 The final item of business today is the member's business debate on motion number 11082, in the name of Paul Martin, on creating jobs in Glasgow's East End. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would be grateful if those members who wish to participate could press the request to speak buttons now, please. I call on Paul Martin to open the debate to seven minutes, please, Mr Martin. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and can I? First, I will take this opportunity to thank colleagues from across the parties for supporting the business motion in my name. I am also aware that many of the members here this evening will be familiar with the Glasgow Fort. I advise members that it is seven days till Christmas, seven days left, and I know that there are many bargains to be had at the Glasgow Fort junction 10 of the M8, so take advantage of that this evening in your way home. By way of background, the Fort Shopping Centre provides over 2,500 jobs. It is located in the Easterhouse of my area, and the constituents say that I represent Glasgow province. Members may be aware of some of the background and the challenges that face the East End of Glasgow, and in particular the Easterhouse in respect of the various levels of high concentration of unemployment. Recently, it has been announced that Mark Suspensers will build an extension to the existing facility at the Glasgow Fort, which will see another 500 jobs to the existing 2,500 jobs that currently exist. I also like the whole community, and I am sure that every member in this chamber will agree with me that the extension is welcomed in an area of high unemployment. At the same time, I need to say that we have to ensure that this investment benefits those who live in the locality of the Glasgow Fort. I was compelled to submit this motion today after I had a conversation with a young man who lives directly across from the Glasgow Fort, and he welcomed the expansion of this new facility, but advised me that he has been facing a number of difficulties in respect of securing permanent employment since leaving college. Most importantly, he advised me that he wanted to work. When I had a discussion with him concerning the new jobs that were coming to the Glasgow Fort, he advised me that, due to the gaps in the CV and some of the challenges that he faced in the creation of a CV, for example, and the gaps in some of the other elements of his employment history, he did not feel that he would be given the opportunity for those jobs that existed in the expansion of the Glasgow Fort. I find that unacceptable. This young man and other young people in East House and other people who want to take up on those opportunities should be given the opportunity to take up employment opportunities that exist in the local area. Simply put, in my terms, I would say that it is not a lack of aspiration to work, but a lack of opportunity. We, in this Parliament, have a responsibility and we have the powers that are available to us to take action in that respect. There are many others, unfortunately, within my constituency and other parts of Glasgow and beyond, to find themselves in such a similar position. We have a responsibility to reverse this trend. It is important, as I have said, as a local member to recognise and welcome this investment, but we need to take action and look at how we can reverse this trend, as I have already said. I have already written to the chief executive of Mark Spencers and I have been called on him to employ local jobseekers and to work with the council's local authority Glasgow jobs and business organisation to look at how we can support those who wish to gain employment in the Glasgow Fort. I welcome the positive reply that I have already received from the chief executive of Mark Spencers and I look forward to meeting him in the new year to discuss how we can take forward various initiatives to ensure that local people are given the opportunities that they deserve. I would also like Mark Spencers to follow the lead of Tesco, one of their rivals whom I worked with when I represented Springburn, where we formed the St Rock's initiative, where we ensured that 450 people who lived locally in Springburn were employed in the new St Rock's initiative in Tesco and Springburn. Many of those people still work in that St Rock's initiative, that St Rock's store in Springburn. Many of them, I can cite one example of one gentleman who had not worked for 25 years, who was able to secure employment in the St Rock's initiative in the St Rock's store in Springburn because of the initiative that was put in place to ensure that he was given the support that he deserved to be able to take up on that employment. My main ask of the Scottish Government this evening is to look at how they can encourage employers to take to ensure that we employ locally and also to put in place the necessary resources to ensure that that can be taken forward. As I have already set out, there are a number of very complex reasons why individuals are not able to gain that employment. I think that it is our responsibility to take that forward. On the conclusion, I would say that unemployment is unacceptable. I think that everyone in this chamber is united in dealing with that, that its costs and the challenges that we face in the economy are unacceptable. It is something that all of us in this chamber want to take action on. However, here is a specific example that I would put in place of the best practice of example for the St Rock's initiative, where we ensure that people are prepared to apply for those posts that would become available. I welcome the £45 million investment in the local area in respect of the expansion and the kind of investment that we have seen in that area. I look forward to working with the Scottish Government and with the local employers to ensure that we make a difference and that people can be given a genuine opportunity to be employed in the locality. