The Centre for Scottish Public Policy

Scotland’s Towns Conference

2011-11-18T13:26:00.002Z

The only conference in the UK to focus on national and local issues facing Scotland's towns took place this week in Dunfermline. CSPP policy director Ross Martin chaired the event and I tweeted throughout it using the hashtag #scottowns .

Due to internet problems the tweets ended prematurely. Some of the key points from the remaining speakers can be found below. A video of the event and presentations will be available in due course.

George Pye, Thinking Place
• Place is the hero. Irrespective of what you are doing, place is the glue.
• Almost every council says their area is a great place to live, work and invest. This is not a brand. It is a given.
• Develop a shared story that is rooted in the past but points forward.
• It is not simply about listing your assets. Be distinctive, be attractive.
• A high quality public realm is imperative.
• The core audience for a town centre, ultimately, is the local people.

Scotland’s towns have got talent

Each ‘act’ had 3 minutes to pitch an idea or priority for surviving & thriving. Cross examination and voting followed.

1. Mary Goodman, FSB Scotland, pitched for an audit of public buildings to identify gaps and promote mixed usage (pub/private sharing space) of these spaces.

2. Fiona Kell, EDI Group/Edinburgh Council, took on the role of “nasty Simon Cowell” for the event and said:

“Let’s accept that we cannot sustain the same number of town centres (some may need to go) and instead create a well-connected structure of attractive and successful towns”.

3. Jim MacDonald, AD+S, called for “Start up Streets” to be rolled out across Scotland, a measure that was co-designed by people of Stirling to re-think the city centre.

The idea is simple: re-consider King Street as a ‘start up street’, which enables business start-ups, scaling of small business and curating events and activities in the public space.

4. Aidan Murphy, IGuide, pitched for Scottish towns to use their app that offers a completely managed interactive digital service - basically a virtual, interactive walkthrough companion.

The guide can be used by consumers, retailers and town centre managers and be tailored to their own specific needs.

Results

Mary - clear majority in favour; Fiona - 50/50 split; Jim - huge majority in favour; and Aidan - huge majority in favour = draw between the last two pitches.

Arthur Potts Dawson, The People's Supermarket
• Food is a conduit for making people aware of where you are in the world and a conduit for communication.
• Concept - create a people’s supermarket, a not-for-profit community owned supermarket. People pay £25 per year to become members and provide four hours of their time per month to reap a dividend (discounted food - 10% off your shopping).
• Spent a year and a half failing to get positive responses. Today, 1450 members with local becoming a key issue.
• Connecting urban consumers with rural producers.
• Empowers and energises the community. The glue that held communities together is no longer there; food can provide the social capital to bind people together.
• “Invest in people and your town will flourish”.

Heather Fargo, State of California's Strategic Growth Council
• Be selective in lifting policy ideas from the US. We are trying to rectify the mistakes we made in the past.
• You need money and in Scotland you cannot easily raise revenue. Thus, why don’t you become a BID?
• If we do not invest in our towns and cities our economy will not turn the corner.
• If it doesn’t match the style of the town, say no to developers. How your town looks is crucially important.

Ian Lindley, Scotland’s Towns Partnership
• Ian fleshed out the STP and explained where they fit in the current policy landscape and why people/organisations should join.
• The key role of the STP is to create a unified voice to campaign and lobby on towns and town centre issues; a co-ordinated voice for change to establish a common ground.
• Find out more.

Independence, Devolution Max, or No Thanks?

2011-11-02T12:38:00.002Z

Monday, 5 December 2011, 0945-1315
Raeburn Room. Old College, University of Edinburgh

Latest findings from the Scottish Social Attitudes survey on attitudes towards Scotland’s constitutional future with Professor John Curtice and Rachel Ormston from the Scottish Centre for Social Research.

"The SNP’s success in winning an overall majority in the Scottish election in May means it now seems inevitable that a referendum on independence will be held at some point between 2014 and 2016. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government has indicated that it remains open to the idea of also including a second alternative on the ballot paper, so-called ‘devolution max’.

The Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) survey has been tracking how Scots feel about the way that their country is and should be governed ever since the advent of devolution in 1999. It has secured the reputation for itself as the most authoritative independent source on what Scots want their constitutional future to look like.

At this seminar the first results from the most recent SSA survey, conducted in the weeks immediately after the May election will be presented. Thanks to funding from the Nuffield Foundation, the 2011 survey not only charts whether the SNP’s victory was accompanied by a swing towards independence, but also makes it possible to undertake the most detailed investigation yet into what Scots think independence might bring. It also brings new evidence to bear on what the public might make about devolution max.

Amongst the questions that will be addressed:

• Has the nationalist success in May heralded increased support for independence?
• What do people think would happen if Scotland were to become independent?
• How far do people’s views about independence depend on their expectations of its likely economic consequences?
• Which constitutional option would satisfy most Scots?
• Are Scots happy that their taxes and benefits might be different from those in England?

Programme

09.45 Registration and Coffee

10.00-10.45 Independence: Trends, hopes and fears. John Curtice
Has support for independence increased? What do people hope and fear would happen if Scotland did become independent?

10.45-11.30 Independence: A pocket book issue? Rachel Ormston
Who is winning the economic argument about independence? How much does support for the idea depend on whether or not people think they would be better off?

11.30-12.00 Devolution Max: United but apart? John Curtice
How popular is devolution maxt? And how different from England do they really want policies in Scotland to be?

12.00-12.30 Final Discussion

12.30 Lunch and informal discussion

BOOKING

The cost to attend this event is £50.00 (no VAT applicable). This includes all refreshments. To book a place contact Lindsay Adams.

By email – ladams@ed.ac.uk

By post – Institute of Governance
University of Edinburgh
Chisholm House
High School Yards
Edinburgh
EH1 1LZ"

Town Centre Regeneration – Learning Lessons?

2011-10-27T12:34:00.002+01:00

Leigh Sparks - Stirling Retail

A few weeks ago the long-awaited Douglas Wheeler Associates report on "Town Centre Regeneration: how does it work and what can be achieved?” was published by the Scottish Government. Four parts are available for download on the website: Summary, Report, TCRF Case Studies and Appendices.

The 18 month long research project set out to develop a clear understanding of activities in town centre regeneration in Scotland and the outputs and outcomes following on from these activities. Specifically the research considered the much-lauded £60m Town Centre Regeneration Fund (TCRF) and its success/progress on the ground.

One blog post can not do justice to these documents (c240 pages in total) and the research, so please go and read them yourselves, but some points need repeating here.

Ten learning points and recommendations are presented:

1. Complex concept and town centre regeneration strategies should be integrated and sited within whole town strategies.

2. Recognise scale and distinctiveness of town centres in a changing wider context.

3. Town centre regeneration needs more than physical investment.

4. Need a clear shared vision, strategy and action plan.

5. Partnership is not an outcome; effective and coordinated delivery is essential.

6. Importance of small/medium businesses and potential of community ownership of assets.

7. Improving town centre regeneration project planning; in most cases no clear results chain has been identified.

8. Improving approaches to town centre health check assessment and monitoring.

9. Current effective evaluation of town centre projects has limitations.

10. Address limitations in evaluation: apply Theories of Change.

On TCRF the research notes the importance of the intervention and the ways in which it acted as a confidence builder and accelerator of existing “off the shelf” projects. But the actual TCRF approach was criticised in terms of timescale, capital only requirements, inefficient competitive bidding and a lack of consistent baselines and outcomes. Going forward the research recommends that the TCRF, if re-run, should;

A: Look to a 3/4 year rolling programme to allow better strategic planning.

B: Phase the funding over the 3 to 4 years to allow more considered responses, designs and other potential investment.

C: Allow a longer timescale for the TCRF application process to ensure the full potential of projects and design issues are resolved.

D: Develop Theories of Change as part of the project planning process and follow through on monitoring and evaluation.

Overall the report recommends the dissemination of good practice, development of detailed appraisal criteria skills, development of outcome focused commissioning processes and skills, implementation of town centre health checks and monitoring consistency, and robust evaluation of projects.

Not much to complain about in these then. Many of the points re-iterate issues and topics that have been mentioned before, notably in the Scottish Towns Group report, though here with a stronger evidence base and specificities from the TCRF.

But for me, two things leap out of all this.

First, why are we still having to make noises about the need for clear and consistent data collection, both spatially and longitudinally? If we wish to be serious in terms of everything we do in Scotland, then good quality data has to be the basic building block. How else are we meant to know what is going on and what works and what does not?

Secondly, can we please, when we introduce schemes and proposals (and the TCRF is a good example) do so via proper planned discussion, awareness of possibilities and desired outcomes, and sustain the intervention for a reasonable period – a one-off can not be expected to solve big problems. The TCRF was rightly, much praised, but Scotland’s towns deserve more than this one-hit (and miss) wonder.

Let’s do TCRF again, this time with feeling and having learnt the valuable lessons.

Interns are not workers

2011-10-21T14:08:00.004+01:00

This article was originally published in Better Nation

There is nothing quite like feeling passionate and angry on a wet, dreich Monday. I’m usually foaming at the mouth reading about internships at the best of time, but Nick Cohen’s excellent article in the Observer has (almost) pushed me over the edge.

Before launching into a polemic it’s worth pausing and providing a bit of context. In November 2009 graduate unemployment was spiralling out of control - youth unemployment was approaching one million, a fifth of who were graduates.

Essentially, it was making a difficult task (obtaining a paid internship in Scotland) even more challenging in an underdeveloped “intern industry”. And there was little assistance to help Scotland’s struggling graduates.

With no funding the Centre for Scottish Public Policy (CSPP) created the Adopt an Intern programme (excuse the ancient site - a new one is on the way). The aim was simple: to build a fair, accessible and transparent internship culture in Scotland. Fast forward two years and 107 paid internships have been placed with the assistance of Scottish Government funding and employer contributions across the public, private and third sectors.

It has been a huge success and the programme is now offering intern exchanges between Germany and Scotland. But enough about the CSPP. As Cohen’s article painfully points out, they are only scratching the surface. Quite clearly there are deep-seated and regressive cultural attitudes to internships.

Interns, so the argument goes, require experience in the labour market so do not deserve to be paid. Likewise, they are a different type of employee who is not protected by the Minimum wage or Equal Pay. Thus, their terms and conditions can be altered at the whim of an employer. As new Defence Secretary Philip Hammond (the richest man in the Cabinet) said:

“I would regard it as an abuse of taxpayer funding to pay for something that is available for nothing and which other Members are obtaining for nothing.”

How frugal. It is no surprise, then, to find new companies popping up to provide free interns and quell demand. One of the companies Cohen highlighted is Etsio. Curiosity got the better of me and I checked out their website. Honestly, I wish I hadn’t.

The FAQs section is worth quoting in detail because it’s illustrative of the norms and values embedded in London’s internship culture. I couldn’t resist adding some comments.

“Candidates

Why should I pay for a job?
You aren't paying for a job (yes you are). You're buying experience. Most applicants we come across don't have any experience that would make them useful to our employers (students don’t have work experience? I don’t know what graduates they know).

And remember that our work experience clients are putting themselves at risk by exposing their trade secrets, customers and inside information to you. That isn't the kind of experience that you can get elsewhere.

How much do I have to pay? (Yes, they have to pay for the privilege of working for free)

Each employer sets their own daily fees.

Employers & Interns

Is it ethical? (Mmm)
With students now paying £40,000 for a university education - but zero useful experience for an employer - we don't think it's unreasonable for them to pay a few hundred pounds to get invaluable real life experience.

And many of our employers are small businesses who wouldn't normally take on an intern. Etsio opens up the market to whole new areas. And applicants get to see how real businesses work. (If you or your parents can afford it)

It's definitely morally suspect for an intern to take the place of a worker; and that happens all over the Western world at present. But (a big BUT) the Etsio service allows applicants to get a ringside view of what it's like to work in the amazing businesses that feature in Etsio.

Is it legal?
Yes. It's a legal requirement to pay workers a minimum wage. But the interns are not workers: they don't have regular tasks, they aren't under the control of the employer, and they can come and go as they please. The intern is paying to learn, just as they pay to attend university. (All of this is complete and utter nonsense).

How does Etsio make its money?
By adding a small admin charge. It's included in the fee that's shown against each employer. There are no other charges.”

There is no shortage of organisations or politicians (a certain Mr Clegg comes to mind) that could have been named and shamed. The list is long, very long and by no means is it restricted to England (see Kezia Dugdale’s article). The exploitation of interns (graduates who will become critical to the success of the national economy) will continue until we settle some basic, fundamental questions:

1. If interns are not workers then what are they?
2. What rights do interns possess in the workplace?
3. Should interns be paid (at least) a Minimum wage?
4. At what point in the internship does an intern become an employee? 6 months? 9 months? A year?

The dictionary defines a slave as “a person who works in harsh conditions for low pay”. I’ll let you decide whether an unpaid intern is a slave. But one thing we all should be able to agree on is this: paid internships, a “proven access point to professions”, are central to making a fair, equitable and mobile society.

--

Barry McCulloch, CSPP Policy Manager

This article is the view of Barry and not necessarily the CSPP.

Christmas and Hogmanay had better be good

2011-10-21T14:03:00.002+01:00

Leigh Sparks - Stirling Retail (a number of graphs are available in the original post)

Two sets of figures out this week:

CPI is 5.2%; RPI is 5.6% (where did the 2% target go?)

Scottish Retail Sales: Total up 0.8%, Like for Like down 0.6% (UK comparables +2.5% and +0.3%).

As the Scottish Retail Consortium note in their commentary on their (SRC-KPMG Scottish Retail Sales Monitor) sales figures, put these two sets of data together and you can see why retailers in Scotland are in deep trouble. With consumer inflation way ahead of retail sales, business inflation equally high (and that’s forgetting any “health levy”), disposable incomes set to fall further and job losses in the public and other sectors likely to increase, Christmas and Hogmanay are the only real potential bright spots on the horizon.

Scotland has now underperformed the UK for almost the last two years, with the detailed figures showing a real collapse in non-food sales in Scotland. The only hope is that we get a good festive season to tide retailers over. Given the huge sales and proportion of profits made at this time of the year by retailers, there is much still to gain – and lose. A bad Christmas and we could see quite a lot of closures in the New Year. A good Christmas – if consumers loosen their belts a bit and celebrate – or if retailers have bought and managed costs well – will see them well placed to soldier on.

The problem for retailers is that consumers are nervous about the future and worried about their costs, whether it be energy or food. As a result they are holding back big purchases, trading down to value and lower brand points, perhaps paying off debts at record low rates and generally hunkering down. Yes, there is the occasional treat and replacement of luxuries, but for many it is about surviving.

The Scottish Government is reported as saying that it was doing all it could, within its current powers, to boost economic security and consumer confidence in “tough times”. “Measures such as the council tax freeze, free prescriptions and no tuition fees are helping promote consumption in Scotland by protecting household budgets at a time of rising inflation and fuel prices.”

However, I am not sure such measures actually “promote consumption”. Do consumers see the money they don’t have to pay for prescriptions as money they can then spend on other things, given the rising costs of fuel etc? I doubt it. I suspect they recognise the lack of added costs, but don’t equate this to “go out and spend”.

It does make one wonder therefore why all the effort and fuss about Quantitative Easing (which seems to be a case of “do X and hope like anything that Y happens, and if it doesn’t do X again”) putting money into and through the banking system. I wonder what would happen if a scheme could be devised to put money directly into the hands of consumers, to be spent on consumer goods through (all or some) shops? Might that have a more direct effect on promoting consumpiton and supporting some hard pressed businesses?

The Great Tram Disaster

2011-10-13T11:38:00.003+01:00

CSPP Board Member Richard Kerley was interviewed on the BBC's recent documentary into Edinburgh Trams.

Fast foward to 5:15 and 11:46 for Professor Kerley's comments.

Tesco Trails

2011-10-13T11:03:00.001+01:00

Leigh Sparks - Stirling Retail

A few weeks ago the “feel” of the university changed dramatically as the undergraduates and new postgraduates descended for the new semester. A sure sign Christmas is round the corner.

There are always plenty of students around in the summer – postgrads doing dissertations and projects and various summer schools and other classes (not the bagpipe school again – please). But the new semester with brand new first year students marks a changing of the seasons.

For some reason I was thinking of this when the Tesco interim results came out last week. The Tesco machine has spluttered in the UK in recent years – if still having a market share in food of over 30% can be called a splutter. Sales have been lacklustre (they are not alone in this), but market share has edged down.

And then it struck me. The first year students this year will have been born when Tesco was already the #1 food retailer in the UK. They will never have lived through anything else – and that is quite remarkable.

For so long in my lifetime, Sainsbury were the prince of grocers, but in the early 1990s the upstart Tesco barrow-boys knocked them off #1 via a stream of initiatives – clubcard, value lines, express and metro stores, supply chain revolution, internationalisation, Every Little Helps corporate branding – which 20 years on. continue to deliver.

