vulnerable of refugees to Rwanda, itself a victim of European colonialism. But there are more hostile environments lovingly nurtured by the right, egged on by those who should know better. There is a hostile environment surrounding the rule of law, the concept of public integrity, the wellbeing of climate-scarred generations. Let us not forget that David Cameron's cut-the-green-crap approach has added £2.5 billion to UK energy bills, and that 90 per cent of energy cost rises in the last year has been down to gas-price volatility. Had we moved away from fossil fuels years ago, as we could have, we might not be in this predicament. Most acute of all, though, we had a relentlessly hostile environment deliberately constructed around the poor. The environment is comprised of deliberately cruel and humiliating policies, the bedroom tax, the benefits cap, the rape clause. It is built by their equally cruel and humiliating implementation. It is decorated by the dehumanising and brutal language with which they are described, both by politicians and by the media. It is vital that we acknowledge this reality, that we understand who is bearing the burden and who is reaping the rewards. Big language about every household does not do that. It only obscures the actual, the shocking scale of the scandal. It is vital that we respond to the full extent of our capability with integrity, solidarity, effectiveness and justice. I think that there are three ways in which we can do that. First, we can resist. On behalf of the Scottish people, the most egregious effects of Westminster cruelty are Scottish green manifesto commitment to mitigate the benefits cap, which is an example of just such resistance. I am so pleased that, through constructive dialogue and co-operative working, it was incorporated into the tackling child poverty delivery plan, supporting the families most crushed by the cap. Second, we can use our devolved powers to address the practical needs of the most vulnerable. The doubling of the Scottish child payment is part of this work, as is the operating of benefits delivered by Social Security Scotland. Of course, the very welcome announcement of the cut by half of rail fares next month. New Zealand, another small country, makes its mark on the world, leading by example in that. And third, we can work to change that narrative that is worse than Victorian fiction of wealth creators and the undeserving poor. We can do better than approaching the workhouse supervisor with our empty bowl begging. Please, sir, can I have some more? We can point out and go on pointing out that the workhouse is built on common land that what is so gradually dropped from the grill pot was stolen in the first place. We have a consensus across many of the parties here today that the UK Government should impose a windfall tax on companies that have profited obscenely from our overlapping crises. That is entirely appropriate, but their windfalls are not the fortunate harvests of hardworking orchard keepers. They have been gained by enclosure and kept by subsidy, by secretive lobbying, by systems that stockpile privilege and punish the poor. Until that reality is acknowledged, until the story changes, we will still be firefighting this emergency that is no accident. Thank you. And we will now move to closing speeches and I call on Alex Rowley to wind up on behalf of Scottish Labour up to four minutes, please, Mr Rowley. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I begin by saying that this is a crisis that people are facing right now? If we look at Brexit, how many years did it take for the Tories to decouple the UK, Europe and Brexit? The idea of independence, whether you are for it or against it, the idea that standing here in this debate today and putting forward that independence is going to help people, it's not, not right now, and we need to be honest about that. Now, a lot of what Christine Grahame said in terms of the policies that have been pursued, not just over the last couple of years, but over the last decade by a Tory Government that brought about some of the worst attacks on the poorest is absolutely right and we should not, we should never give up on that and we should make clear that those people take responsibility. There's also seemed to be agreement in here today that in terms of the cost of living crisis, there is things that we can do and that we should be able to do in the UK Government to do, including removing the VAT, reinstating the benefits uplifts and stopping the attacks on the poorest in our society and the windfall tax. So there's actions that can be taken right now. When it comes to the child payment, I welcome that. It should be welcomed. It is a game changer. Let's stop with this politics about we're just attacking each other. The child payment is to be welcomed. It is a step in the right direction. I would say that in terms of looking at the medium term, however, there are matters that could be tackled, a public energy company for Scotland. We're seeing the renewable sector grow in Scotland with no-state intervention and no-state ownership. That all points to disaster for the future. We don't need new powers to be able to do these things. The Government in Scotland has those powers right now and can use those powers right now, likewise with the charges on water. So there are things that the Government can do right now in Scotland to help. However, I agree with Christine Grahame. We cannot continue to mitigate for every cut that