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Thank you very much. I now call John Mason to be followed by Patricia Ferguson's speeches of around four minutes or so. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thank you also to Paul Martin for bringing this motion today. As he obviously realises, the fort is not currently in my constituency, but once upon a time it was when I represented Glasgow East at Westminster. In fact, I have to say that the fort holds a very special place in my memory from the summer of 2008, when both the main parties did quite a lot of campaigning there around the by-election. I especially remember the morning of Friday 25 July 2008, when we met there with the media to celebrate the SNP winning that particular by-election. I have seen the fort develop over the years from the early days when I remember that even some local people did not like the name because they felt that it was overly war-like and was not good for the Easter house area, but we seem to have got over that problem. I think that being on the motorway into and out of Glasgow has been an advantage for Easter house, certainly in having this development in its location. I think that Easter house, to some extent, has benefited from the location in comparison with some of Glasgow's other post-war peripheral housing schemes, Lightroom Chapel or Castle Milk. Easter house is now very much at the centre of things. From the beginning, there were delays in attracting some kind of leisure facility to the fort, although that had been a commitment right at the beginning from both the developers and the city council. However, I have to say that I am glad now that we have the view cinema and a whole range of eating places there, as well as purely the shopping experience. I think that from the early days, there was a realisation that many of the shoppers would come from a distance, would use their cars and would use the motorway. However, I think that there has also been a commitment that there should be as many local jobs as possible for local people. To be fair to the fort as a whole, it probably varies slightly from employer to employer, but there has been a serious effort made to do this. I understand that that is the case, as Paul Martin has eloquently said, for the present expansion. I have to say that one of the reasons I enjoyed using the fort at first was that it had a really good bookshop in the shape of Borders, which is no longer there. The story of Borders is something of a picture of the retail sector and, frankly, of the jobs that can go with it. When I was younger in Glasgow, the place to buy your books was John Smith's in St Vincent Street, and I suspect that other members may remember it as well. However, Borders and the other big chains came into Glasgow, both in the city centre and out-of-town shopping centres like the fort, and John Smith got squeezed out, as did many smaller shops. Over time, Borders has been squeezed out by the likes of Amazon. My memory of Borders is that it had a name, as well as being a good bookshop, of being somewhat poor employer and very much anti-trade union, all of which raises the questions of some jobs being better than other jobs and of some employers being better than others. I do very much welcome the expansion of the fort and the new jobs that come alongside, but are they really new jobs or are they effectively a transfer of jobs from smaller shops that have been squeezed out by the big chains that inhabit retail parks? I guess that, frankly, it is a mixture of both. People do not have a lot of extra money these days to spend, so they can only spend each pound once in one shop. However, on the other hand, hopefully people are being attracted to Glasgow from other parts of Scotland and beyond, and the actual number of retail sales is increasing. The motion mentions the wider east end, and I think that there is a lot to welcome in the east end this year, not least with the Commonwealth Games, which brought both temporary and permanent jobs. Clyde Gateway is doing a great work with regeneration and the new police building down at Dunlarnock, which will increase football fall, even though many of the jobs are transferring, and that will have an icon effect. To finish with the fort, I hope to be there actually tomorrow evening, Mr Martin, rather than this evening, because I hope to take part in Carol singing at Morrison's, and I am sure that Mr Martin and I would be very welcome to take part in that as well, if they would like to do so. I congratulate my colleague Paul Martin for securing this very worthwhile and important debate this evening. The motion is about creating jobs in Glasgow's east end, but I appreciate that a constituency such as mine stretches from the north-west of the city to the east. At several points, Mr Martin's constituency and mine run along opposite sides of the same road. In any case, a job located in the east end of the city may, on occasion at least, be an opportunity for someone in the neighbouring constituencies. Paul Martin rightly identifies the good practice that