One other plank of the this #1 takeover was of course the purchase of Willie Lows (if you are one of my students you will have to ask your parents who they were) from the jaws of a Sainsbury takeover. Outbidding Sainsbury seemed rash at the time. but it made Tesco truly national (UK) for the first time and catapaulted upwards their previously limited market share in Scotland. if Sainsbury had held their nerve and outbid Tesco, how much would have been different in Scotland today?

A few other things caught my eye in the Tesco interims:

65% of floorspace is now outside the UK
49% of stores are now outside the UK
34% of sales are outside the UK
28% of profit is outside the UK

Tesco is truly international and increasingly reliant on its internationalisation for growth.

And in the UK? Much noise about The Big Price Drop, which for me is a rebalancing of approach. One of the lessons of the Sainsbury fall from grace was the way in which they got so out of line in consumers’ eyes on price. Tesco are determined not to do the same thing. Operationally they remain powerful.

One other snippet – between February and August 2011, Tesco added 150 stores to their UK portfolio, of which 142 were smaller than 3000 sq ft. Yes, some were One-stop, but even so.

Given this rate and format of development and Tesco’s ubiquity, it’s no wonder my students can not imagine anyone else being at #1. And yet, we said this about Sainsbury, once upon a time. Complacency in retailing is very dangerous – something Tesco are well aware of.

"Keeping on track"

2011-10-13T10:44:00.001+01:00

Richard Kerley - Holyrood Magazine

There is an old, old expression used in discussing public policy and public projects: ‘success has many parents; failure is an orphan.’ Bear that in mind as you read ever more about the Edinburgh trams story/ saga/debacle and observe various parties (both political and otherwise) scattering from the back wash of blame.

What can we do about it? What can we learn from it? For the moment I’ll pass on the first question (and leave that to the people who get paid for it) but I shall try and offer some observations on what we might learn, or at the very least, what we might ask that will help us learn.

The first thing we might learn is that many major infrastructure projects run over time and over budget; regardless of country, regardless of whether they are public or private sector projects. There’s quite a lot of history to this: the Suez Canal (private, late and 1900 per cent over budget); the Humber Bridge (public, late, 175 per cent over budget).

Margaret Thatcher consciously and deliberately insisted that the Channel Tunnel should be a private concession to ensure economic and efficient completion. The result: 80 per cent over budget, late, traffic projections only 30 per cent achieved, and a shareholder wipe-out.

International studies cover 200 + projects in more than 20 developed countries and suggest that ‘fixed rail ‘links are the worst culprits for cost and timetable overruns and failures to achieve passenger forecasts.

So ‘hey ho‘ to the proposed Borders rail line; ‘fixed links‘ are another major category of project time and cost overrun – so don’t assume the second Forth road bridge is done and dusted.

The second aspect that will be a fascinating element of the promised public inquiry, and the management case studies that will surely be used for years to come, is the multiplicity of organisations involved in this – all with particular and often different interests.

This is not just about Transport Initiatives Edinburgh, created to deal with the proposed congestion charge and now being quietly disposed of by the council.

I happen to think there is a good case for councils creating such organisations but somehow it went badly wrong here. Ever longer articulation links in decision making have to be well handled and thought about in advance rather than patched mid-way.

There are also all the other organisations involved, starting with and including the governments pre- and post 2007. The pre-2007 coalition rushed through some tram decisions just before the election, and the new minority government failed to properly assess the case for the Edinburgh trams or the Edinburgh airport rail link against each other.

Same city label, but big difference; one was planned to serve the city; one to serve dozens of towns and communities throughout Scotland. The end result of failing to consider both together is that the now planned tram line (as I write) will go from the airport to a city station . . . but the wrong station, and I suspect not many people will get on and off at intermediate stops.

There is also a myriad of technical questions to be asked and answers to be sought, some of which, I suspect, are way beyond the comfort range and knowledge of lay people, unless they invest a vast amount of time and energy; and they usually do this because they are protagonists.

Roll on the promised public inquiry – though I suspect it will be here before my tram will be.

Professor Richard Kerley, CSPP Board Member & Professor of Management, Queen Margaret University

Raising Dough

2011-10-05T10:56:00.002+01:00

Leigh Sparks - Stirling Retail

A few months ago in an email exchange arising from one of my posts, I learned about a retail business start-up that might come to fruition. Well, this week (6th October) it happens.

Dunbar is to see the opening of what is claimed to be Scotland’s first community owned artisan bakery called “The Bakery”!

In 2008, the town’s last bakery closed. Since then over 300 mainly local residents have raised £38K to open a new high street bakery, and drawn in support from a range of other organisations.

Set up as an Industrial and Provident Society (a community co-operative), shareholders will not receive a dividend, but will instead be entitled to a 10% discount on all baked goods purchased at The Bakery.

Profits will be ploughed back into the business and the local community. This is not a volunteer operated business, but one that is professionally managed and run – something that has meant eligibility for some grants has been problematic.

The story since 2008 appears not to be plain sailing, and some of the pitfalls are noted on their website. But at a time of closures, doom and gloom, it’s nice to have a positive story to read about and mention.

I have no stake in The Bakery, but do know some of the people involved – and they have also been involved in some other retail-led regeneration stories. I do not know if The Bakery will work/succeed, but wish it all the best. A Scottish artisan bakery with a local and organic ethos, and the support of many local residents, deserves to succeed.

What I hope though, is that this will not be last such story we hear of this type. The recession causes problems but it also creates some opportunities. One of the lessons for Scotland may be that local start-up enterprises and businesses will have to take up the slack from the multiple withdrawal from locations.

This location and community involvement will not necessary be easy, but it will provide a sense of place and difference as well as vital local provision and jobs. Let’s hope there is enough support and skill out there to make such things happen.

More critically we also have to understand what barriers there are to this local entrepreneurial activity. It is over three years and many twists and turns since Dunbar’s original bakery closed due to retirement; why does it take so long and have so many obstacles in the way? Towns, villages and other places need facilities and development now, not in some distant future.

If you’re in Dunbar, go and have a look – comment here on what you find. Better still buy some bread and other goodies – and if you like it, spread the news. We need more distinct and diverse local retailers to add diversity and specialism, in Dunbar and across Scotland.

CSPP on the Fringe at the SNP Conference

2011-09-29T12:30:00.002+01:00

The Annual Conference of the SNP takes place on the 20-23 October in Inverness (Eden Court Theatre). And as ever, we'll be running a series of interesting fringe events.

Here's a sneak preview:

Saturday 22 October - 12.30pm - First Circle, Eden Court Theatre, Inverness

The health of our nation and a tale of two countries - CSPP Debate with Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP

The Scottish and UK Governments are on distinct and different policy paths. Nowhere is this more evident than in health.

The creation of the NHS revolutionized public policy. The core principle that healthcare should be free and available to all remains as relevant now as it did in the 1940’s.

Yet, fundamental challenges lie ahead for the NHS in Scotland. How will it cope with intense demographic changes? The desire for democratization and a preventative approach? Increasing budgetary pressures and an ever expectant public? Promote deeper service integration?

Join us at the CSPP fringe meeting to debate the future of the NHS in Scotland.

Saturday 22 October - 5.30pm - First Circle, Eden Court Theatre, Inverness

Closing the gap between aspiration and reality - CSPP Transport Debate with Transport Minister Keith Brown MSP

After the resounding success of our Dragons Den on Transport, we welcome back Keith Brown MSP, Minister for Transport to the CSPP fringe.

In the face of large cuts to capital budgets, the Scottish Government remains committed to investing significantly in Scotland’s transport infrastructure to improve connectivity and integration.

However, will this programme actually deliver a sustainable transport system that is accessible, affordable and more efficient?

Join us at the CSPP fringe meeting to debate the future of transport policy in Scotland.

See you there.

Supporting Scotland's Cities

2011-09-28T12:53:00.002+01:00

CSPP Policy Director Ross Martin is at Holyood’s “Supporting Scotland’s Cities” conference. Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, was the first keynote speaker.

Key Points
• Cities drive innovation and achieving sustainable economic growth depends on the performance of Scotland’s cities.
• Cities need to build stronger partnerships and work together (public, private and third sector) to make an even bigger impact.
• The Scot Govt will live up to its manifesto promise to: improve infrastructure and connectivity, give cities more freedom, enhance academia and develop city regions.
• Cities are central to the Scot Govt’s economic strategy and capital investment is of vital importance (context: 36% cut in Scotland’s block capital element).
• The delivery model for new capital projects will be NPD, along with Network Rail's funding mechanism.
• Cities need a strategy/action plan/route map to help them to support economic growth.

Six Cities Agenda
• The role of SCDI is to bring strategic leadership, not interfere or assume responsibilities of local government.
• Cities are not homogenous. This is not a one size fits all policy.
• Alignment has to take place between the Six Cities and relevant Scot Govt departments.

Q&A
• Q1. On the issue of distinctiveness, the Cab Sec emphasised the sectoral specialisms in each city, e.g. gaming in Dundee. But, cities must learn "not to trip over each other" and recognise relative strengths.
• Q2. On the issue of sustainable economic growth, the Cab Sec said we need the proceeds of growth for public spending, but we do need growth to be sustainable (nothing on efficiency or effectiveness).

My Levy is Your Tax

2011-09-27T13:42:00.002+01:00

Leigh Sparks - Stirling Retail

It might not have been in the manifesto, but it certainly made headlines. Wandering into the newsagent yesterday morning, John Swinney would have seen an almost uniform newspaper lead coverage on his new “Public Health Levy”.

Only, the words used were a little different – shop raid, smash and grab, price hikes, shopping bill tax, commitment breach. The only health issues involved were the collective raised blood pressures of the journalists, editors and the food retailers – oh, and the impotency of the opposition parties in the Parliament to do anything about it this time.

After suffering a bloody nose last year in the rushed, botched version one of the ‘Tesco tax’, John Swinney has come back for more. Only this time he’s brought his backbench majority friends to the (now one-sided) fight. Putting lipstick on the pig of the supermarket tax, we now have a ‘public health levy’ – and who could be against public health?

As ever, the detail will be revealing, not least for the legal wriggle room it offers and the operational reactions it will induce. But the idea of having food retailers (through a black hole, sorry hypothecated box) pay for health prevention activities seemed to go down really badly with the newspapers.

Their view was that the last people who will pay for this will be the retailers. The extra costs (£30m, £35M whatever per annum) will get passed on to suppliers and/or consumers. The idea of differential prices in England and Scotland as a direct consequence would seem peculiar however and even more costly for retailers; unless of course they really wanted to make a point – a retail equivalent of Stelios’ “fat bastards tax” on Luton airport perhaps. Maybe less “public health levy” and more “Swinney’s messages money grab”.

The issue is why tax the food retailers when the there is so much else that is possible or wrong? It is like taxing drug dealers whilst subsidising drug producers. There is much in this that is “illogical and discriminatory” to quote the Scottish Retail Consortium. That of course does not make the basic idea (prevention is cheaper than cure) wrong; but does open up the need for a full debate on what we should be doing and how.

Why tax large retail stores, when convenience and other small stores are so much more dependent on fags and booze for sales and in turn their local consumers are so much more dependent on these small stores for their supplies? Tax them, close them down and the supply in local areas is cut off. Why not tax bars, pubs, hotels, nightclubs, political, social and sporting clubs where alcohol and tobacco are every bit as significant and over-consumption is rife?

And if we really want to do something about health, then a “fat tax” on McDonalds and other fast food chains and local chippies ought to be on the agenda. Or maybe we could go the other way and have tax relief for spas and health clubs? What about those retailers who hit targets for anti-smoking promotion or product sales, or on healthy or low fat foods?

So why supermarkets and/or large retailers? Expediency perhaps, revenge for last year possibly? Or maybe it is because they believe the ‘chattering classes’ that supermarkets and superstores are evil and people hate them. But there’s the rub – even in the most vociferous of the places fighting new supermarket development, substantial numbers (often majorities) of local people are still in favour of such development.

And week in, week out, across Scotland people shop in, and feel well served by these stores. Supermarkets and superstores hit the consumer spot in far more cases than they miss. Forcing the daily and weekly shop to become more expensive or difficult is not really a vote winner with lots of people, despite what some of the rhetoric says.

Let’s have the debate on health and prevention and the environments we are all exposed to and the abuses they can create. But don’t pretend this is a “Public Health Levy” in a true thought out sense; it is an expedient money grab from businesses perceived to be able to afford it.

From the business perspective, all businesses need to be concerned about this tax, as logically it could be extended in many directions. The already known rapid rise in business taxes over the next few years in Scotland is going to produce real problems. Who knows what the trailed empty property (vacant shop) relief revisions will look like and do?

But for retailers, what would really concern me most is the certainty of falling real incomes for the next three years, due to pay freezes, pension costs increases, general inflation, probable spiking utility and other costs and all the other bad news out there,. Where are the sales going to come from in the next few years? And what new retailers are going to soak up these (and those still to come) empty premises?

CSPP in the News

2011-09-22T13:38:00.003+01:00

CSPP Board Member Richard Kerley was interviewed on GMS earlier today on the Scottish Government's spending plans. Professor Kerley said:

When asked if the Scottish Government had shifted the responsibility for delivering the council tax freeze onto councils, Professor Kerley said:

“There are a number of interesting developments within the documents the Scottish Government have produced. They have offered councils an incentive not to increase council tax and yet the amount of money offered for that policy remains at a level that was set 4/5 years ago. In real terms, this is a decreased amount of money, so yes he has shifted a lot of the burden onto councils”.

“One of the key areas that are going to be problematic in the next couple of years for both councils and the central Government is the issue of redundancies because it is the council that is the employer. “

On Local Government borrowing, Richard said:

“The borrowing is in effect for building and improving facilities. Now, there is a good case for doing that. Investing in capital projects, particularly those that can be achieved in smaller tranches and rapid succession, is a good way of sustaining activity and employment in a very hard hit construction sector.“

Click here to listen to the interview (7 days left to listen).

The Inevitable Plan B

2011-09-21T13:17:00.006+01:00

Another day, another growth forecast downgrading UK economic growth.

The IMF are predicting UK GDP to grow just 1.1% in 2011, 0.4% reduction from its previous World Economic Outlook report in June. This is not the first time the IMF has cut their growth forecast for the UK economy. In April they predicted 1.7% and in January 2%.

If you take this with the OBR’s forecasting, it’s clear that no one really knows what’s going to happen. All we know is that we’re in for a bumpy ride. What we do know, however, is that the UK Government “remains committed to implementing the deficit reduction plan which has delivered stability”. Put simply, no Plan B for growth. Cue Ed Balls

“The IMF is saying very clearly that if slow growth continues in the UK the Government should change course and adopt steadier deficit plans… That’s why we need a real plan for jobs and growth, here in Britain and around the world, and we need it quickly.”

The more Labour press for a Plan B or the Scottish Govt call for a “Plan MacB”, the more the Coalition Govt dig in their heels. The reluctance is understandable from a political perspective in that they don’t want to be seen to be taking advice from the opposition.

But more fundamentally, their credibility as a Government is tied up with the deficit reduction strategy. Remember, this isn’t just an economic reaction to the UK’s mushrooming debt crisis but an ideological wish to create a smaller state.

If they admit they were wrong about this, the argument goes, what else were they wrong about? All of this creates uncertainty and indecision and breeds weakness. Or does it? I’m not convinced. Neither am I convinced that the Coalition is slavishly going to stick to a Plan A that is clearly not working.

Behind the scenes, the Treasury will be working on a Plan B (of course, they will have to call it something else). In fact, they might have it. I don’t have a source to validate this theory, but I do have history.

An excerpt from Bob Woodward’s “The War Within” (p85) illustrates my point. It’s August 2006 and slowly but surely it is dawning on the Principals that their current strategy in Iraq - “clean, hold and build” - is failing catastrophically.

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley is leading a review of the strategy, while simultaneously the Administration publicly reaffirms their belief that the current plan is working.

“No, I don’t believe that it’s failing” said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“But, is there not some discussion about what happens if it doesn’t work, a Plan B?” asked the reporter.

“What you want to do is settle on a plan and then press as hard as you can to make it work. And that’s where everyone’s energies are at this point, and I think this plan is going to work” replied Rice.

The Coalition Govt has, or are working on, a Plan B. What they need to find is an exit strategy to sell it.

Barry McCulloch, CSPP Policy Manager

Catching up?

2011-09-21T10:27:00.002+01:00

Leigh Sparks - Stirling Retail

Just back from my latest travails. This time to Singapore where the IRS signed a new agreement for scholarships for our undergraduate retail degree. The Singapore Workforce Development Agency are sponsoring 90 scholarships over 3 years at an investment of S$3m.

I also took part in our University graduation ceremony which saw PhD, MBA and Retail marketing undergraduates graduate, and spent time teaching on our Diploma in Retailing programme (we offer Diploma. Undergraduate and MBA in Retailing degrees in Singapore).

So what happened when I was away? A couple of things registered via messages or emails:

* The August retail sales figures for Scotland confirmed the fears some (including me) have been expressing for a while now; the recession is nowhere near over. The figures were amongst the worst ever recorded (again) by the Scottish Retail Consortium series.

