Patrick Harvie: ...are rising significantly. Such rates mirror those in comparable cities in the rest of the UK—not just London, which, of course, has a very overheated property market and where there has been a 13.5 per cent increase, but Southampton, where there has been a 10.7 per cent increase, and Manchester, where there has been a 13 per cent increase. While tenants in the rest of the UK have faced a...
Patrick Harvie: ...Sauchiehall Street dressed pretty much as I am today. However, that difference captures a challenge and an opportunity that arise from the championships. The presence of world-class athletes from 13 disciplines and something like 1 million spectators converging on the country for two weeks will be a sporting spectacle, but I do not want it to leave a sense that active travel means only...
Patrick Harvie: ...reduction of domestic energy bills, the reduction of non-domestic energy bills, support for meeting energy costs and the regulation of energy markets. The first four of the five clauses—clauses 13, 14, 15 and 19—relate to support for consumers in meeting energy costs. As set out in the draft memorandum, the powers exercised under clause 13 could be used in a way that relates to...
Patrick Harvie: I would like to first address amendments 6, 10, 13 and 14 together. These amendments would remove the ability of a lender to recover a property where they need to repossess it because the landlord has defaulted. I understand the member’s concerns and the desire for the property to be sold with the tenant in situ, but we need to recognise that it is still important to ensure the continued...
Patrick Harvie: ...due regard to that risk. I will come on to Mr Greene’s amendment, but I want to address those wider points about balance first, because they also relate to Mr Balfour’s amendments 8, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19 and 20. Mr Balfour once again sets out—quite fairly, as he is within his right to do—that he is fundamentally against the measures in the bill. He does not support the measures that...
Patrick Harvie: ...engagement it has had with the United Kingdom Government, and with Police Scotland, regarding the community response to attempted immigration enforcement action in Kenmure Street in Glasgow, on 13 May.
Patrick Harvie: ...people growing up in Scotland, who will face much more severe financial pressures than previous generations did, are equipped with the necessary skills. The young people will also focus on SDG 13, on climate action. It is interesting to reflect on that on a day when we know that Extinction Rebellion activists are taking their demands for urgent change to Shell and the climate criminals of...
Patrick Harvie: ...comments that he had made earlier. I apologise to him for doing so. T he wider point that all of us should acknowledge—Mr Rumbles is right to remind us of it—is that the powers in section 13 are extremely significant and that, by approving them, we will do something that should trouble us all, including ministers. We should be troubled by the situation that we face, and I do not...
Patrick Harvie: ...cent of people. Those people tend to be the wealthiest, and they stand to gain more than £800 a year from this tax cut, while a couple taking their children on an annual holiday will save only £13. We also know that people in Scotland understand that they will not benefit from it. When asked about the issue in an opinion poll, fewer than one in 10 people said that this tax cut would make...
Patrick Harvie: ...to the chamber for debate and congratulate her on doing so. Kezia Dugdale began by talking about the advertising campaigns in the 1980s. I am a modest bit older than she is, and I was about 12 or 13 when those iceberg adverts came out. Their principal impact was to accentuate people’s fears, while doing nothing at all to demystify and destigmatise the illness and the virus. That was at a...
Patrick Harvie: ...commitments to the roll-out of broadband, increasing apprenticeships and overcoming gender inequality. On the warm homes bill proposal, who is not proposing a warm homes bill this year? Only a mere 13 years after Robin Harper first proposed one, I am glad that it will finally happen, but it will have to come with the financial commitment to make it a reality. All parties have recognised...
Patrick Harvie: ...when we missed the targets. That is something that I hope we can do despite the reductions in funding in the current Scottish budget for climate change and energy efficiency of 10 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. If we reverse that in the budget, we have the opportunity to get back on track with the climate change agenda. However, we must also open up the opportunity for transition,...
Patrick Harvie: ...supporters to accept that independence by itself gives no guarantees in that regard, I want Jackie Baillie to acknowledge that a Labour Government gives no guarantees either. Let us remember those 13 years of Labour government when we saw the continuation of corporation tax cuts that were begun by the predecessor Government. There has been little interruption in the downward graph of...
Patrick Harvie: ...have with the people of Scotland. To suggest that that is something for nothing is to mimic the bankrupt ideology that prevails in the Westminster Parliament.”—[Official Report, 3 September 2013; c 21876.] I very much welcome those words, but I wish that they showed through in a bit more reality. I lost count of the number of comments about the need for a competitive tax environment....
Patrick Harvie: ...climate impact from the Government’s air passenger duty policy. He told me: “It is our responsibility to put forward an estimate in that respect and we will do so.”—[Official Report, 13 September 2012; c 11415.] Here we are, nearly eight months later, and we have not heard a peep on the subject. When will the Government come clean on the damaging climate impact of its policy to...
Patrick Harvie: ...next day in the chamber, the First Minister said much the same thing, when he said: “It is our responsibility to put forward an estimate in that respect and we will do so.”—[Official Report, 13 September 2012; c 11415.]
Patrick Harvie: ..., cuts, cuts to the sustainable and active travel budget. In particular, the active travel budget will go from 1.21 per cent of the transport budget in 2010-11 to 1.03 per cent in 2011-12. In 2012-13, the figure will be 0.84 per cent and in 2013-14 it will be 0.79 per cent. We will see decrease after decrease after decrease in the proportion of the budget that is spent on active travel. We...
Patrick Harvie: Does that argument hold up in relation to the 2012-13 budget? If the Christie commission reports in June, the new Parliament will get only five minutes to debate its recommendations before the summer recess. Is the cabinet secretary saying that, between September, when members return, and the budget process for 2012-13, political agreement will be reached on which of the Christie...
Patrick Harvie: ...at the same time Johann Lamont agrees that a budget for Scotland's people will need to listen to people during and after the election and that, in that respect, the most important message was given 13 years ago when two thirds of Scotland's voters voted yes, yes to a Parliament with tax-varying powers. I think that Scotland's people knew then that at some point in the future they would...
Patrick Harvie: To ask the Scottish Executive what its budgeted or anticipated level of expenditure on implementing speed reductions on trunk roads is in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12 and (d) 2012-13.