Tesco demonstrated when it opened its superstore at St Rolox, which is now in my constituency following the boundary changes in 2011. Working with local partners, including the much-missed Glasgow North regeneration agency, under the guidance of its excellent chief executive, Kathy Lang, Tesco at that time went out of their way to prepare and recruit local people for their new store. Even those who were not fortunate enough to be employed by Tesco had the opportunity to learn the basic skills needed in the world at work. Over the years, I have spoken to a number of people who used that experience and successfully found employment elsewhere. Learning from the experience that Paul Martin described to me from his knowledge of what happened at St Rolox, I was particularly keen to make sure that a similar programme was operated by Tesco when they enlarged their store in Mary Hill. I am pleased that they decided to operate a similar scheme there, providing pre-interview training and assistance with issues such as CV preparation, for example. Local jobs for local people is what we are really talking about, because the constituencies that Paul Martin and I have the privilege to represent contain, I would argue, the best people and the most vibrant communities, but they also have some of the highest levels of deprivation in the country, something that disturbs me greatly and is what motivated me to become involved in politics in the first place. Paul Martin is absolutely right when he says that large developments in the east end of the city must also be opportunities for local people and that all agencies and organisations must come together to create more jobs and apprenticeships. In my constituency, we hope to see soon a major retail facility built on the site of the former North British local motive works at Carlyaw Street in Springburn. The site was cleared in the 1960s and has stood deserted ever since, and the proposals put forward by Forge properties could spur further regeneration in the area and, crucially, provide food shopping or food shopping hub, in fact, in an area that is sadly lacking in that kind of possibility. New roads and other infrastructure would, of course, follow and some 611 jobs are likely to be created. I and the local councillors for the area, Chris Kelly and Helen Steven, want to work with the developer to ensure the jobs go to the people in our community and those in the neighbouring areas, both during the construction phase and when the centre opens. We will do everything in our power to make that happen, but we need to ensure that all other agencies are also partners in that work. I would particularly mention jobs and business Glasgow in that regard. My congratulations to Paul Martin and I sincerely hope that his hard work pays off for his constituents in relation to Glasgow Fort, as well as his previous efforts at St Rolox and Springburn did for his constituents then. Many thanks. I now invite Annabelle Ewing to respond to the debate. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I congratulate Paul Martin on securing this member's debate tonight. Indeed, his entreaty for some last minute Christmas shopping will be noted in the record of the debate this evening and, hopefully, will be poured over avidly tomorrow by our fellow colleagues, who might be tempted to proceed directly to the fort to get their last minute Christmas presents. I welcome the expansion of the Fort shopping centre in the east end of Glasgow and, in particular, the opportunities for job seekers that the expansion will create. I also thank the member for Glasgow Provin for highlighting the hugely important issue of job creation and, therefore, of apprenticeship opportunities, points that were indeed taken up by John Mason and Patricia Ferguson. I would like to focus, Presiding Officer, on a number of issues here of relevance. As far as skills training and access to the jobs market is concerned, it is worth noting that the most recent UK Commission for Employment and Skills survey outlines a number of key strengths for skills and training in Scotland, including positive feedback on the readiness of our young people. The survey found that young people in Scotland are the best prepared for work in the UK, and that there is also an improving situation on skills gaps. However, we want more firms to play a part in supporting our people towards fair and sustainable employment, and our efforts to achieve that will be stepped up further in the coming year in the context of our refreshed youth employment strategy. I do appreciate all efforts to encourage young people and to support young people into employment, but the kind of people that have particularly benefited from the initiatives that Tesco has so far taken forward are those people who have perhaps been out of the job market for a long time and who struggle with issues of confidence and skills, and those are the people who are probably hardest to reach to use a clichéd phrase, but most genuinely in need of that kind of support. I thank Patricia Ferguson for her comment, which is a fair comment to make. Indeed, there is a recognition that there are a number of people further away from the jobs market, and those people need support. Our refreshed youth employment strategy is absolutely intended to provide the support needed to ensure that all young people have an opportunity to get into the workplace. As far as Skills Development Scotland is concerned, it has been working with the Scottish Funding Council, local authorities and