*The waste mountain generated supposedly by the confusion amongst sell by, use by, best before and other dates is all the fault of the retailers. I don’t quite understand this – there is confusion for sure, but is it really all the retailers’ fault? Consumers need education and clarity and a willingness to see, smell or taste if food is going off.

So that’s me caught up then. But, a figure from Singapore keeps intruding – recorded retail sales growth of c10% per annum is seen as normal and acceptable. And this from a country that is far from cheap these days.

So how do we catch up with that?

Well investment in education and the workforce might be a part of it (though I would say that wouldn’t I!). But it is about attitude and approach as well. Two instances:

*Foreign students are increasingly welcomed in Singapore, but only if they commit to stay and work in the country (thus ‘pay back’) for a couple of years after they graduate. And the UK government’s parallel policy – foreigners to go home days after they graduate.

*When the credit crunch hit a few years ago, Singapore expanded the numbers going into University and Polytechnics to seize the opportunity to add skills to the workforce (and to ‘mop-up’ youth unemployment). And the UK? Citing the looming deficit we decided to cut numbers and to raise costs and fees for students.

Let’s guess the economic and social impacts of these two approaches? Some way to go to catch up perhaps.

Return of a Mac can be a boost for schools

2011-09-14T09:37:00.002+01:00

Published in the Scotsman, 14/9/11

Ok, perhaps many a Mc does a Mac make after all. Or at least one would be inclined to believe so given the schoolboy error of Scottish Labour's aspirant leader Ken Macintosh, misspelling Professor Gerry McCormac's name on their party press release while responding to his report into the future of teaching in Scotland's schools.

Another Mc, the fabulous character of Grange Hill's Mrs McCluskey, wouldn't have been impressed. Easy to mix up all these Macs and Mcs, given that the professor and his team were reviewing the impact of the McCrone report, originally commissioned by Jack McConnell under the direction of Henry McLeish.

In attacking key aspects of the review, the Labour Party rightly focuses on teacher numbers, but should be sent to the back of the class for their terrible line that "Teachers should be left to teach, not dish out school dinners or repair computers".

The review does not even come close to suggesting a change to teachers' conditions that would have them engaged in any activity other than teaching, or supporting pupil learning with other tasks. So, what about the meat of the McCormac review? Why was it necessary, and what does it actually say? Some time ago now everyone involved in teaching agreed that pay had fallen way behind many other professions, of equal or lesser worth to society. After more than a decade of ultimately fruitless negotiation, the Scottish Government established the McCrone review to sort out the squabbling.

Now, leave aside the fact that the prequel to McCrone, timeously entitled the "Millennium Review", had actually secured the support of the teaching union's negotiating committee before being junked without a ballot of the memberships.

Also ignore the fact that this earlier review included a range of reforms to the profession designed to "recruit, reward and retain" quality teachers, e.g. the inclusion of a sabbatical year for key members in the staff room and the integration of extra-curricular support such as coaching school sports teams into the standard public sector school teacher's contract.

The eventual McCrone deal was a classic political fix. McConnell had been handed the poisoned chalice of avoiding looming disruption in Scotland's schools by first minister McLeish. They rushed to sign a deal that gave everything and got nothing in return.

At a cost of around one and a half tram sets, that's £1.3 billion in ordinary money, teachers gained their rightful pay reward, but everyone else involved suffered as a result.

First to go were the after-school clubs, emptying bored teenagers on to the streets. Then parents' evenings were cut back as these often time-hungry sessions didn't quite fit into the box provided in "non-teaching time". Then followed Saturday morning sports coaching and many other aspects of what was previously seen as a normal working week, in the 40 that constitute a school year.

This was all part of a depressing attitudinal shift from one with high professional standards towards a clock-watching mentality more akin to manual workers on poverty pay. Far from introducing flexibility, the 35-hour week, a core element of the McCrone settlement, has conditioned teachers, and especially their unions, into a way of working that doesn't come close to be described as professional, never mind fit for the 21st century, the title on the McCrone tin.

Even more damning, standards in Scotland's schools did not improve. As the McCormac Review starkly puts it, teachers' pay and conditions need to "strengthen the quality of teaching and leadership" in Scotland's schools, because they have not been. In other words, we paid an awful lot of cash for little, if any, improvement in the classroom experience for a generation of pupils. This deficit needs to be addressed.

The McCormac review rightly recommends a more flexible approach, enabling teachers to lead their own profession, to develop, monitor and continuously improve standards. It calls for a "reinvigorated professionalism" with "all teachers embracing professional obligations which go beyond that which can or should be embodied in a contract". In other words, let teachers teach, and organise themselves in a manner which "is in the best interests of young people".

Patently, this is not the case right now. The school year, based upon the agrarian calendar is not fit for last century, never mind this one. Of course, the report doesn't deal with this wider issue, as it was not in its remit to do so. However, if we are indeed to move towards a system and structure which is in the best interests of young people, and by extension their parents, then surely a move to four equal terms of ten weeks each is inevitable?

As well as allowing for much easier planning of the curriculum, and all other aspects of delivering a quality learning programme, such a move would also open up our schools to a wide range of external influences, the kind of which McCormac rightly promotes. The current restrictive practice of allowing only GTC registered teachers in front of a class "risks denying access to potentially valuable experiences for children and young people".

The current practice is a dereliction of duty.

A simplified school calendar, brought into line with the way in which many of us organise our working lives, around the four financial quarters of the year, would make it so much easier for other professions to engage with the education of our children. Professions and trades have so much to offer both in terms of the learning experience and as role models for our young people; artists and architects, engineers and electricians, journalists and joiners, planners and plumbers… all have a part to play.

The use of other professions would have another benefit, a potential reduction in class contact time. On the importance of this issue I wholeheartedly agree with the teaching unions. Teachers cannot be expected to perform at their very best across a crowded teaching timetable and this is one way in which to take some of the pressure off. Of course, another is to reshape the school week.

In this age of asymmetrical federalism, whichever version (devo-max or indie-lite) we vote for, the asymmetric week is surely worth a mention. Why? Because it works.

Moving to one half-day, by slightly increasing the length of the other four teaching days, is something which we know improves both teaching quality and school standards. When we introduced this in West Lothian in the 1990s it allowed an enrichment of the education programme with a wide range of other activities, such as sports, arts, crafts, music and outdoor education on that half day, supporting an overall improvement in all measurable educational outcomes.

Another aspect which McCormac promotes in seeking to bring teaching into the real world, recognising the budgetary pressure which we all face, is to put a stop to the dubious political initiative of smaller class sizes. The report recognises that there is scant evidence to demonstrate any benefit from marginal reductions in class sizes and that these nationally driven targets set by the SNP, before they knew they would win an outright majority in the parliament, "should not be pursued at the expense of overall teacher quality".

Above all, however, and this is a theme that runs through the McCormac review, local circumstances must be allowed to shape the way in which Scotland's schools are organised and run. Not all schools are the same - and neither they should be. Some decisions are appropriate for local authority level, others for schools themselves, but teaching as a profession must take control and drive up standards for all.

• Ross Martin is the policy director of CSPP and a former CoSLA Education Convener who was involved in the pre-McCrone negotiations.

Just Magestic

2011-09-12T11:07:00.001+01:00

Leigh Sparks - Stirling Retail

Drafting legislation must be a thankless task. All those lawyers, double meanings, wriggle room, my version of certainty against your version … and that’s before the MSPs get their hands on it. What a job … cross fingers and hope it all hangs together, I suppose.

The Scottish Government’s campaign against alcohol abuse in Scotland is well known. More is to come, despite previous shenanigans around the proposals for minimum pricing per alcohol unit. Unfinished business doesn’t come into it. And that’s even before the latest legislation comes into force.

Life is too short to detail the Alcohol Scotland Act 2010 which comes into force on October 1, 2011, or the wriggle room that will be exposed in the coming months. If you are desperate then see a lawyer … but be prepared, you might need a drink afterwards. And if you are a retailer and have not thought through the implications for your business yet, then get a defence lawyer … time is not on your side, unless you fancy time “inside”.

The intention is clearly laudable; responsible behaviour around alcohol. It is hard to argue against the sentiments behind some of the suggestions and remedies. Given the data on alcohol and Scotland we need to do something … but that’s where consensus breaks down. Nonetheless the Act brings in restrictions on multipack sales and quantity discounts amongst other things, so as to discourage (too) cheap pricing and binge buying.

This all sounds fine, but let’s consider a moment. If we are really interested we can consider the official guidance to the Act. The law says that multipacks need to be priced in multiples of the single unit price. So if a retailer doesn’t sell single items, or if the multipacks are of a different size product (44oml versus 500ml say), then what is the base price?

Even more interesting may be the banning of quantity discounts, to cut price discounting and so-called “incentives” for bulk buying (Let’s ignore the issue of whether loyalty card points are incentives or “irresponsible promotions” – the official guidance says this may be an issue for the Courts).

Having just received their recent leaflet, this is where Majestic comes in.

Majestic have responded to the change in the law by pricing single bottles of wine in Scotland at the equivalent of the two bottle price in England. So a headline figure on a bottle of wine on the 30th September in Scotland is £7.99 (but is £5.99 if you purchase two, and remember that the Majestic minimum buy is a mixed half case). On on the 1st October this will become £5.99 on the bottle in Majestic in Scotland.

Magic isn’t it … headline wine prices down. Just what the legislators wanted – I think not.

And that’s the problem with legislation. Drafting something is the easy part; drafting something to cover all eventualities and not to look stupid is much harder. So that’s where the lawyers come in (again).

I know this is really an oddity created by the marketing and promotional approach used by Majestic, but it does illustrate that the Scotland/England divide will raise issues. And that’s not even going into the guidance which says online sales based in England but delivered to Scotland are not covered by the Act – thereby providing an incentive (irresponsible promotion anyone) to English internet sales and against Scottish based shop jobs, and driving a rather large articulated vehicle through a small part of the sustainable Scotland programme. Finding a sensible way forward on promotion and marketing of alcohol in Scotland may not be not as straightforward as some seem to think it is.

Slainte.

Police & Fire Reform Plans Annouced

2011-09-09T11:13:00.007+01:00

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill announced the Government's plans to create single police and fire services against a backdrop of growing opposition from Local Government, COSLA and the Scottish Police Federation. Crucially, however, there was widespread support for the plans within the chamber with only the Lib Dems criticising the move. Mr MacAskill said:

"The status quo was not sustainable - we cannot afford to keep doing things eight times over. To do nothing would [lead] to massive reductions in police numbers and an attack on terms and conditions."

"A regional model would have been cumbersome, bureaucratic and would not have delivered the same benefits as a single service. The worst of both worlds. That left the single service option as the best way forward for the services."

The creation of single police and fire services is the Government's first serious foray into structural reform in public services. During its first term, the Government's PSR plans were consigned to rationalising public bodies and establishing a new concordat between central and local government. According to the Government, these plans will:

- Deliver estimated savings of £130 million a year and £1.7 billion over 15 years.
- Reduce duplication and overheads across eight police and eight fire & rescue services.
- Establish a strong, formal relationship between each service and each of Scotland's 32 local authorities, creating designated local officers for each council area who will work with the Council and other partners to meet local priorities and needs
- Ensure clear separation between Ministers and the operational responsibilities of services.

You can watch coverage of these plans on Newsnight Scotland which includes an interview with CSPP board member Richard Kerley (4minutes in).

Honesty in a leadership contest? Surely not

2011-09-06T14:16:00.006+01:00

I never thought the Tory leadership content would be the event to knock me out of my recess induced political coma, but it has. Even more unexpected is the source of this surprise - Murdo Fraser - and the hard hitting and strong speechhe delivered to launch his leadership bid.

“Change is no longer an option, but a necessity. Now is the time to face the truth [that] the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party is failing...and it will never succeed in its current form”.

“If I am elected as Leader of the Party, I will build a new and stronger party for Scotland”.

Fraser’s speech was a brutally honest evaluation of the Tories performance in the last 15 years which saw them reduced, despite a well-run campaign from Annabel Goldie, to just over 12% of the regional vote in the recent SP elections and losing key people like Derek Brownlee.

Whenever politicians talk about honesty my suspicions are usually aroused. It’s usually vacuous window dressing, but this time it was different. Why? The reason is simple: as the establishment figure Fraser was the overwhelming favourite for the vacant post. He had everything to lose, so it follows that he would run a safe campaign.

Yet by questioning the fundamental existence of the party and how it operates, he implicitly criticises his own performance in a failing enterprise. Numerous questions come to the fore: why didn’t he air his feelings sooner? Why now?

Curiously, he has acted in a way that is anathema to a rational political actor pursuing his self-interest. He has set out his stall, his vision, which may well see him (if he doesn’t win) kicked out of the party. The only conclusion we can draw from this is, shock horror, he actually means what he’s saying.

Disappointingly, both the Herald and the Scotsman decided to lead with negative front page stories with the latter saying "division deepens over plan for Tory divorce”. In contrast, the opinion pages were awash with praise.

But here’s the thing: it could well be that his plans for a new centre-right party resonate more strongly with people outside the party than those within it, which is problematic considering the former can’t vote.

Following Fraser’s speech, I and a colleague remarked on how stale and sterile Scottish political debate had become; in effect, it is wedded to a left of centre ideology. The prospect of a new centre right party, then, should be welcomed because it would generate alternative policy discourse and provide a rejoinder to the social democratic soup. Every democracy needs healthy opposition and Scotland is no different.

Murdo Fraser is taking a huge gamble in more ways than one. Not only is he putting his political career on the line, but he is gambling on a supposition that there is an appetite for a new centre right political party amongst the Scottish electorate.

He may be right. He may be wrong. In fact, he may never find out. But one things for sure: his speech will stimulate debate in a leadership content we all thought would be dull and uneventful.

Good luck to all the candidates. You can follow them via twitter - @murdofraser2011 , @Carlaw2011 and RuthForLeader

Barry

P.s. apologies for the lack of links - blogger is playing up.

Free the fife one

2011-09-05T12:14:00.003+01:00

Leigh Sparks - Stirling Retail (original blog has a number of images to complement the story)

A few posts back I made some comments about farm shops and shops on a farm. The response directly to me was fascinating. Which is how I came to spend a day last week in Fife – and no, contrary to some of my colleagues views of the Kingdom, I was not kidnapped or held against my will.

Instead I spent a fruitful day looking at varieties of farm shops in the vicinity of Cupar (itself a market town of some interest). Starting and finishing at the excellent Fisher & Donaldson bakery/coffee shop in Cupar, we spent time in four different farm shops and had great conversations and discussions about farm shops, authenticity, localness and its meaning and business generally.

So what did I learn or conclude?

There are first-class businesses out there run by passionate people with love of what they do, the produce they grow and the place they are in. They deserve to succeed. Perhaps this is not new, but seeing these, sometimes hidden, gems reinforces the point.

Farm shops span a huge variety from the authentic, this farm only, approach, through to the shop on a farm with mainly bought in product, whether local, national or even international. We should not decry any of these, as they all have some degree of local in them, most certainly local employment and they appeal to different groups of consumers and visitors.

These farm shops need to tell their stories; about the place, the produce, the rhythms of life on the farm/land and the excellence of what they do. Not all do this well enough or consistently enough yet. And we need to link these shops up to engage those who want to seek out this variety and difference. This also requires the (council) authorities to help promote these great resources on their doorstep, and not to hinder them.

People use (and love) the farm shop for various reasons, but mainly because they are meeting places for food, coffee and in some cases localness. They provide learning experiences and a sense of exploration of our natural larder. They are far more than simply a place to buy stuff (as good as that may be).

Some of the produce was exceptional – in quality, price and in environmental terms. Good seasonal, local produce, grown or produced on the farm, with no food miles and often at a price cheaper or comparable with large stores. What is not to like? We need to get closer to seasonality and authenticity of product.

We have to cherish and promote our produce and our heritage of great Scottish food. Farm shops are one element of this (we will return to farmers markets at some time). Get out and try them soon – hopefully you will be pleased and inspired by what they are trying to achieve.

Thanks to all for the time, discussion, coffee and fruit!

For the record I visited:

Fisher & Donaldson, Ceres Road, Cupar, KY15 5JT

Muddy Boots, Balmalcolm Farm, Balmalcolm, KY 15 7TJ

Cairnie Fruit Farm, Cairnie, Cupar, KY15 4QD

Pittormie Fruit Farm, Dairsie, KY15 4SW

Balgove Larder, Strathtyrum, St Andrews, KY16 9SF

Tram network just needs a driver

2011-09-02T10:09:00.004+01:00

Published in the Scotsman, 2/9/11

A directly elected leader in Edinburgh would have ensured that the capital's tram project was completed long ago.

ON MY return to Edinburgh from visiting a few other great European cities this summer, I struggled with my suitcase, once more, up the steep slope fromWaverley station to Waverley Bridge. Emerging from the gloom, blinking into the sunlight and looking straight ahead over the tops of the multi-coloured tourist buses, there it was, against a brilliantly steel-blue sky, that magnificent edifice, Edinburgh Castle perched atop its broodingly black volcanic plug. "I'm home."