the Westminster Government makes against the poorest people in Scotland, and we have to unite and be able to fight that. This cost-of-life living crisis is hitting people right now, but if you listened yesterday to the chief executive of Scottish Power and the very bleak warnings that he actually gave, you will know that this situation is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I would make an appeal. Instead of coming in here in these types of debates and trying to play politics, let's sit down and start talking about the practical things that this Parliament can do, the powers that we can use. For example, the lowest-paid carers in the country in the private sector are being paid by Government money. They are delivering a public service and yet their terms and conditions and their pay are appalling. That can be tackled right now by this Government and this Parliament. Let's work together. Let's recognise that, while we on our salaries are probably not going to suffer that much through this, there are people out there who can't eat their homes, can't buy food, can't put clothes on their children's back. We have a duty, a responsibility as a Parliament to address that and work together where we can to do so. Thank you. I now call on Douglas Lumson to wind up on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives. It's very clear that we're facing one of the worst costs of living crisis and living memory. Inflation is increasing, bills are going up and energy costs are causing a lot of fear and distress in our communities. We all know the challenges that our constituents are facing and we all understand the concern and worry that this is causing too many families right across Scotland. Governments must step up when it comes to our national crisis. In Scotland, we have two Governments and they must work together and implement a raft of measures to mitigate the crisis as much as possible. The motion from the Lib Dems echoes this belief that Governments have to step up. The UK Government has stepped up and introduced a raft of measures that will help households across the UK. I'm sure that they can do more and I'm sure that the Chancellor will do more through the year. There is a range of initiatives that will help hard pressed households. It isn't a magic bullet, they simply don't exist. We've all faced increased bills and challenges because of what is happening elsewhere in the world. Maggie Chapman seems to think that it's a situation in the UK but it's not a global problem that we're facing at present. It's not a case of fixing the problem but dealing with it as best we can. I believe that the policies introduced by the UK Government go some way to tackling the issues and helping families to cope better over the coming months. Where the UK are allowed to help, I'll protect in the devolution settlement that they have, the cut to fuel duty by five pence per litre, helping us all to fill our tanks, but particularly importance to people in rural areas where car travel is essential. Leveling up funds and city growth deals, as mentioned by Finlay Carson, is bringing huge investment and could transform many areas of Scotland. Freeports will also provide an economic boost to Scotland. A £158 rebate on council tax bills for the coming year, thankfully passed on by the Scottish Government. That will mean that most properties and bands A to D will be paying less council tax next year than they did this year. That is welcome and I thank the UK Treasury for making this possible. Of course, doubling of the household support fund. That is in stark contrast with the Scottish Government and the increased costs that they are burdening hard work in Scots with and adding to the cost of living crisis. SNP rail fares are going up. They could cut the fares, not the services, as Alex Cole-Hamilton pointed out. Water charges are up. We have a higher tax bill than the rest of the UK. Car park tax, the SNP and Greens want to tax people for going to work. They could stop this right now if they wanted. Now the SNP is announcing that they want a congestion charge in Edinburgh. More tax and more cost for citizens who are just trying to get to work to pay the bills. This year, the Scottish Government core block grant has increased by over 10 per cent, the largest increase in the history of devolution. That gives the Scottish Government the means by which to help households directly, or instead the money has to go to cover the waste that we expect from the Government such as £250 million on unfinished rusting ferries, £147 million on a delayed sick kids hospital and £40 million on the malicious prosecution of the Rangers administrators. That is all money that could have been directed to the cost of living crisis, but instead the people of Scotland are having to pay for the SNP's mismanagement. The SNP-Green Government could choose to do so much more, but they do not. Why? Because they have one goal and one goal only—to pursue independence. We heard it from Jackie Dunbar, we heard it from Christine Grahame. They do not care about your priorities only their own. It is a disgrace. The Liberal Democrat motion is correct. Governments need to step up. The UK Government has, it's time this SNP-Green coalition does to, and I support the Conservative amendment. Thank you. I now call on Patrick Harvie to wind up on behalf of the Scottish Government, up to five minutes please minister. I'm going to try and lower the temperature just a little. I believe that every