7. To ask the Scottish Government what measures in its proposed budget will support economic growth in North Ayrshire. (S6O-02964)

Our proposed budget includes a range of measures to support economic growth in North Ayrshire and the three missions of equality, opportunity and community. They include continued rates relief for businesses, which is part of a national package worth £685 million for 2024-25. The region also benefits from our investment in digital connectivity across Scotland, which has increased from £93 million to £140 million.

Such measures will benefit the North Ayrshire economy. Added to that is our continued support of the Ayrshire growth deal, in which we are investing £103 million over 10 years to transform the economy of the wider region.

A recent report by the Trades Union Congress has shown, among other things, that the UK is the only G7 economy in which real household income per head has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. It describes that as

“a damning indictment on the Conservatives’ economic record”,

and it says:

“Their failure to deliver decent growth and living standards over the last 13 years has left millions exposed to skyrocketing bills—and is pushing many ... into debt.”

We have low growth, high inequality and a Westminster-inflicted cost crisis. Does the cabinet secretary agree that Scotland could do so much better for our citizens with full fiscal autonomy as an independent nation once again?

Yes, I absolutely agree with Ruth Maguire’s assessment. Today’s rise in inflation will exacerbate the United Kingdom cost crisis challenge that businesses and households face.

The Scottish Government is limited in its ability to unleash Scotland’s economic potential. Too much decision making regarding our economy still rests at Westminster. We remain locked into the UK Government policy-making decisions that the Resolution Foundation says have doubled the productivity gap with France and Germany since 2008 and given the UK stagnant wages, inequality levels that make a typical household income £8,300 worse off and an economy that is 2.5 per cent smaller than it would have been in the European Union. That is while Scotland’s economy has experienced faster earnings growth than the rest of the UK in 2023, 4 per cent greater gross domestic product growth per person, and double the UK’s annual productivity growth since 2007.

Ruth Maguire is right. For us to truly reach our economic potential and match the growth, productivity and wider economic performance of our European neighbours, we need to take our place as an independent nation in the EU.

Will the cabinet secretary explain how his Government’s decision to slash funding for Scotland’s economic development agencies in the budget will benefit economic growth across Ayrshire, or does he subscribe to the view of his Scottish Green colleagues that economic growth is something to be avoided?

T he Government supports continued economic growth, and we support our enterprise agencies and the role that they play to deliver that. It is quite rich for a Conservative member who supports austerity being inflicted on Scotland and the rest of the UK to come here and complain about its impact. If the member is serious about enterprise budgets being increased, he needs to talk to his Westminster colleagues to ensure that our settlement is a fair one and is not a real-terms cut to our budget.