As I turn to gather in a full 360º view of this wonderful place, I am struck by the many contrasts that contribute to the complexity of this, and indeed, many other great cities. Contrasts between old and new, between tired and energetic, between functional and aesthetically pleasing, Edinburgh has them all. These physical, visual differences represent and indeed demonstrate the diversity that makes cities the great, active places that continue to attract people to live, work and play in them.

In Edinburgh the picture is constantly changing. Some elements, such as the Castle, are a constant feature. Others, for example, the grand old lady of Waverley station, are given an occasional facelift, rebalancing the internal contrast between featureless functionality and the need of any place to be attractive, comfortable and relaxing.

As the jewel in the crown of Network Rail's Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP), Waverley's refurbishment will reset this classic beauty in her proper context. The station's modernisation will remove what had become an unflattering contrast between journey and destination. The arrival and entrance to Edinburgh, following the installation of the long awaited escalator to effortlessly lift commuters, leisure travellers and tourists alike up to Princes Street, will be transformed. EGIP will result in the electrification and modernisation of much of central Scotland's rail network, bringing faster, more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly rail travel, between three of our six cities.

Improving the links between our capital city, our largest city and the original choice of many for the Scottish Parliament building, Stirling, this complex project is being undertaken with minimal political fuss, and even less public attention. In contrast, compare this to Edinburgh's trams.

How is it that Network Rail can be set to deliver this £1 billion project, along more than 200 miles of track, involving major refurbishment of both Haymarket and Waverley stations (and the Gogar interchange with the trams) on time and on budget? Equally, how can Transport Scotland deliver the M74 extension, with its own set of complexities and myriad engineering challenges, crossing a number of administrative, never mind physical boundaries, in a similarly efficient manner?

Then ask the same question of Edinburgh's trams. Exactly. What has gone wrong? Why? Who is responsible for this debacle? How can it be put right? Is there anything that could have been done differently? What lessons can be learned for the future? Is there an issue about democratic accountability, about power and responsibility? What is our capital city lacking?

Let's examine the evidence. There exists a political majority within the council chambers in support of the tram project. Labour commissioned it, the Tories supported it, the Lib Dems inherited it and the SNP are stuck with it. However, at every junction when a decision was required, when our elected representatives were called upon to demonstrate the vision, clarity of purpose and leadership that delivered previous improvements to infrastructure, such as Waverley station, they were found collectively wanting.

The Lib Dems led the localised campaign against the Southern line out to the new hospital, and effectively turned the trams into a singular replacement for the No 22 bus. The Tories sought last Friday to kill off the project entirely and with it Edinburgh's reputation. Labour's spoiling amendment to truncate the route at Haymarket not only caught their opponents on the hop, but took themselves by surprise, in the event.

The SNP, for their part, have rightly been forced to perform a hasty retreat and help to save the project, and our capital city, from international ignominy. All in all, this has been a pretty sorry spectacle, dominated and damned by democratically elected members, each seeking to squeeze maximum party political advantage from a project that the population effectively rejected when it said a resounding "no" to the introduction of a congestion charge, its principal funding source.

There are no winners in this. There is no political glory. There is only, presently, despair, anger and frustration. At least it would appear that the realisation is dawning on our councillors that they have managed, through the fog of political war, to steer the trams down a very expensive dead-end. For many, this could be their own political terminus, time when their grannies kick them off the electoral bus. May 2012 approaches.

So what's to be done? How can our capital turn around this looming disaster and save the nation from yet another embarrassing episode, like the Holyrood building project? Well, it has already started.

The citizens are revolting. Not quite riots on the streets, or setting up the gallows in the Grassmarket, but across the blogosphere a sound akin to the screeching of a tram wheel on metal track is approaching. The populace, whatever viewpoint it had before last Thursday's vote, is united in its vocal condemnation, determined that a better solution is found.

Now a few basics. The trams must travel along Princes Street and link to Edinburgh's main rail and bus stations. It simply cannot be other than this. Wall-to-wall double-deck buses detract terribly from the world-renowned attractiveness of Princes Street, choking it to economic death and environmental destruction. Most buses don't need to travel its length, and could easily turn around at either end; think of the 31, the 26 or even the 22 itself. Trams will transform this thoroughfare, at last affording an opportunity for us all to take maximum advantage of its truly spectacular natural assets.

A well-designed interchange at Haymarket could also shift commuters from packed rush-hour trains with limited capacity, onto regular running, hassle-free, mass transit, modern trams. This particular modal switch, with integrated, all-through ticketing, on the level where the tram line sweeps down to the station platforms, would transform the travel experience.

This movement of people across a platform onto frequent, fast and environmentally efficient trams would exponentially add to their peak-period revenue flow, whilst benefiting the ScotRail franchise, by increasing its effectiveness with the removal of its biggest blockage. The same could happen at Waverley now that we are seeing the modernisation of that station, with a little bit of integration and imagination.

Another obvious benefit from this type of integrated thinking would be the removal of many of the remaining diesel trains from the rails below beautiful Princes Street Gardens, leaving space aplenty for the intercity fleet. A double benefit then, clearing Princes Street of double-deck diesels and clearing the gardens of diesel trains. Edinburgh could breathe more easily. Where has this joined-up thinking been? Other European cities manage to integrate their different modes of transport. What's different from Edinburgh?

A mayor. In the great European cities I visited this summer, from Barcelona to Venice, from Dubrovnik to London, an elected mayor, call them provosts in Scotland if you please, drives the development and regeneration of their cities.

They lead them in times of trouble and they set out their stall to deliver growth. If Edinburgh had a directly-elected provost, with executive power akin to counterparts all over the world, we would have had a tram network in place long ago, linking the entire travel to work area that provides the fuel for this engine of our economy. Come on, let's get on board!

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Ross is CSPP Policy Director

Richard Kerley GMS interview on shared services

2011-08-31T11:19:00.005+01:00

CSPP Board Member Richard Kerley was interviewed today on Good Morning Scotland (2:32:20 in). Responding to news that Councillors from West Dunbartonshire will vote to reject plans to set up a joint agency for back office functions, Professor Kerley said:

“It is curious that West Dunbartonshire Council, who actually led some of the scoping work, have appeared to pull back at the last moment. Yet, they are not the first to do so with South Lanarkshire already withdrawing from the process.”

“The fundamental factor underlying this is there are so many councils involved in complex and difficult discussions. Perhaps, it works better when fewer councils are involved in these deliberations.”

“Shared services have become one of the mantras of local government efficiencies and is a route strongly encouraged by the Scottish Government."

"However, it is not the only way forward and the projected savings of implementing the Clyde Valley plan are modest compared to overall council spend.”

Further information

1. The business case for shared services in Clyde Valley as well as the Arbuthnott Review can be accessed here

2. At our recent Big Event we had an excellent session on PSR that covered issues like shared services. Watch it now.

Cyclists are friends not foes. Yeah, right

2011-08-29T11:59:00.002+01:00

Plot spoiler: I cycle and have never had a good experience taking my bike on public transport.

“Bikes will be carried on buses for the first time in Scottish cities under a pioneering experiment by the country's biggest operator.”

That was the intriguing opening of a recent article in the Scotland on Sunday. But really, it peaked too soon - it went downhill immediately.

Launched by FirstGroup, the trial service will allow cyclists to take their bikes on a bus to fill the space ordinarily occupied by buggies and wheelchairs.

This, my friends, is “integrated transport” in action; a world where cyclists are a “friend not a foe” (Mark Savelli, Regional managing director for First - and yes, he really did say that). Even Cycling Scotland pedalled in to praise the pilot:

“It's fantastic. Public transport is a great way to get around…. so using a bike to join up either end of the journey really helps to make using sustainable transport hassle-free. It works so well on the train”.

Such observations and ideas are entirely removed from reality. Only someone who has never cycled, let alone tried commuting/holidaying with a bike on public transport, could utter such nonsense. Travelling on a train/bus is never “hassle free” nor does it “work well”. Here’s why.

1. Availability on the train is poor. It varies from two spaces on a bad day to eight on a good day. In my experience, average availability is much closer to two than eight. Only last month I tried to book two bikes up to Aviemore and couldn’t.

2. Presently, you can take your bike on a train if you book it on beforehand. Fair enough. Yet, many simply chance it and block the vestibule area for other passengers. Staff usually reprimand the cyclist but don’t chuck them off the train - they should.

3. Often the storage facility for bikes is located next to: a) toilets, b) buggy areas or c) wheelchair areas. It’s as if the person deliberately designed it to make it difficult for cyclists. Many times I have brought my bike on only to find a buggy placed in the cycle area. The mother then has to move all her stuff while holding her kid(s). She gets worked up, her kid cries and I’m the guy who caused it.

4. Likewise, it is not uncommon to be met with a wheelchair user who is parked in the cycling area. It is embarrassing for me and humiliating for the other passenger to be asked to move, particularly when there is a lack of suitable areas to park. More often than not, the wheelchair user will be faced with a 2-3 hour journey staring at a bike they will never be able to use.

5. Have you ever tried storing your bike in under-floor luggage compartments? There’s not enough room for luggage let alone bikes. Plus, it's a sure fire way of damaging an expensive piece of equipment.

To suggest that this is hassle free or a model that should be emulated is beyond dumb. It is representative of a detached decision-making process that does not care about the journey experience or about creating a sustainable, integrated transport system.

In my democratic haze, and anger at how difficult it is to holiday in Scotland on public transport with a bike, I contacted my local MSP. She promptly contacted FirstGroup and relayed my concerns. The reply revealed one thing: mixed usage or facilitating greater cycling is not their core business.

During my time temp’ing in the Scottish Govt a colleague, who was a keen cyclist, recounted his experience of working in transport. “They just don’t get it” he said. And you know what? He’s still right.

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Barry McCulloch, CSPP Policy Manager

Waitrose – mining a rich seam of service?

2011-08-29T10:10:00.003+01:00

Posted on Stirling Retail blog

I moved to Stirling around the time of the miner’s strike against the Thatcher government. On one of the main roundabouts into Stirling’s town centre stood the Stirling Miner’s Welfare Club. A couple of years ago it was pulled down and it has now been announced that it is to be replaced by … a Waitrose.

Waitrose? Stirling? These southerners seem to be getting everywhere. Much of course to the delight of the Stirling Council and sections of Stirling’s population. After all, this could be (it is in competition with Helensburgh) the first Waitrose in Scotland outside Glasgow’s and Edinburgh’s more leafier bits.

There is something quite symbolic about the change from a miner’s welfare to a Waitrose, but this is no time or place to get too nostalgic. Times change and Waitrose is fast assembling a Scottish face, as part of its rapid expansion and growth in the UK.

In a recent column in the Scotsman, Bill Jamieson pondered the expansion of Waitrose and decided it was built on our desire, especially in recession, to “treat” ourselves; Waitrose was flourishing not despite the recession, but because of it. There may be something in the general “treat” point, but for me Waitrose’s success is due to more than a guilty occasional pleasure in these dark times.

Waitrose is the food success story of the recent few years, having reinvented itself and moved away from its southern origins and bias. It has found new energy and direction, done deals with Boots and motorway service stations for concession space (and others overseas), looked for new types of locations, begun to open small high street stores and been generally innovative in its marketing (have a look on YouTube and other social media), its products (Heston’s Christmas Orange Pudding anyone?) and its store layout and design. Its Essential Waitrose “value” lines have been a raging success and helped their price comparisons with main stream food retailers.

But in one way it has not changed. As part of the John Lewis Partnership, Waitrose has customer service in its DNA. So it gives customers what they seek, but with added quality service. Its staff (sorry, partners) get a say and a share in the business performance; information on trading is routinely available.

Might all this also help account for its success? And might there be lessons here for other retailers? When you are in a Waitrose or a John Lewis, does this staff service ethos make the store a better place, and does this rub off on what and how much people buy, and what they think about the products, place and price? For many, the answer is yes; though rapid expansion runs its own risks in this regard.

So, will Waitrose work their magic in Stirling? Can’t wait to find out.

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Leigh Sparks, Professor of Retail Studies at the Institute for Retail Studies, University of Stirling.

Leigh Sparks: Would the last person … please not arrive by car

2011-08-25T11:31:00.002+01:00

Posted on the Stirling Retail blog (see blog roll)

Lots of media coverage yesterday for various data about the state of the Scottish high street and Scottish consumers. The headline seems to be that 1 in 9 of all Scottish shops are now vacant, though backed up with other recent figures about the lack of footfall in towns, the least disposable income for many years, slow consumer spending and a whole host of doom and gloom.

Buried in one report was a statement that the recession ended last January – but I somehow think that probably did not apply to Scotland, where many of the hard decisions about public sector workers, pay and service reductions have yet to come through the system.

Part of the coverage was about some of the novel ways in which high streets and local authorities could try to do something about their own situations. There have been some minor “cosmetic” works which have made places look better and maybe made possible businesses think about what could be an opportunity – opening up vacant stores for local schools or colleges, mocking up shop fronts to make it look like a store was there, and so on.

There are then the more substantive elements, in many cases funded by the Town Centre Regeneration Fund, such as the innovative Retail Rocks scheme in Torry, Aberdeen (and in which I declare the IRS at Stirling had some hand at the outset).

But on the flip side, there are then the negative things that are happening to our high streets and town centres. One of the most common of these seems to be the raising or the introduction of car parking charges for high streets and town centres. I am regularly sent cuttings about plans to increase the “take” from car parking, from centres across Scotland. The latest has been a steady stream of emails about Alloa, where there is a worry that the local authority wants to end the free local car parks and the local BID is fighting the proposals.

Whilst there are lots of things to debate about car use and costs generally, and I understand the problems cash-strapped local authorities are facing, it does seem a difficult time to be adding to the dis-incentives for people to visit local high streets and towns. Anything that makes it harder or actually/perceived to be more expensive will act as a barrier and have the effect of reducing the attractiveness of a place.

Footfall and spending are in tough enough places already. Whilst car parking costs are not on the scale of petrol costs, they are seen differently, and centres that impose or obviously raise them at this time, may be a trigger to re-evaluate behaviours, and not in a positive sense for that town or high street.

It is a recurrent theme, but high streets depend on people visiting them and they make their decisions on the ways in which high streets and their competition satisfy or not their requirements. What makes this high street the place to go, and how can we improve the experience, whether in the short term or the medium term, should be questions at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Leigh Sparks is a Professor of Retail Studies at the Institute for Retail Studies, University of Stirling and Chair of the Scottish Towns Partnership.

Ross Martin on Newsnight Scotland

2011-08-12T13:05:00.002+01:00

Last night our Chief Exec, Ross Martin, was interviewed on Newsnight Scotland, which you can watch below.

What do you think of our new logo?

2011-08-12T10:55:00.001+01:00

In a few months we'll have an all singing and all dancing website, which we are very excited about.

Let us know what you think of it.

Breathe easy

2011-08-09T12:41:00.003+01:00

Take a deep breath; well, not too deep if you’re out and about on the 82 miles of Scottish roads that exceed European pollution limits for nitrogen dioxide.

The Scotsman revealed today that the Scottish Government plan to ask for a ten year extension so it can meet the targets set in Glasgow city centre, Edinburgh city centre and NE and central Scotland. Environmentalists, among many others, have heavily criticised this delay. Dr Dan Barlow, head of policy at WWF Scotland, said:

“Scotland has had plenty of time to take preventative action, so it is completely unacceptable that not only are we set to breach air quality targets….This situation is a direct result of Scotland's failure to produce a sensible strategy that adequately addresses air pollution and climate emissions from road traffic."

Clearly, it doesn’t need to be this way. Solutions exist that would ensure everyone, irrespective of where they live, has a (legally protected) clean air supply.

1. Halt the construction of major infrastructure projects like the Forth Road Bridge.
2. Introduce congestion charging in Glasgow & Edinburgh.
3. Central Government should annually name, shame and fine the worst offenders (e.g. councils).
4. Encourage, financially if need be, the introduction of more low emission public transport vehicles.
4. Roll out cycle hire schemes in every major city.
5. Aggressively push for more car clubs.

These are just some of the ideas that could be implemented to generate both environmental and economic benefits. What we need now is political leadership at local and national levels to ensure our air is clean.

Barry McCulloch
CSPP Policy Manager

Key Elements of Police Reform

2011-08-04T15:41:00.005+01:00

Following a recent debate on Newsnight Scotland between those arguing for centralism vs localism, we have outlined the following elements that we believe should feature in the re-organisation of the Scottish Police Service, regardless of whether a 1, 2, 3 or 4 force structure is chosen.

1. Amalgamate where efficiencies of scale are possible and can be proven.

2. Encourage/enforce/incentivise a greater use of shared services between forces.

3. Ensure maximum devolution of operational decision making down to the Divisional level.

4. Realign, where necessary, Divisional boundaries with individual local authority areas or groups of areas where other public services, e.g. education and social work, are being shared across council boundaries.