member in this chamber, regardless of political parties, regardless of our differences, I think that we all understand the importance of this topic, and it deserves a serious response. It does not deserve members angrily calling for things that we're already doing or downplaying the actions that we're taking. It does not deserve members angrily calling for actions where they know that our hands are tied and that powers are held at UK level. That topic does not deserve either simply a refusal to acknowledge the actions that the UK Government has taken, whether that's the national insurance hike that was not universally welcomed, I have to say, or their long-standing regressive tax system keeping the minimum wage well below the real living wage. It does not deserve our failure to acknowledge those long-term systemic and structural natures of the crisis that we're facing. I will, in just a moment, say that the debate also does not deserve defensiveness from this Government. I want to reassure those perhaps small number of members who chose to use their time in the debate to put forward positive, constructive ideas instead of simply downplaying what we are doing. I want to reassure all members that we are constantly and will continue to be actively looking to see what more we can do beyond the actions that we have taken. Any positive ideas that have been put forward in the debate will certainly be taken seriously. I give way to Liz Smith. I agree that I think that there should be a constructive debate. I ask Mr Harvie what constructive suggestions he has in relation to the principle of economic growth. What policies are the Scottish Greens looking to benefit the economy? I have heard several times that the Greens do not actually approve of economic growth, and that is a very serious issue when it comes to the cost of living. Perhaps if the Conservatives want to bring another debate on the meaning of economic growth, we can get into that in a great deal of detail. I will lay out the reasons why Greens around the world recognise that everlasting economic growth on a planet of finite resources cannot go on forever and does not meet the needs of the majority of people. However, I want to keep the debate on the issues that we have before us. Let us look in reality at the contrast between Scotland's two Governments, as many members have described. The contrast between a UK Government that introduced the benefit cap and a Scottish Government that is mitigating that cap, even though that should not have to come from within a devolved budget. A UK Government that has cut universal credit and a Scottish Government that has introduced the game-changing Scottish child payment and then doubled it and then committed to increasing it further. A UK Government that has operated benefits by significantly less than inflation and a Scottish Government that has operated where we can by 6 per cent. A UK Government that has apparently put all of its eggs in the basket of expanding the oil and gas industry in the midst of a climate emergency and nuclear power is one of the most expensive ways to meet the country's energy needs compared and contrasted with the Scottish Government that invests in energy efficiency and renewables. Of course, there is much more that we can do and will do, and we will continue to seek to do better. However, let us look at the roll-out of free bus travel for under-22s, which, as I have mentioned to Finlay Carson, that policy will help to make services, including in rural areas, more viable than they have been. Making services more viable is one of the best consequences and side effects of that free bus travel policy. The fair fairs review that we will be taking forward as part of the Bute House agreement to look at the uneven nature of transport costs. On energy, the extraordinary gap between a UK Government that published a UK energy security strategy that said not one word about demand reduction, not one word about energy efficiency and a Scottish Government that is expanding the eligibility for the Warmer Homes Scotland scheme, increasing grants in area-based schemes, extending home energy efficiency advice, all of that in the context of a £1.8 billion heat in buildings programme and a commitment to a public energy agency, which will play a critical role in decarbonising heat and doing it fairly. On housing costs, our commitments to rent controls are on-going mitigation of the bedroom tax. The largest affordable house programme in the UK and the biggest since the 1970s are on council tax. Clearly, only two councils in Scotland have set council tax increases above 3 per cent. All of them are significantly below inflation. This Government has a strong track record on addressing the cost of living crisis where we can. It wants to do more, will continue to commit to do more and we look forward to engaging with any members who have positive, workable and constructive proposals to bring. Thank you. I will call on Liam McArthur to close the debate up to six minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I think that this short debate has been timely, it has been important and it is precisely the sort of topic that our constituents would expect to see us debating. As everybody has acknowledged, Scotland is facing the biggest fall in living standards in generations while household bills skyrocket. At every turn, whether it be rising energy bills or the price of the weekly shop, it is getting harder and harder for so many people in