others to develop regional skills assessments, and this work will help to improve the understanding of the skills and labour market demands across Scotland. Last month, SDS published a series of 11 regional skills assessments covering the length and breadth of Scotland, including Glasgow region and Glasgow and Clyde valley. The collaborative approach that is employed in the development of those assessments reiterates the Scottish Government's commitment to work with our employers to ensure that our skills and education system are closely aligned with economic opportunities. The Commonwealth Games was mentioned, and I believe that that is also of relevance, Presiding Officer. Members will be aware, of course, that the Scottish Government and its key partners began planning a legacy fit for the Commonwealth Games back in 2008. Central to those plans were our ambitions, and those of our partners to increase movement for Scottish people into employment, training and volunteering, increasing the growth rate of Scottish businesses and helping Scotland to attract new business investments. As part of those ambitions, the Scottish Government has provided £125 million to Clyde Gateway since 2007, helping to remediate land, create office and industrial space, attract inward investment and generate job opportunities in the east end of Glasgow. In addition to that, the £500 million spent on the construction and refurbishment of games venues and the athlete's village in the east end of Glasgow over the six years leading to 2014 has on average supported 1,000 jobs and contributed £52 million to Scotland's GVA in each year. Furthermore, 500 jobs were provided for the long-term unemployed and education leavers on Commonwealth Games infrastructure-related contracts, including 168 apprenticeships, as well as providing opportunities for investment from local businesses and social enterprises. On the issue of community benefit clauses, Clyde Gateway also seeks to support local people to access the opportunities that regeneration of the area is in fact bringing, and community benefit clauses form a mandatory part in contracts being delivered by Clyde Gateway providing jobs and training for local people. Where jobs cannot be provided due to the specialist nature of the work, alternative community benefits are indeed agreed with the contractor. In addition, it is worth noting that Clyde Gateway is delivering a range of employment and training projects to support people into work many for the first time, and they have agreed a joint action plan with Skills Development Scotland to support the specific employability and training needs in the area, perhaps covering the concern that Ms Ferguson had. The youth employment strategy that I referred to earlier, which we published on Monday, does indeed respond to the report by Sir Ian Wood and his commission for developing Scotland's young workforce. We have set out in the debate that we have just had this afternoon a very radical plan to offer young people the skills and knowledge that they need to move from education to the world of work. I agree with Paul Martin that we indeed have each of us a responsibility as parliamentarians to do what we can with the powers that we have in the Parliament to ensure that every young person has a chance to make their way in life. That is certainly a duty that I take very seriously indeed. The milestones over the next six years are very clear and they are also very ambitious and we have committed to taking action that is needed to secure our very ambitious target of reducing youth unemployment by 40 per cent by 2021. The Government has already committed £12 million this year and £16.6 million is planned for the year of 2015-16 to support and develop the plans outlined in the implementation plan. That funding demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that the resources are in place to make real our vision of a world-class vocational education system. We will improve the options for young people to help them to get into sustainable jobs that will drive economic growth and so reduce youth unemployment to levels of the best-performing countries in Europe. The programme aims to achieve systemic change across schools, colleges, training provision and employers, underpinned by consistent and sustained support from this Government. Those actions will sit alongside our existing successful actions to tackle youth unemployment, which include the opportunities for all programme, a commitment to offer a place in education or training to 16 to 19-year-olds who need it and, of course, our modern apprenticeship programme, where we are continuing to deliver 25,000 modern apprenticeship starts a year. Indeed, we plan to go further by increasing that target to 30,000 by 2020. I am very pleased indeed to have had the opportunity tonight to respond to Mr Martin's debate. I would wish to stress that, although much has been achieved and developments like the one highlighted at the fort are important to driving recovery, there is still a great deal to do, and the member can be assured that we will use every possible opportunity for government, for local government, businesses, employers, social enterprises, the third sector and the people of Scotland to work together to ensure that we maximise job creation and apprenticeship opportunity in Glasgow's east end and, indeed, across Scotland. Thank you very much, and that concludes Paul Martin's debate on creating jobs in Glasgow's east end. I now close this meeting of Parliament.