5. Determine the appropriate level of local command for each divisional area, e.g. Asst. Chief Constable for each City, Chief Superintendant for the likes of Falkirk or West Lothian, or Inspector or Superintendant for each of the Islands areas.

6. Redefine the relationship between local commanders and their local authority partners, in the absence of Joint Boards, whilst recognising the critical importance of operational independence, and ensure the service fully tied into the Community Planning Partnerships wherever the boundaries of those sit.

Chuck Dalldorf: The political battle over the US national debt limit

2011-07-29T10:33:00.000+01:00

"On this side of the Atlantic, we are stuck in the grip of a self-created political and possibly economic crisis. With only days to go before the United States defaults on loans and forces a large economic disaster, which may have global implications.

This political battle is a schizophrenic series of events in the context of a terrible, anemic economy with high unemployment, wrapped up in the beginnings of a huge political campaign for the 2012 elections. President Barack Obama is running for re-election in the fall of 2012. He is not alone and all 435 members of the US House of Representatives and one third of US Senators face re-election with the President in 2012.

The U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to manage federal spending and borrowing. Congress controls what the U.S. Treasury can borrow through the establishment of the debt limit, which currently is $14.29 trillion. As the US has struggled through the global economic recession and the operations of two wars, expenditures of the federal budget have not matched tax revenue leaving the U.S. national government no alternative but to borrow money.

Historically, Congress has used the issue of extending or modifying the debt ceiling as another tool to grandstand on federal budget related issues, or programs supported or opposed by the political party opposite. In the current battle over the extension of the debt ceiling, the President is a Democrat, the Senate is controlled by the Democratic Party and the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republican Party.

Generally speaking, Democrats want the debt ceiling extended to help fund needed programs as well as paying for debt the US has related to the economic downturn and fighting two, long and on-going wars. Republicans believe in smaller government and want to see government spending reined in. (Though it is interesting Republican’s want federal spending reduced outside war funding, which has been the single largest expenditure driving the US economy into debt long before the massive global economic recession. But I digress…)

As the US economy began plunging in 2008, both US Presidents Bush and Obama expended huge amounts of federal money to shore things up. The results of those emergency efforts were mixed, but mostly Americans feel there was little choice in those efforts.

One of the largest expenditures, outside the wars, was the effort the Obama administration pursued in creating a federal stimulus effort to try to even out and slowly grow the economy. I think the stimulus worked some, but did not place enough federal money in the right places and to the right people.

The economic struggle at hand is a very real one. We are desperately fighting a double dip recession and we have clearly not created enough jobs. A jobless recovery cannot create growth and confidence.

America’s political culture has changed and it has changed for the worse. We seem to no longer believe some issues are more important to resolve for all Americans then seeing those issues as ways to make political points. This is now true in national, state and local governments throughout the country.

The political crisis of the extension of the national debt limit has become a self-inflicted slow motion train wreck for the economy and continued alienation of Americans from political participation and faith in the leadership of our nation. Each party sees a jam opportunity but everyone is flirting with a possible massive economic meltdown that would affect the US and global economies.

We are in a race to the bottom right now and there will be enough blame to go around. The Tea Party leaning Republicans seem to be re-enacting a failed a battle strategy from the Vietnam War where they seem to be saying they are ready to “destroy the village in order to save it.” Traditional Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner, look to find ways to win points for GOP house members and to cause damage to the President.

President Obama and Democrats in the Senate and House have not used enough opportunities to focus on the creation of jobs. Democrats are also playing political theater to demonstrate how Republicans are hurting core constituents in the budget process and the impacts to them in proposals to cut costs to gain acceptance to solve the debt ceiling crisis.

Daily polling from a number of sources show there is continuing damage to both parties as well as the President. We continue to foster a political culture of conflict over solutions. We no longer seem able to find a shared national interest where both parties can work together to create jobs and allow families to recover from this damaging, ongoing recession. Without this focus and joint commitment to resolve what ails Americans, both major parties continue to alienate voters and make party politics irrelevant".
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This week's guest blog was from our good friend Chuck Dalldorf, Public and Political Affairs Consultant and Part-time Lecturer at Sacramento State.

Back in 2009 Chuck authored a blog for the CSPP entitled West of the West Wing. You should check it out.

(Image courtesy of the BBC)

An Audience with... the Class of 2011

2011-07-27T09:43:00.000+01:00

Our annual policy summit, the Big Event, is now available to watch on our YouTube channel.

You can watch the Q&A session with three new MSPs below. The video features Marco Biagi MSP, Alison Johnstone MSP and Willie Rennie MSP.

The Big Event's public service debate

2011-07-26T16:22:00.000+01:00

Our annual policy summit, the Big Event, is now available to watch online via our YouTube channel.

You can watch our session on Scotland's Got (Public Service) Talent: Scotland's Emerging Public Service Jigsaw below.

Our thanks to Deloitte, Clackmannanshire Council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Orkney Islands Council, Shetland Council and the Herald for making this event possible.

The Big Event's Speakers Corner

2011-07-26T16:15:00.000+01:00

There is nothing worse than sitting for two hours with a five minute Q&A session, which is why we always aim to ensure our events are participant driven.

At the recent Big Event we held an open mic session where delegages could outline their public policy concerns or ideas.

You can watch this session below.

Watch the Big Event - town centres session

2011-07-26T16:03:00.000+01:00

Our annual policy summit, the Big Event, is now available to watch online via our YouTube channel. In total they are 16 videos for you to watch on town centres, speakers corner, public service innovation and a Q&A session with new MSPs.

Click here to start watching the event or via our blog. Below you can watch the Genuis Towns session with Dave Gorman SEPA, Head of Environmental Strategy, Ian Lindley,Scottish Small Towns Group Chair & member of Scotland's Towns Partnership Policy Group and Lesley Riddoch
Author, Broadcaster & Commentator.

This event was sponsored by Architecture + Design Scotland and DLA Piper.

Ross Martin: Simpler planning system could help build a way out of recession

2011-07-25T11:58:00.000+01:00

Published in the Scotsman, 23/7/11

"To shelter from the coming economic storm, we must boost our defences, starting with the housebuilding sector

First, we had the financial crisis which precipitated a collapse of the established economic order. Next it was the Westminster political establishment, caught with its hands in the expenses till. Now, as we watch on like a voyeuristic red top reporter salivating over scandal, the tabloid press appears to be hacking itself to death through its own immoral, professionally grubby and personally hurtful practices.

The resultant general crisis in confidence is gathering pace, twisting together a triple helix of social, economic and political reputations into a single, all-consuming destructive tornado. Even the Metropolitan Police have been sucked into the storm, with Scotland Yard's finest forced to resign in an atmosphere of accusation, suspicion and mistrust.

It is anybody's guess as to where this reputation-wrecking twister will strike next, who or what will be shredded in its path. All around, the hatches are being battened down as other parts of society prepare for the worst. From scandal to corruption, from incompetence to inability, the impact of dodgy decisions in so many walks of life is now emerging.

Across the private sector, we've already seen pensions being slashed, wages cut and jobs lost. A large number of once-proud companies, such as many well-known high street stores, have simply ceased to exist. Now the winds of change, driven by the economic-political-social storm centred on London are beginning to reach Scotland.

The effect of these chill winds will be felt most keenly here, where the public sector is such a dominant feature of our landscape. Of course, fiscal-political deals between the Scottish Government and HM Treasury have sheltered us from the icy blasts until now, but we cannot be protected forever.

We are about to feel the full force unless we can quickly mount a strong, well-constructed defence. If we are to protect ourselves from the inevitable impact, we desperately need to rebuild our country's economic defences, and fast.

Brick by brick, using the tools of trusted trades where a hard day's work is rewarded with an honest wage, this can indeed be done, starting with the housing sector.

Even though the mortgage market has still to reopen accessible entry points, demand for new housing, across all sectors, remains strong. Innovative financial products, such as shared equity schemes, mid-market rents and other mechanisms that can strengthen our housing base are beginning to make a marginal difference, but our planning system still impedes development.

In order to deliver the Scottish Government's central policy focus of sustainable economic growth, we must make it easier to build more new housing, and simultaneously redevelop the 50,000 houses that are currently lying vacant in Scotland. Many more properties are being used for other purposes, such as under-utilised storage space above struggling shops in our town centres.

While remaining true to the environmental targets of our world-leading climate change legislation, we must introduce greater flexibility into our planning system and encourage, through financial incentives, a greater diversification of our housebuilding sector. By changing the tax treatment of existing properties and encouraging their re-use, by incentivising the redevelopment of derelict sites, and by introducing a range of other measures to enable new sites to come forward, we can make a real difference.

It is a scandal of our time that the construction industry is on its knees, when we have the skills base, the ingenuity and the desire to better match the supply of a more varied housing stock with the undimmed demand for new homes.

We need to identify the blockages that are stopping the development of what could be a strong economic defence against the fast approaching fiscal storm. Aside from the few public sector projects that have been sanctioned by the Scottish Government, including the M74 extension and the M80 upgrade, and the continuing expansion of the still buoyant supermarket sector, the rest of the construction industry continues to bump along the bottom of the recessionary floor. We can, and we must, do better.

For example, almost all Local Plans, the map of any local authority area designated by potential type of land use, are premised on the hope that very large-scale housing allocations can fund the huge and expensive items of infrastructure required to support them. Many of these "Major Growth Areas", where councils have allocated between 2,000 and 5,000 houses to individual locations, are struggling to get started.

The Scottish Government's original, optimistic target of 35,000 house completions per annum will never be met until greater flexibility is introduced into these development plans. A realistic approach to infrastructure challenges must therefore be taken, recognising the difficulties that many of these large-scale sites have in securing up-front funding for major items of infrastructure.

For example, where a new high school is required, the up-front cost of well over £30 million makes a site unfundable and therefore undeliverable at this time, and this is without even looking at new or upgraded motorway junctions or rail stations. Where councils have managed to allocate large scale sites in areas where these items of infrastructure already exist, in all or in part, these sites do of course have a chance of coming forward.

However, in other areas, where these sites are unlikely to lay a single brick in the next few years, councils should be enabled to bring forward additional smaller sites which can make a start tomorrow.

It is clear that sites of varying size are required to get the housing market moving again, everything from a few houses built by local developers to sites of 750 houses or so put together by the big house building firms and or innovative investors.

The level of infrastructure investment required for these smaller sites, eg a new primary school rather than a new high school, can be supported, even in the challenging economic climate.

So, if allocated, many of these developments could begin tomorrow, immediately creating well paid, skilled jobs and kick starting local economic activity.

A little ingenuity and a lot more flexibility is now required to enable the planning system to deliver on the fine and laudable aims that the parliament aspired to when passing this legislative planning framework; increased efficiency, more localised decision making and greater clarity on costs for all concerned.

With additional incentives on the re-development of existing (so called brown field) sites, the re-use of existing residential units, and an increase in the density of housing developments, where appropriate, a huge and timely boost could be given to the house building sector at local and national levels.

Such an injection of economic activity would strengthen our defences against the oncoming fiscal storm considerably. This would provide quality employment for thousands of individuals, strengthen the supply chain by benefiting small businesses and deliver new homes for families.

A number of simple steps to deliver this robust range of benefits could be taken today. These building blocks for economic stability, and the preparation for sustainable growth, are ready to be laid.

Scotland has the people, the skills and the ingenuity to construct a better future. It's time to get the policy trowel out and get started".

Ross is CSPP policy director

Opening public services

2011-07-13T15:30:00.000+01:00

The UK Coalition Govt has published its long awaited White Paper entitled "Open Public Services". You probably haven't seen much of it in the press because of the all-pervading issue that is News International.

You can watch the PM deliver his speech below.

Ross Martin: Public sector in dire need of ideas

2011-07-08T14:13:00.000+01:00

Published in the Scotsman, 5/7/11

"OUR focus must be on new funding models to deliver higher quality, more localised public services. Then London mayor Ken Livingston visited Edinburgh at the time of the congestion charge debate in 2005. If the Capital had gone down the "Red Ken" route and simply imposed the charge, it could have funded the trams Picture: Neil Hanna

When it comes to tax, Scotland has a strange sense of priorities. We are happy to pay tax when performing the most basic of bodily functions - 30p entry to the public toilets in Auchterarder - but we don't need to spend even a penny to park our gas guzzler at an out-of-town shopping mall when many of our high streets are struggling to compete.

Similarly, we are used to paying for access to the telephone or rail network, even to the extent of paying peak charges at times of busy traffic, but ask us to pay a small toll to travel the most expensive part of our motorway network, the recently opened M74 extension, and we'd most likely drive the congested few miles alternative back over the Kingston Bridge to avoid it. Our relationship with taxation is quite perverse.

It could have been so different. In 1999, carried along on the wave of devolution optimism, we Scots actually voted to pay more tax; up to 3p in the pound could be raised, or lowered, by our new parliament in Edinburgh. Sadly, our parliamentarians proved to be out of step with public opinion and declined to use the tax powers that we, the people, had graciously granted them. The die was cast.

Just like their Westminster cousins, our MSPs have consistently chosen not to see the headline tax rate as a key part of economic strategy, rather they have sought to vary taxes as a tactic, creating or removing individual, sometimes localised charges instead: abolishing the tolls from the Forth Road Bridge and the Skye Bridge, implementing free prescription charges and eye tests, removing car parking charges at hospitals and granting all pensioners, regardless of personal wealth, free bus travel around Scotland.

This tactic of removing individual charges proved politically popular in times of economic boom, and even as we entered the public expenditure squeeze. However, as budgetary bust begins to bite home in countries all around Europe, from Greece in the East, to Portugal in the West, a more coherent strategy is required here in Scotland, and quickly.

The rise in universalism has limited the options. By removing a range of revenue raising measures that could plug significant parts of the public sector funding gap, our MSPs, of all parties, have boxed themselves into a corner.

Like David Haye, in his fight with Kiltschko, our MSPs talked a good game, but they too could find it impossible to overcome the relentless plodding progress of a colossal opponent that simply refuses to budge - the budgetary black hole.

The funding gap is huge, £39 billion over the next three parliaments, according to last year's Independent Budget Review. In order to get out of this tight fiscal corner, our parliamentarians must look for new ways to raise revenue for public service provision and lever in additional capital investment for much needed infrastructure improvements.

So what is to be done? In England, the Conservative-Lib Dem Government have continued with the privatisation route and market-driven reforms of the public services begun under Thatcher and continued by the Brown Treasury, under Tony Blair.

Here in Scotland, with a body politic which can fairly be described as a kind of "Social Democratic Soup", that is not only unpalatable, but politically unworkable. A different set of ingredients must be mixed if Scotland is to reform its public services in a manner that will prove palatable to the people, especially as the local government elections loom large. The only way forward is to dig deep into the political and civic consciousness of this country, evoking the innovative spirit of the Enlightenment and looking to design new ways to raise revenue and cut costs, enabling the delivery of more efficient and effective public services.

OK, some of these ideas will not be entirely new, while others are still in their wrappers, but all possible forms of taxation must be considered. For both revenue and capital expenditure, our focus must be on new funding models that will enable us to redesign and deliver higher quality, more localised and personalised public services.

Simultaneously, as we look to increase the amount of cash that government, at all levels, can raise to help plug that funding gap, so too must we be brave, and occasionally brutal, in stripping out costs that contribute very little, if anything, to the common weal. This side of the public service reform balance sheet is a story for another day, but suffice to say that the fundamental, root and branch review of every public pound spent, as advocated by the Christie Commission, is indeed urgent.

On taxation, we must get serious about different types of tax, the rates at which they may be levied, who should be responsible for them and, crucially, what impact they have on the quality of Scotland's public services. Each Scottish Parliament has declined to show a lead on innovative tax measures; this one needs to shape up.

A few initial ideas. In transport, congestion charging would have funded the complete construction costs for the Capital's trams, avoiding the need for the UK's best bus company, Lothian Buses, to be dragged to the table.

The marriage of these two key parts of the public transport network in and around Edinburgh should have been based upon operational partnership, not on a dash for cash to fund an expenditure black hole. We are in danger of repeating that strategic mistake on a national scale.

The decision by the city council to put the Congestion Charge to a city-wide ballot was both unnecessary and unlikely ever to succeed. Unnecessary, because "Red Ken" Livingston had shown the way in London. Unlikely to succeed, because the electorate was rightly suspicious of granting politicians another tax-raising power, when they hadn't had the courage, or the vision, to use the last one they were given.

Like many of our other infrastructure projects this national asset will quickly turn a corner in public perception once it is up and running. As soon as passengers feel the benefit of a modern mass transit system, improving the public transport experience beyond all recognition, the Capital's trams will raise the level of expectation, which will in turn raise standards across the network. It's just as well that the subway in Glasgow has secured much needed modernisation funds as the comparison, once operational, would have been stark.

This link between improved quality and increased charges must be the benchmark for public service reform in Scotland. From public toilets to public transport, we either raise revenue to fund these services through general taxation or we introduce user charges that create a revenue stream hypothecated to that project or service. This is essentially the argument over tuition fees, whether the cost is paid for up-front by all or collected through usage, in this case by English and non-European students.