Scotland across the UK and more widely to make ends meet. This is compounded by soaring inflation, which is driving the worst squeeze on incomes since records began. Do not be a single member in this chamber who is inbox and mailbag or not overflowing with countless desperate examples of the impacts that eye-watering increases are having on so many. In my Orkney constituency, average fuel bills are set to go up by a staggering £1,300. In a community already suffering, the highest levels of fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty—the little wonder islanders—are at their wits end. Many for whom being in this position is a new and profoundly unsettling experience. It is incumbent, therefore, on all of us to respond in a manner befitting the scale of the challenges faced by those we represent, to use all of the powers and resources at our disposal to the fullest extent as Alec Rowley demanded, and to demand the same of colleagues at Westminster and indeed in local government. That may still not be enough to do everything we would with, but it is the very least that people across Scotland have a right to expect and demand. I am certainly not arguing that either of Scotland's Governments have done nothing—I think that the cabinet secretary, Patrick Harvie and indeed Liz Smith have set out their case—rather that what has been done to date still falls short of what is needed. I thought that Liz Smith fairly acknowledged that in what was a characteristically measured contribution. In all honesty, I am pretty sure that Liz Smith and many of her colleagues on those benches would have seen the Chancellor's spring statement as deeply disappointing. I give way to Patrick Harvie. I am grateful to the member for giving way and I welcome the tone of his closing remarks. Does he acknowledge, though, that there is—unlike the tone from Mr Cole-Hamilton—an immense gap between what the UK Government has been doing that makes those problems worse and the action that this Government is taking to try and address the problem? Does he not acknowledge that there is that difference and that we are not sitting on our hands in the way that Mr Cole-Hamilton suggested? I think that the people that we represent are less interested in who is doing less and who is doing worse. What they want to know is that both Governments—and indeed at local government level—that all the powers and all the resources are being deployed to the fullest extent. The Conservatives have chosen to break their promise, though, by hiking national insurance, handing UK taxpayers a £10.9 billion tax hit. The current circumstances are frankly reckless, yet the Scottish Government is scarcely blameless. For years, as Paul O'Kane highlighted, the SNP Government has hollowed out local authorities. It should be no surprise, therefore, that many councils, including Orkney, have been forced to raise council tax after being handed effectively a £250 million cut to the budget by the SNP Green coalition. As Pam Duncan Glancy reminded us, abolishing the unfair council tax altogether was once SNP flagship policy. It is a flagship that appears to have gone the way of the SNP's ferries over recent years. The SNP and Greens have also chosen this moment to use the powers at their disposal to hike up rail fares of failing to raise disability benefit in line with inflation, so both Scotland's Governments are failing to rise to the challenge of this emergency. What then should they be doing? No, I do not have time, I am afraid. Not, as Christine Grahame and Jackie Dunbar urged us to do, blasting a black hole in the country's finances and, indeed, supercharging austerity through separation. A fact that, as Alex Rowley again reminded us, would provide no immediate benefit and much medium to longer term disbenefits, rather, as the motion this afternoon proposes, by taking steps to make a meaningful difference to those that are worst affected. At the heart of our proposal, Scottish Liberal Democrats believe that VATs should be cut to 17.5 per cent. That alone would be worth £600 to the average Scottish household, as well as boosting consumer spending and, therefore, business prospects. A windfall tax on inflated super profits of oil and gas companies would allow us to extend criteria and double the winter fuel payment and warm homes discount. We would use the levers at our disposal and reverse the rail fare hike and activate an emergency installation programme this summer to improve energy efficiency of households most in need. The grim truth is that this crisis is far from over. Indeed, predictions suggest that a difficult 18 months or so ahead, as my colleague Alex Cole-Hamilton reminded us. With a further wave of increased energy costs looming later this year, there is also the prospects of things getting worse before they get better. This crisis is already taking a heavy toll on individuals, on households and businesses across Scotland. They need to see more from both their Governments. I have set out some of the ways Scottish Liberal Democrats believe that more can be done, tangible, meaningful and deliverable steps that would offer those we represent the help and the hope that they desperately need to breathe a little easier. I urge Parliament to support the amendment in the name of Pam Duncan Glancy and the motion in the name of Alex Cole-Hamilton. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes the debate on economy, cost of living crisis. It is now time to move on to the next item of business.