Similar arguments and contradictions apply across the entire public service family. In health, we sanction the operation of private sector practitioners in dental care, working alongside the NHS, whereas to suggest a penalty fee for those serial no-shows at the local GP's surgery is like, well, pulling political teeth. In education, many a teacher makes a nice little, often tax-free, earner from private tuition (sometimes even when striking), but when will a Scottish council integrate that mass, often middle-class activity into its own operation?

On the capital side of the budget, it has been painful watching the political contortions over the alphabet soup of funding mechanisms; PFI, PPP and NPDB - the Private Finance Initiative, Public Private Partnerships and Non Profit Distributing Body, in case you wondered.

Using essentially the same financing vehicle, these variations on a theme are presented as radically different options to an increasingly disinterested public. Next up are TiFs and LABVs - Tax Incremental Financing and Local Asset Backed Vehicles - both forms of a commercial mortgage taken out against the value of a public, or contributing private asset.

An open and honest debate is urgently required. If our MSPs signed up for that, I might even pay an entry fee to watch, listen and learn."

Ross Martin is Policy Director for the Centre.

Ross Martin: Single-minded approach to public service reform

2011-06-29T12:21:00.000+01:00

Published in the Herald on 24 June 2011

"With so many other concerns on its mind, one might wonder whether the Scottish public would clamber over itself to discuss the finer points of public service reform.

But as the Centre for the Study of Public Policy’s Big Event demonstrated yesterday, something is stirring in the public sector woods, and it’s not only the funding axe men going about their budget-cutting business. If one cares to look, the reforming wood can be seen emerging from branches of the traditional public service family tree. A quiet revolution in the way Scotland’s public services are designed and delivered is under way and it is coming to a council, a health board and the police service near you.

All over the country local political leaders who have had enough of national policy inertia have decided that change must happen now. Driven by the deep descent of public spending which looms so large on the near horizon, these local leaders have stepped up to the political plate and are beginning to deliver real change, designed to make public services more efficient, more effective and more responsive to the public they serve.

Step forward Stephen Hagan, leader of Orkney Islands Council, who is driving the concept of the single public authority (SPA). This concept would see all public services on Orkney combined into a single unified structure, with integrated services provided by one chief executive, one management team and held to account through one direct line of democratic accountability. All public services would be designed and delivered on the islands, including the big two of health and local government, working under this new unified structure.

This model, in three different forms, is being pursued separately by each of the island areas: Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles, with local variations of service design, delivery mechanism and democratic structure all under discussion. By gaining control of the public spend each of these three island areas is looking to protect and improve services, support local jobs and strengthen career structures, especially during these times of economic constraint.

Other public services, designed locally or regionally, would also be the responsibility of these three new integrated authorities, potentially including all transport links, from ferry routes to flight schedules. The enterprise function, currently held by Highlands & Islands Enterprise, is another candidate for this decentralisation drive, as is responsibility for tourism, now the preserve of Visit Scotland.

In addition, where regional or national public service is not localised, but maintains a spending footprint on the islands, it could be held to greater account by these three new integrated bodies, for example through the appearance of senior agency executives in front of each SPA’s committee of inquiry. This would considerably strengthen all islanders’ ability to hold to account and better co-ordinate spend of the public pound by bodies such as Scottish Water, Scottish Natural Heritage and Historic Scotland.

Of course, the centralisation of the Scottish police service would be immeasurably strengthened if operational control was devolved out to divisional level with boundaries co-terminous to that of each island area. This decentralising approach is equally applicable to all other parts of the emergency services, whether currently provided on a local, regional, national or UK basis. In fact amalgamation could create much stronger career structures in each of the three island areas.

This is only one part of the emerging public service jigsaw puzzle being examined at the CSPP’s Big Event. Under the critical eye of global consultancy firm Deloitte, and with involvement from a wide range of senior players from across Scotland’s public service family, this event allowed members of the public to analyse different pieces of the puzzle and place them in the emerging picture. They liked what they saw.

Another fine example, described in passionate detail by Councillor Iain Robertson, of West Dunbartonshire Council, was the reality that we don’t need to redraw the lines on the local government map in order to see councils within recognisable parts of the country work much more closely together. One Ayrshire, One Renfrewshire or even One Dunbartonshire can become a reality by simply merging services such as education or social work, in the way that others, for example Clackmananshire and Stirling or East/Midlothian, already do.

A third piece in this emerging public service picture is of course that of the city region. Learning the lessons from Manchester and the metropolitan area surrounding that great city, Scotland’s six cities, all incidentally now working together on the development of a range of urban policy initiatives, are also actively engaged in looking to better co-ordinate public services with their regional partners.

Of course, the Highland Council area covers its own city region, Glasgow and Edinburgh are surrounded by a number of partner administrative areas, Dundee and Aberdeen have fewer and Stirling has a particular set of relationships, sitting as it does in the heart of central Scotland. These particular pieces of the public service reform jigsaw puzzle have a high degree of commonality, but significant local variation as well.

This local diversity is the central feature of the emerging public service picture, but as it has been developing our parliamentarians in Holyrood have often appeared unwilling to see, or are even unaware, that things were changing about them as they refused to discuss any significant change before their election earlier this year. Not any more. A positive impact of having 22 “dual mandate” MSPs is that their knowledge and experience of change at the local level far outstrips that of many of their non-councillor counterparts in the Scottish Parliament.

Many of the new intake have had their sleeves rolled up delivering change at the local level. Let’s hope that they are keen to complete the jigsaw puzzle, working together to deliver real and lasting change for the better, all across Scotland’s public service family".

Ross Martin is policy director of the CSPP.

The Big Event starts now

2011-06-22T13:31:00.000+01:00

The Big Event takes place tomorrow in Edinburgh's Storytelling centre, but we wanted to start the debate today by giving you a sneak preview of the pitches our public service reformers will deliver. Here are the rules.

Our Public Service Reformers each have 3 minutes to convince our sponsors, Deloitte and you, 'the public vote', of their winning (public service reform) act. Having cross-examined our 'acts' you even get to show them the 'red card' if you don't like it! Our Public Service Reformers will argue that:

Stephen Hagan, Leader, Orkney Council - In the islands, we’ve always been good at community planning because partner agencies have always worked closely together through necessity.

But island communities with small populations really don’t need more than one public service provider. So we want to create three Single Public Authorities, one for each of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. This will let us develop the seamless services that our islanders need and want.

Angela Leitch, Chief Executive, Clackmannanshire Council - In December last year, Clackmannanshire and Stirling Councils both agreed to provide jointly their Education and Social Services under a lead authority model.

The underpinning principle of mutual respect has resulted in Clackmannanshire leading on the Social Services agenda, while Stirling is the lead for Education across both local authority areas.

The new arrangement aims to provide better, more efficient services, model best practice and make the most of the skills, expertise and experience across both Councils. At the same time, the governance arrangements remain as they were, with each Council determining the priorities for their local area.

The Heads of joint services report into both Chief Executives and any decisions to change strategy or policy will be taken by the relevant committee in each authority. The scrutiny of these services is also retained by the individual Councils.

Cllr Iain Robertson, West Dunbartonshire Council - The proposition is, "Council Mergers", One Dunbartonshire, One Renfrewshire, One Ayrshire etc etc.

I agree that operationally this is essential if we are to cope with increasing demand, decreasing funding and the need to be more efficient.

Additionally councils are expected to maintain and improve the quality of service!
The difficulty is that re-organisation, boundary changes or mergers are not affordable in these austere times.

Constituents are not receptive to centralisation or loss of local identity! They also value their local identity

The solution, in my view, would be to achieve the 'one' council concept by merging service areas or sharing services whilst maintaining the valued local identity.

Whilst I support the CVCPP Share Services Agenda (Arbuthnott), I think it needs to go much further! For example, can a small authority justify an education department and directorate? Should 2, 3 or more small authorities combine into one shared service!

Benefits would include, reduction of centralised overhead costs, economies of scale in various areas, ability to provide specialist services and support more efficiently etc, etc. I also don't think it would or should be necessary to partner the same council exclusively, each service area should be considered on a best fit criteria.

Iain Lindley, Scotland’s Towns Partnership and Scottish Small Towns Group - To revise Community Planning and Community Councils in Scotland.

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Sponsored by Deloitte, Clackmannanshire Council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Orkney Islands Council & Shetland Council.

Media Sponsor The Herald

Can elected mayors help drive economic growth?

2011-06-21T15:48:00.000+01:00

The Centre for Cities have recently published what appears to be an excellent report on elected mayors. The following phrase aptly summarises the report:

"Directly elected city mayors have the potential to make a difference not just to local democracy but to the economy too. Time and again, history shows that it is cities with strong and effective civic leadership that are well placed to make the most of local economic assets and compete better in a global economy. And mayors create an opportunity to have exactly this type of strong and effective leadership."

Is it time that Scotland began to seriously debate the introduction of elected mayors/provost? We certainly think it is.

Read the full report here.

Why not tell us what you think at the Big Event? Places are still available.

Ross Martin: How our teachers became a class apart

2011-05-31T09:53:00.000+01:00

Published in the Scotsman, 26/5/2011

Reviews, deals, fudges and poisoned chalices, the history of how we run our schools is an unedifying series of mistakes.

As we await the outcome of the McCormac review into the McCrone deal for teachers that was a result of a McConnell fudge after he had been handed a poisoned chalice by McLeish, one is entitled to wonder in the end what many a Mc will Mac.

If this bewildering array of political and professorial involvement in shaping Scotland's teaching profession was subject to external assessment, the results would make grim reading indeed. A 23 per cent pay hike was conceded in a classic short-term political fix, achieving nothing noticeable in terms of improvement to either the quality of the learning experience or the performance of our pupils.

In fact, many would argue, as the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) appears to have done in its evidence to this latest McCormac review, that the teaching profession has gone backwards. Clock-watching in the classroom has become the norm as part of the teaching unions' precious 35-hour week. Meanwhile, the dinosaur leaderships spend their time squabbling in the staffrooms over who is the most macho, as the world moves on around them.

Our schools need fresh ideas, an energetic impetus. They need to be given the confidence to innovate, the freedom to design and deliver the Curriculum for Excellence. They need to analyse their own performance, compare it with others operating in similar circumstances and develop ways in which to address identified shortcomings. They need to strengthen links with communities, reflect the changing nature of their environment and encourage far greater participation from parents and the wider public too.

When teaching unions complain about workload, how can they seriously suggest that no-one else is qualified to impart professional knowledge, to transfer time-served skills or to support educational development of young people? When rural communities campaign against school closures, why aren't they encouraged and enabled to take a more active role in the running of their school? The Scottish school system is broken, and after more than ten years of fiddling, it's time our parliament set about fixing it.

Here are a few items for the new intake of MSPs to consider for inclusion in the policy curriculum, many tried and tested either here at home or in other, more successful, school systems abroad.

Let's start with a change the teaching unions actually agree with - fewer education authorities. It is simply not possible to justify separate authorities across Ayrshire, or Dunbartonshire or Renfrewshire, or indeed in many other parts of the country where recognised community boundaries were cut not from an educational perspective but as part of an earlier, equally unsuccessful political fix.

Next, as the higher education sector faces an unprecedented funding challenge, can we really justify the treading of water, re-teaching and duplication, of first-year university and sixth-year school? Of course not, one of them has to go.

The school calendar is a complicated farce, with last month demonstrating beyond reasonable doubt that whoever or whatever it was designed for, it certainly wasn't hard-working pupils or their parents. In most parts of Scotland, pupils spent a maximum of seven days in school in April. We desperately need to move towards four equal terms of ten weeks.

This simple switch has huge potential for enriching the educational experience of our youngsters, even more so if the so-called asymmetric week is adopted, where Wednesday afternoons are designated for a wide range of supporting activities. Sports, arts, drama, outdoor education, community participation, swimming lessons, learning about road safety, healthy living, preparing for international exchanges, all this and much more are possible.

In addition, and in order to ensure that the educational experience is well grounded, we need to engage a far wider cross-section of the community, enabling accountants, architects, civil and electrical engineers, fashion and graphic designers, lawyers, scientists and planners to share their professional experience and act as role models for our youngsters, exciting them about the world in which they work.

Either on the "asymmetric afternoon", or elsewhere in a generally more accessible timetable, ten-week blocks of professional practice or tutoring in the trades should become the norm for Scotland's schools. Scotland's got talent, so how can our schools harness it? Associate teacher status could easily be arranged, ticking all the teaching quality boxes of the General Teaching Council and the pupil safety issues of Disclosure Scotland.

Whilst we are on the subject of community involvement, when will a rural school be run by its parent body with support from its education authority, instead of the other way round? There are plenty of successful models for operating key public services, including co-ops, social enterprises and mutuals. Why should our schools be any different?

As we see the move towards greater community control of the social and economic issues that matter locally, for example football fans owning their clubs, food-co-ops developing local production, the generation of significant financial benefits for communities through wind farm ownership, the lack of parental involvement in our school system appears all the more anachronistic.

As regards wider parental involvement, bring back the school boards. Originally conceived as vehicles for opting out, these dedicated groups of parents, teachers and co-opted members of the community were actually beginning to perform a valuable function, especially in Scotland's towns, strengthening the traditionally weak link between many schools and the communities they seek to serve.

School boards were abolished in that puerile political atmosphere that has hung over our parliament like an Icelandic ash cloud, darkening the atmosphere and closing MSPs' minds to clear, blue sky thinking. They were dumped not because they were a bad idea but because they were a Tory idea. Simples.

Consigned to the classroom wastepaper basket, along with league tables, school boards were the last real hope for parental involvement in the teaching and learning programme. Bring them back, dust them down, re-design them to each serve a cluster - a single secondary and its associated primary schools.

League tables, also abolished, were misleading and practically useless as indicators of performance. We have a perfectly acceptable, easily understood, robust alternative that has been hidden from public view for far too long. Clumsily entitled the School Characteristic Index, it allows us all to compare and contrast the performance of your local school with others of a similar size, operating in similar circumstances on similar budgets. Equally, the Relative Ratings metric is an invaluable tool that can be used to determine faculty, department or even individual teacher success in adding value to a pupil's performance. Why don't we publish this invaluable information for parents?

Just as the electorate has an uncanny ability to ensure its collective will is translated into the colour of government, almost regardless of the electoral system, so do parents have that sixth sense of how to create a good school. First on any parent's list, backed up by sound educational research, are truly comprehensive catchment areas. This beats all other factors, including shiny new buildings and smaller class sizes, hands down.

This is especially important in our cities, where high schools such as my alma mater in Wester Hailes in Edinburgh have become sink schools, stripped of the enthusiastic learners who have aspirational, mobile parents. Schools, like the communities they serve, perform best with a well-balanced parent and pupil body that is part of a comprehensive catchment area.

So let's not kid ourselves that it is anything other than this critical factor that enables denominational secondary schools to so often outperform their mainstream neighbours.

Roman Catholic schools have other advantages, such as many of their pupils being bussed in relative comfort to school each day. They also operate a quasi-selective entrance system and can more easily expel unruly pupils, sending them to their local high school.

It is, however, the comprehensive mix of their catchment areas that set them aside from the majority of Scotland's struggling secondary schools.

Which brings us neatly to the final suggestion, sin bins. Parliamentarians who have been behaving badly are expelled from the chamber whilst it is expected that our more energetic pupils are kept in the classroom. Discuss.

Ross is the CSPP policy director.

Ross Martin: The red rose has to go, for starters

2011-05-18T10:18:00.000+01:00

Published in the Scotsman, 18/5/2011

Although a surprise to most, the election result was inevitable. Ok, the scale of the SNP victory was a shock, but beating Labour was entirely predictable. This wasn’t a political tsunami, suddenly rearing up from an electoral earthquake. This defeat was a long slow burn that began at the very dawn of devolution.

It is one of the great ironies of our time that Labour led the mass civic movement that campaigned for and designed devolution, then showed little sense of political purpose, once in power. What difference, exactly, did any of the Labour led Administrations really make to Scotland, when splashing the huge amounts of cash granted them by GB’s Treasury?

No big policy ideas. No coherent policy programme. No examples of real, sustained public service or societal change. Ok, No Smoking, but that was the whole Scottish Parliament working together to deliver a cultural change. That policy caught the mood of the Nation. It may even have led it. It was, sadly, an isolated example.

The Labour-led “Executives” wrote no exciting new policy chapters into the post devolution story of Scotland. Sure, they had some solid achievements; democratisation of the old Scottish Office functions, keeping the ship of state steady as power was transferred from Westminster. But what then? Nothing.

No clear message. No policy direction. No Vision of a new Scotland, different due to the power of devolution. “Scottish solutions to Scottish problems”, where? The lack of inspiration was breathtaking. After being carried into the courtyard of the temporary home of the Parliament, the Scottish Labour Leadership began to fail before it even got started.

It didn’t lead. It wasn’t Scottish. It couldn’t even call itself Labour, as it hadn’t worked out quite what that meant in the post devolution context. It now clearly needs, as it did then, a fundamental, root and branch review to determine not only policy purpose and political direction, but also crucially, its character. Scottish Labour has lost its soul, and with it the trust of the Scottish people.

That bond of trust, painfully built up throughout the Thatcher years, was broken a little more by each successive Scottish Labour Leader in key decisions, culminating in Labour’s catastrophe of Gray’s crushing defeat. Each time the increasingly sophisticated Scottish electorate signposted its chosen political direction, either at a Holyrood, Council or Westminster election, the Scottish Labour leadership couldn’t, or wouldn’t read the runes. The case for the prosecution is easily made.

After the first election, Donald Dewar missed the moment to completely reshape Scottish politics, by not including the UK's first Green Parliamentarian, Robin Harper, in his team. An even bigger symbolic change away from the much criticised control-freak political management of the time would have been to reward that election's biggest winner, Denis Canavan, with the power to actually achieve something. Donald didn’t.

Leave aside the missed opportunity to bring together a ‘parliament of all the talents’ when the much promised sprinkling of celebrity, business voice and key characters from civic Scotland were shut out of the party’s selection process alongside some of Scottish Labour’s brightest talent, left wondering what they had to do to secure even a run at election.

Henry McLeish missed the next chance to embrace the emerging politics when a red-green advance ushered in over a dozen colourful MSPs. The opportunity to do things differently was ignored in favour of the continuation of the monochromatic managerial politics so beloved of the Scottish Labour Leaderships of the time.

Then, worst of all, following the “muddle, not a fiddle” demise of his predecessor, who had been sucked into the Westminster expenses scandal that continues to outrage the electorate, Jack McConnell ignored the democratic desire of the people, to see the promised new cross-party, participative politics finally emerge.

Not only that, he also went out of his way to carve out much of the remaining talent from his own Labour team in a classic night of the long knives. This lowest common denominator, machine approach to politics was only ever going to end in one place, destructive defeat at the ballot box. First, at Westminster and then here at Holyrood.

In Scotland, the date of destiny arrived on 5th May 2011. After a campaign so devoid of purpose, other than to stick it to the Tories one more time, the Scottish people voted, overwhelmingly, for real change. Scottish Labour lost, all across the country. The sheer scale of the defeat means that there is now no such thing as a safe Labour seat in Scotland. Middle Scotland wreaked havoc for Labour.

It is all too easy to characterise the Labour defeat as a simple swing from the UK coalition partners, especially the Lib Dems, straight to the SNP. Just as many of them did after the first defeat in 2007, some Labour MSPs have tried to argue that this is an aberration, and that the party’s vote held up. Perhaps, but it held up to a level that saw the first Labour defeat, back in 2007. Labour lost then, and lost again this time. The democratic disconnect looks set to continue awhile.

So how can Scottish Labour turn the tide of public opinion? Firstly, by practicing what it preaches. As it chooses its new Leader, it must show by its own internal actions that it is in tune with the mood of the electorate. It’s time to put its organisation where its mouth is, and demonstrate what “devolution-max” actually means, starting with the Labour Party itself.

Just as Kinnock, then Smith and finally Blair did, turning around the UK Labour Party before seeking to turn around the country, so must Scottish Labour demonstrate the next steps for devolution within the party, before presenting that as a way forward for Scotland. The Scottish Labour Party must be all three of these things: Scottish, Labour and a proper political Party.

That means, as a democratic de-minimis; one-member-one-vote, complete control over devolved policy, relocating its party HQ, with a new team of politically savvy staffers, close to the Scottish Parliament to demonstrate real change. Oh yes, replacing the red English rose is a pre-requisite too. The Scottish Labour Leader must be what it says on the tin. Then, and only then, can their policy debate begin.

It is crystal clear from the election result that the “Devolution Default” position of the electorate is the opposite of that enshrined in the Scotland Act. The Scottish people want all policy devolved, unless there’s a very good reason not to, rather than the reverse which currently persists. The new Scotland Act must right this fundamental wrong, before any debate about Independence-Lite or Devolution-Max can seriously begin.

One potential route for Scottish Labour, and indeed all other parties, defeated or not, is to develop place-based policy that really matters to people, connecting to communities all across Scotland.

In the places people live and work; in our Cities, where Labour has lost control, in all but Glasgow, in our Towns, where the regional electoral battle was won and lost, and in the workplace, or at least where the majority of many communities still earn their wage, Scotland’s Public Services. In all these places, Labour desperately needs a new narrative.

In our Cities, Labour needs to have big ideas and bold policy initiatives. The other parties are engaging with the development of the Cities agenda, as are Labour at the local level, but the Scottish leadership simply doesn’t get it.

For example, it was under Labour that we saw the congestion charging ballot hit the buffers in Edinburgh, the Aberdeen Bypass stalled in a procedural traffic-jam and the modernisation of the Subway in Glasgow delayed. These economically essential items of transport infrastructure should all have been completed in those first two terms. They weren’t even started.

And what about the Trams, started but not finished? Well, that’s an all-party story for another day.

Across our Towns, if we had seen a Town Centre Regeneration Fund (TCRF) that matched, say, the ballooning spend on the Holyrood building project, pound for pound, it would have developed the physical fabric of Scottish life. Not only would this have prepared our town centres for the economic shocks to come, but may well have saved Labour from the electoral shocks that ripped through many of them.

One real positive from the dying days of the old Executive was the legislative framework for Business Improvement Districts, but again, like the creation of the TCRF, this was an initiative that required genuine cross-party continuity. The Bill began life in 2006 and was then implemented by the SNP Government after the 2007 election.

When Scotland voted decisively for not only the return of the Scottish Parliament but also, significantly, in favour of conferring upon it some measure of tax-raising power, the signal was clear; power with a purpose. The problem was the Scottish Labour leadership had no narrative, no route map, no real idea of what to use the power of the parliament for.

Ross Martin is the Policy Director for the CSPP and a former Labour councillor

Clegg Reveals House of Lords White Paper

2011-05-17T17:16:00.000+01:00

Deputy PM Nick Clegg today revealed the coalition govt's plans for a radical reform of the House of Lords. Clegg emphasised throughout his speech that these were draft plans and the Government were open to alternative views on the Bill.

The key proposals are:

- The first democratic elections for a new chamber would take place in 2015
- The upper house will be made of 300 full time members
- The bill makes provision for 80% of members to be elected with the remaining 20% appointed independently.
- The 60 appointed members would sit as cross benchers not as representatives of a political party.
- The White Paper also includes a provision for a wholly elected second chamber.

To read the Bill click here.

The second decade of devolution - majoritarian rule?

2011-05-06T15:17:00.000+01:00

We’re still waiting on three regions to declare its results but it’s official. The SNP have secured an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament with 65 votes. The inconceivable has happened. It is truly significant, a unique moment in post-devolution Scotland.

The nature of Scottish politics, not to mention how our Parliamentary processes will function, will irrevocably change.

No one expected this, not even the most optimistic of Nationalists. The AMS electoral system was deliberately chosen to prevent the occurrence of majority Government and yet the second decade of devolution has delivered that very outcome.

As things stand Labour have 29 seats, the Tories 9, the Lib Dems 4 and the Greens 1. Remember, only a few months ago the SNP had only one more seat than Labour.

The SNP success, and its ability to attract anti-coalition sentiment, is rightly the main talking point. They ran an ambitious and positive campaign with consistent core messages, for e.g. the reindustrialisation of Scotland, free education etc. And, of course, the Presidential nature of the campaign utilised their biggest asset - Alex Salmond.

Equally important, however, is the catastrophic demise of the Lib Dems and Labour (see previous blog). We all expected the Lib Dems to suffer in this election due to the on-going unpopularity of the UK coalition Government.

Yet, no one could have possibly predicted that the election would result in the Lib Dems having only two directly elected constituent MSPs, both of which are Island based. That’s right, the Lib Dems have no directly elected constituent MSP from the mainland.

It is an astonishing turnaround but more than it clearly demonstrates the depth of animosity still felt towards the Conservatives in Scotland. And yet paradoxically, the Thatcherite scaremongering by the Labour party was entirely ineffective.

Scottish elections, it appears, are strange beasts.

The SNP Heartlands?

2011-05-06T11:06:00.000+01:00

Going to bed early on Holyrood election night (to get up early) was always a controversial strategy but in many ways it was a fitting end to a sleepy campaign in my constituency (Motherwell & Wishaw).

The dominance of Labour in this area is well known. No one thought it could change. No one. They were right, but only just.

Labour had an existing majority of 5,938 with 48.1% of the vote when the former First Minister Jack McConnell won the seat in 2007.

And today that majority has been reduced to only 587 with John Pentland winning the seat with 43.8% of the vote. That’s a massive 10.2% swing from Labour to SNP.

Elsewhere in the heartlands it was a similar yet unexpected story with the Labour vote collapsing. John Mason took the Glasgow Shettleston constituency for the SNP with an extraordinary 12.6% swing from Labour’s front bench stalwart Frank McAveety.

The SNP’s James Dornan took the Glasgow Cathcart constituency, Sandra White took the Glasgow Kelvin constituency from another Labour front bencher Pauline McNeill and Bill Butler secured the Glasgow Anniesland constituency.

The “political tsunami” continued with the loss of East Kilbride, Hamilton and Airdrie and the subsequent departure of heavy hitters such as Andy Kerr and Tom McCabe. In Hamilton the swing to the SNP was 11%, 6.6% in East Kilbride & 5.5% in Airdrie where Alex Neil won 50% of the vote.

This is a new epoch; the tectonic political plates are shifting. We could be looking at an overall SNP majority in an electoral system that was designed to prevent majorities.

One thing we do know is this: these are Labour’s heartlands no more.

Vote Yes to AV

2011-05-04T16:58:00.001+01:00

Following the twists and turns of the AV referendum campaign has been depressing. Thorougly so. I never thought the campaign would solely focus on the subject matter (referendums never do), but I never expected the intensity of mudslinging and blatant inaccuracies that emanated from the No Camp.

AV will lead to more coalitions; it will further disenfranchise the British electorate with more deals done behind closed doors; and it will lead to more hung parliaments. None of these claims are true.

Our position is clear. If we have an opportunity to change the anachronistic UK electoral system we have to take it. AV isn't perfect nor is it proportional, but it is a positive change.

The referendum isn't about Nick Clegg or the UK Coalition Government. It is about whether or not AV should replace First Past the Post as the UK's electoral system. There has been an incredible amount of mudslinging in this debate so make sure you know the facts by clicking here.

Ideas 91 -100

2011-05-04T11:47:00.000+01:00

91. Single Public Authorities for our island areas.

We need Single Public Authorities for our island areas that embed local democracy, deliver efficient and transparent service delivery and promote community coherence.

Click here to read our report that was commissioned by the island councils.

92. Change building design and regulations to encourage better use of 'garage' space from start.

93. Implement SPP immediately, regardless of status of local Development Plan.

94. Develop links with policy teams in other legislatures.

95. Develop a public sector student sponsorship programme.

We’ve been banging on about the need for (much) more employment routes into the public sector for Scotland’s talented graduates. Local government, in particular, has a lot of ground to make up.

Another solution, and perhaps a different way to fund some student’s education, is to develop a sponsorship programme.

For example, councils run a recruitment drive targeting students who have completed the first year of their degree. The candidates they like the look of - i.e. their application and interview performance - undertake one week of work experience.

The successful candidates get the remaining 2-3 years of their degree paid for; receive work related learning during the summer months; and after graduating (contingent on good exam performance, say minimum 2:1) join the council’s graduate programme for 2 years.

96. Designate a zone around polling stations for election posters.

Instead of plastering posters everywhere!

97. Create a cross-party position in the Scottish Government’s cabinet.

The next Parliament will likely contain five parties and one independent. Each party has different strengths, different personalities. Watching the often acrimonious TV debates you could be forgiven for thinking that the ideological divides between the parties (particularly between Labour and the SNP) are unbridgeable.

Yet, for all their differences they also share a lot in common - all parties are broadly social democratic. So here’s an idea. Why don’t we create a cross-party position in the Scottish Government’s cabinet that rewards the performance of a certain candidate during the election? It could be, for example, Patrick Harvie as Environment Minister or Annabel Goldie as the Minister for Public Service Reform

The position would be elected by MSPs as a free vote with the one proviso: they have to vote for a candidate from a different party.

98. Introduce workplace car parking levies in major towns to help fund town centre improvements.

99. Encourage co-operative competition between election teams (e.g. by sharing leaflets.

100. Implement CSPP Reshaping Scotland jigsaw puzzle.

After the election our PSR work takes a different direction. We are going to produce a jigsaw puzzle to describe our vision for Scotland’s public services.
Stay tuned for more.

Ideas 81-90

2011-05-04T10:48:00.000+01:00

81. Use social networking tools such as patient opinion and mypolice to help inform policy debate.

The 2011 SP election has illustrated clearly that how we engage and debate is changing. Indeed, twitter has had its very own virtual campaign.

The next logical step is to inform the development and formulation of public policy via social networking tools. Already we have exciting innovations from the likes of mypolice.

82. Charity boxes should be Scottish designed, branded and given a new generic name.

83. Introduce Congestion Charging for Aberdeen to fund the AWPR.

84. Name and shame persistent offenders in the court sections of local newspapers.

85. Create rail station enterprise hubs as an investment partnership.

86. Change building design and regulations to encourage better use of 'garage' space from start.

87. Establish stronger links between our cities and the world-wide cities movement.

88. Create an international network of graduate ambassadors.

A novel way to export Scotland’s greatest asset - our people.

89. Freeze all inactive Major Growth Areas (secondary school sized).

90. Create a student quarter in Glasgow City Centre.

Ideas 71-80

2011-04-27T10:29:00.000+01:00

71. Introduce the City Region concept for Inverness and Highland

It is widely recognised that our cities are the beating heart of the Scottish economy. Numerous stats abound: 40% of jobs and 47% of GVA reside in Scotland’s four main cities - Aberdeen Dundee, Edinburgh & Glasgow.

And yet the previous Scottish Government had no clear strategy for maximising the potential of our cities. The parties’ manifestos make some good suggestions, but much more needs to be done. As Ivan Turok said in 2008

“If the city-region systems don’t function well the consequences for prosperity may not be felt immediately, but the bottlenecks, capacity constraints, unreliability and distortions accumulate over time, adding to business and personal costs, reducing productivity, undermining investment and location decisions and damaging long-term prospects”

We believe that supporting the cities should be a priority for Scottish Government economic policy and call on the new Scottish Government to institute a new Cities Review with a view to putting in place a Cities Strategy. The following should also be considered:

• A Minister with clear responsibility for cities policy.
• A Cabinet sub-committee with responsibility for the cities.
• A Scottish Parliamentary Committee for the Cities.
• A Cross Party Group for the Cities

72. All local newspapers to support local businesses, funded by public support

73. Establish a national investment fund to integrate public sector buildings

74. Transfer responsibility for road/footpath networks to housing associations

75. GPs to be incentivised to reduce big pharmaceutical bills

76. Link Neighbourhood Watch to their local constable

77. Develop a graduate placement programme (reciprocal) with national embassies/consulates

We already run the hugely successful “Adopt an Intern” programme that focuses domestically on graduate unemployment. To date, we have secured almost 100 placements.

Let’s take it on tour and truly enrich the interns learning experience.

78. End numerical parity for council wards and concentrate on community cohesion

79. Tie capital funding to active Asset Management Plans

80. Annual regional sports tournaments to be created as commonwealth games legacy

The Lib Dems stole this from us!

CSPP in the News - Council Tax Freeze

2011-04-20T12:59:00.000+01:00

CSPP Board Member Professor Richard Kerley was interviewed on GMS.

Click here to listen(fast forward to 2:09:56).

2011 Scottish Greens Manifesto

2011-04-20T12:41:00.000+01:00

The Greens were the last major party to publish their manifesto for the Holyrood elections.

Click here to read it and here to watch a feature on Newsnight Scotland (fast forward to 24 mins in).

Key points from the Big Economy Debate

2011-04-19T12:46:00.000+01:00

Q1 Where will the jobs of the future come from?

All emphasised the supporting role Govt plays in creating the right conditions and the importance of renewables. Some individual differences were apparent, particularly in Harvie’s stance against the “Tory-Liberal cuts” which surprisingly Labour didn’t echo.

Also, Purvis focused more on skills investment, Swinney on reindustrialising the economy and Kerr on the internationalisation of our economy.

Q2. How many public sector jobs will be lost by 2015?

Labour & SNP answered this question in a very similar fashion: namely, “you can’t put a number on it” (Swinney). They both stated that there will be no compulsory redundancies too.

Purvis agreed that you couldn’t put a number on it but rejected (as did Brownlee & Harvie) the belief that there will be no compulsory redundancies.

Q3 Should Scotland’s tax raising powers be used to reduce taxes to bring companies & employment into the country?

The panel agreed unanimously that they would not use existing (or new) tax raising powers to reduce tax levels. For Kerr it would “lead to a race to the bottom” Irish style; for Harvie we need to be “talking about progressively increasing tax from the wealthy”; and Purvis focused on the Coalition’s success in raising the threshold for personal income tax.

Meanwhile, Brownlee asked those who were offering tax breaks to “explain how they will deliver it” and Swinney believed it would “impede economic recovery” - Scotland needs full fiscal independence.

Q4 How long can the council tax freeze continue for?

Broadly speaking, all parties support the council tax freeze. The debate centres on the duration of the freeze and its long term replacement.

Labour will freeze it for 2 years but give themselves (and councils) the flexibility to increase it if they provide sufficient justification and it’s below the rate of inflation.

The SNP will freeze it for the whole term of the next parliament but explore the introduction of a local income tax.

The Lib Dems will share Labour’s position but like the SNP want to replace council tax with a local income tax.

The Tories will freeze it until 2012-13 and thereafter look at it year on year while the Greens want to replace council tax with a land value tax.

5. What would you do to encourage banks to lend to small/medium enterprises?

Given this is a reserved issue Brownlee summed it up well when he said “we can’t do much (other than) put pressure on the banks behind the scenes”.

Nevertheless, there were some different answers. Swinney said he would roll out the Scottish Loan Fund, while Kerr emphasised the importance of underpinning risks and increasing the role of co-investment.

Purvis said he would replace the current economic development infrastructure with a regional development bank, an idea supported by Harvie. The latter also stressed the importance of microfinance.

6. Was the £500m spent on the Edinburgh Tram project a good use of public money?

The responses offered were exactly what you would expect from this topical question. All lamented the way the project had been managed but committed to completing it. Moreover, 4 out of the 5 parties (not the Greens) stated categorically that there would be no more central government funding.

The Big Economy Debate - the Scorecard in action

2011-04-18T16:35:00.000+01:00

For the second week running the BBC punctured the sanctuary of our Sunday with an election debate. Out went the informal, laid back setting (and the illogical exclusion of Patrick Harvie) and in came the invited audience and their barrage of tough questions on the economy. Well, that was the idea.

The debate was structured around the following six questions:

1. Where will the jobs of the future come from?
2. How many public sector jobs will be lost by 2015?
3. Should Scotland’s tax raising powers be used to reduce taxes to bring companies & employment into the country?
4. How long can the council tax freeze continue for?
5. What would you do to encourage banks to lend to small/medium enterprises?
6. Was the £500m spent on the Edinburgh Tram project a good use of public money?

In the previous blog I explained how I would use my subjective scorecard/voting predictor to make the election debates more interesting and more helpful. It is specifically targeting floating voters (of which I am one) who will be disproportionately swayed by the TV debates.

So here it goes in alphabetical order:

Scores

Derek Brownlee (Conservative). Popular vote (read populism) = 1. Total Score = 5.

Patrick Harvie (Greens). Popular vote = 3. Total Score = 5

Andy Kerr (Labour). Popular vote = 1. Total Score = 5

Jeremy Purvis (Lib Dems). Popular vote = 1. Total Score = 4

John Swinney (SNP). Popular vote = 3. Total Score = 4.

If you end up with a number of candidates drawing, like I have, simply subtract the popular vote and you should have a clearer idea on who to vote for. According to my scorecard I should vote Conservative or Labour, a result I'll verfiy in the next leader's debate.

Tags

These are words I wrote during the debate when I didn’t give score a candidate.

Derek Brownlee = Concise yet distant (he doesn’t always connect as well as the others)

Patrick Harvie = Passionate yet stumbled (during the trams question)

Andy Kerr (Labour) = Prepared yet impatient(a little too eager at times to engage in ‘tit for tat’ politics)

Jeremy Purvis (Lib Dems) = Accessible yet abstract (during the question on future jobs).

John Swinney (SNP) = Authoritative yet nervous (during the question on future jobs)

A few points are worthy of elaboration. The results clearly show that the Greens and the SNP are outlining a populist agenda, but in different ways. The latter’s manifesto is an ideological successor to the successful 2007 manifesto; it is rooted in popular policies (e.g. freeze council taxes, maintain universalism etc).

The former is adopting an interesting strategy that combines their ever present strong focus on sustainability with a left wing economic populism that will resonate with many voters.

The other important point, which will be clearly illustrated in the next blog, is the consensus shared between the parties at Holyood. On job creation, income tax, small businesses, renewables and council tax there is a great deal of agreement.

Barry McCulloch
CSPP Policy Manager (but my idea alone)

Making the debates helpful & watchable

2011-04-18T13:57:00.000+01:00

Warning this article contains unscientific methods. The sample size used is one.

Cometh the election, cometh the poll - wave after wave after wave after wave. If not drowning, my patience with these polls is clinging on to a dingy.

So I thought I would do something completely different and create a wholly subjective debate scorecard and voting predictor for floating voters when they watch the remaining debates.

At the very least it will make them more watchable, or maybe not.

Step 1. On an A4 sheet of paper create a table with the candidates’ names horizontally at the top and draw 5 (or whoever many are included) lines vertically to separate the candidates.

Step 2. Create your own symbols. I wanted to weigh my own views (represented by a tick) against what I thought the public would like to hear (represented by a circle). Baically, I wanted to offset my own prejudices! With the latter, I tried to think about what the public want to hear, for example, no cuts, protecting public services etc.

Step 3. Split the rounds to correspond with the questions. On scoring, you can give half marks and you are not compelled to give a candidate a score every round. Nor are you restricted by the number of ticks/circles you can give per round.

Step 4. If you do not give a candidate a score write a word to describe their performance in that round.

Step 4. Away you go, but only watch live if you can pause the action.

Step 5. Tally up the scores at the end, separating out who appeared to be the most populist, and there you have it. Your vote is decided or perhaps not if you scored the candidates the same.

I’ve tested this on last night’s “Big” Economy debate. Scores will follow very soon!

Barry McCulloch, CSPP Policy Manager

P.s. this is my own geeky idea.

CSPP in the News - Education Reform

2011-04-14T12:13:00.000+01:00

Yesterday our policy director Ross Martin appeared on Call Kaye.

To listen to the programme (13/4/11) click here.

Fast forward to 16:10.

P.s. You have 6 days left to listen to the programme.

SNP Manifesto: Re-elect a Scottish Government working for Scotland

2011-04-14T12:08:00.000+01:00

The livestream of the SNP manifesto has just finished.

You can access their manifesto for the 2011 SP elections here.

Ideas 61-70

2011-04-13T18:33:00.000+01:00

Where possible we've tried to green today's ideas given it is the only climate day of the 2011 SP election campaign. It isn't an exhaustive list but it should wet your appetite for tonight's online debate (starts at 1930) orgainsed by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition.

61. The next Government should publish a green jobs strategy

The next Scottish Government should publish a green jobs strategy which feeds into a refreshed economic recovery plan

At a joint event with RSPB, Finance Secretary John Swinney announced in February 2009 that 16,000 green jobs would be created in a decade. We welcomed the announcement then, and still do, but we require more details on how a green new deal will be achieved.

The next Government must publish a green jobs strategy which feeds into the economic recovery plan, whoever is successful in the ballot box. The South Korean example is illustrative whereby the Government allocated 95% of its fiscal stimulus into environmental sectors.

62. All high school sports facilities to be open for community use.

63. Embed financial literacy classes in the school curriculum.

The importance of literacy and numeracy cannot be understated. They are the building blocks of a person’s educational development. But there’s another type of literacy (financial) we hear very little of even though it is arguably equally as important.

The great economic crash of 2008 brought home just how financially illiterate the majority of global consumers were. In America the public (often low income families) were being sold ever more complex financial products that they didn’t understand and the financial services preyed on this lack of knowledge.

The situation wasn’t as bad here but the continuing high levels of personal indebtedness clearly illustrates we have a problem. The Independent Commission on Banking may or may not affect the positive change we need in financial markets - that remains to be seen - but it is not in there remit to remedy the situation with consumers.

The solution is quite straightforward. We embed classes on financial literacy/personal economics in the high school curriculum which is paid for (if not all, then a large majority) by the banks.

Students would lean about different types of bank accounts, the importance of savings and the numerous ways one can save (ISAs etc), the dangers of easy money (re cheque centre etc), interest rates, inflation - you get the picture.

64. Introduce public sector loan schemes to drive capital deployment for energy efficiency, low carbon and renewable, while exploring other innovative financial instruments for the public sector to meet the capital challenge of a low carbon society.

With thanks to members of our energy and environment group for this idea. You know who you are.

65. MEPs should sit on the European parliamentary committee on a rotational basis.

Scotland has 6 MEPs but neither of them sit on the Scottish Parliament’s European & External Affairs Committee. It’s crazy.

Now obviously not all of them could serve on the committee together, nor could they considering its remit extends beyond European affairs.

But here’s an idea. Once a month an MEP (on a rotational basis) sits on the committee and (amongst many other things) pads out the Brussels Bulletin. In fact, the MEP could produce their own Brussels Bulletin.

The European Parliament has a massive impact on Holyrood; indeed, all of Scotland. We need to ensure that the relationship between these two chambers is much closer.

66. All high schools to have, or have ready access to, a proper theatre space.

67. Publicly record the names of irresponsible pubs/clubs who allow clientele to get 'smashed'.

68. 10% of the Scottish Govt's transport budget should be allocated (and ring fenced) to active travel

If the Scottish Government has any chance of hitting its cycling target (10% of all journeys by 2020) significant investment has to be made in Scotland’s sustainable transport infrastructure. At least 10% of the central government transport budget should be allocated (and ring-fenced) to active travel.

69. A programme of inter-establishment and cross sectral mergers in higher education.

Hear our policy director Ross Martin on today’s Call Kaye speaking about education reform.

70. Streamline representative groups and give them a statutory role.

The Fantasy Land of Devolved Politics

2011-04-08T12:59:00.001+01:00

It’s official. The 2011 Scottish Parliamentary elections are entirely divorced from reality. The manifestos published thus far - Tories, Lib Dems and Labour - solidify the view that devolved politics in Scotland operates in a fantasy land removed from the economic realities of our time. How else can we explain the crowd pleasing expenditure commitments of the main political parties?

In many ways the political parties in Scotland are like financial markets: they want to get back to business as usual (expenditure commitments & maximising private returns at all cost respectively) as quickly as possible. Neither one is prepared to take a step back and analyse what went wrong.

Of course, elections are not the time or the place for our parliamentarians to question their current modus operandi, but their manifestos should have been shaped by the truly different economic times we find ourselves. Indeed, reading their litany of spending promises one reasonably questions whether or not the 2008 economic crisis actually happened.

Our manifesto called for our policy makers to wake up and undertake a fundamental root and branch review of our political and economic infrastructure to ensure that our democracy, economy and public services could be delivered in a different way.

This doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon.

Barry McCulloch, CSPP Policy Manager
(These opinions are those of the author)

Ideas 56-60

2011-04-07T13:24:00.000+01:00

56. Empower Community Councils

Community councils in Scotland are, according to the Scottish Government, “the most local form of elected representation in Scotland”. Their purpose is to represent and improve their local community. They are unique as they have statutory rights and powers and are treated as the equivalent of English and Welsh Parish Councils by UK government regulators.

However, they do not currently have the same powers as their English and Welsh counterparts. Meanwhile in some of Scotland, Community Councils are often disregarded and are not usually viewed as a tier of government even though they legally have that role.

Currently, community councils only have the legal right to be consulted on local community planning issues in areas that they exist. In some areas of Scotland where there is a strong community council presence, minor functions of local government could be devolved.

In England, community councils already have the ability to provide minor functions in co-operation with their principle local authority. This means that they might currently provide, maintain or contribute to services such as: allotments and leisure facilities; bus shelters; litter bins; car parks; local illuminations; community centres; and parks and open spaces.

These are all services and functions that could be implemented more effectively in many local authority areas in Scotland if the powers were devolved to strong, representative community councils.

Ryan McRobert
CSPP Intern

57. Tie revenue funding to efficiency targets (e.g. merging public and schools library services)

58. Make modern/civic studies compulsory in high schools

There is a reason so many young people are disengaged with our democracy. The nature of our partisan, combative political system is only part of the answer. Another important part of the answer lies with education.

Presently, school pupils only study two years of modern studies which is generally rotated with the other social sciences (History & Geography). This isn’t enough. It should be mandatory that all pupils take a Standard Grade in Modern Studies so that they can learn, amongst many, many other things, the importance of contributing in our democratic system.

59. Check ID at polling stations.

60. Protect and grow fuel poverty budgets while rethinking current approaches

The Scottish Government will not meet its 2016 target to eradicate fuel poverty. The number of fuel poor in Scotland now sits at 1 in 3, an 8% increase since 2007. This, unfortunately, is not surprising considering the continuing increase of household fuel prices and the disappointing performance of the Energy Assistance Package whose budget is set to be cut.

If the next Government wishes to simply halt the decline of fuel poverty it must utilise the policy levers at its disposal by stringently assessing the effectiveness of the EAP and by protecting and growing fuel poverty budgets.

Ideas 51-55

2011-04-07T13:20:00.000+01:00

51. All referendums should be preceded by prime time TV deliberations

Referendums are almost two centuries old and are imperfect, obsolete tools for a 21st century democracy. As Bruce Ackerman & James Fishkin noted

If an issue is important enough to warrant decision by the people as a whole, it is important enough to require a more deliberate approach to decision-making.

This is, of course, the well-known and successful deliberative polling that the authors have been using in democracies all around the world to better educate the electorate before a referendum.

To date I have saw nothing of this sort on the AV referendum, and given it is a vote on an electoral system the importance of democracy education cannot be understated. Indeed, what’s the point in asking people’s opinion on AV if they don’t know what it is?

The solution is simple: two weeks before the referendum screen three prime time TV deliberations (or local discussions at various community centres throughout the country) which will allow the electorate the opportunity to discuss and learn about the advantages and disadvantages of AV. Only then will we all be able to cast an informed vote in the referendum.

52. All funded sportsmen/women to be contracted to assist with school programmes

A simple yet inspiring way to engage our youngsters in an active lifestyle.

53. Schools should make more use of Scotland’s rich cultural, natural, geographical, scientific and historical resources for education.

Why doesn’t this already occur? For a start it would put less of a financial burden on parents who often have to fork out thousands on expensive, foreign school trips. But more than it, it would create more custom for Scottish businesses and establishments, more young people with first-hand knowledge of their own country, and a smaller carbon footprint.

These are significant benefits. The additional expenditure that might circulate through Scotland's economy would surely be enormous. Most young people have other opportunities to travel abroad that didn't exist when these foreign trips started.

Richard Heggie
Director of Urban Animation
RTPI’s UK Planning Consultant of the Year 2009

54. Prioritise NPF projects in National Capital Budget

55.Create a Presiding Officer's Commission on alcohol policy

The last four years in Holyrood have seen this issue becoming even more politicised at the expense of evidence based social policy. This can’t happen again.

Fighting for what really matters: 2011 Scottish Labour Manifesto

2011-04-06T13:37:00.000+01:00

In the last half hour or so, Labour has published their manifesto. You can read it by clicking here.

Ross Martin & Leigh Sparks: Time to offer hope to town centres

2011-04-06T11:20:00.000+01:00

Published in the Scotsman, 6/4/2011. Click here to read it in its original form.

"Ignored, abandoned and unloved, there has to be a clear and coherent policy to protect the future of High Street shopping in Scotland.

SCOTLAND'S towns and town centres are a defining feature and a vital resource for the country. They provide considerable social and economic benefits, improve the quality of life and assist in meeting the Scottish Government's five strategic priorities for Scotland. Towns and town centres are the beating heart of Scotland and Scottish life. Well, that's the official rhetoric; straight from the Scottish Government.

And what of the opposition? Well, there is none; not on this issue. From genuine cross-party consensus the Town Centre Regeneration Fund (TCRF) was born. Across the country, communities have benefited from the TCRF, with towns pushing forward with long-awaited capital projects, high streets being given much needed restoration and make-overs and town centres being enabled to stabilise and, hopefully, then grow.

So what's the problem? Why are our towns and town centres still screaming and problems still mounting?

The reality on the ground is something far removed from the romantic and nostalgic view of town centres that many people and politicians still harbour. Most of Scotland's town centres are at best in a state of arrested decay and at worst suffering accelerating decline. The one-off sticking plaster of the Town Centre Regeneration Fund has done its best, but there is so much more that needs to be done to turn the rhetoric, and our ambitions, into a reality we can be rightly proud of.

Sure, there are some TCRF projects that promise to make a real difference, eg the excellent regeneration project in Falkirk, that is making the most of the town's cultural heritage and, literally, putting the soul back into the town centre with an inspired streetscape project based around the Steeple. This project points the way towards a better future. But it can only be seen as a step along that journey. So much more can, and needs to, be achieved. Too many of our town centres lack commitment, dedication and political priority. Shops can't vote. For far too long our town centres were reliant upon individual elected members, whether that was the sole local councillor, the MP or more recently the constituency MSP. If that person took an interest then maybe, just maybe, a town centre would be given political priority at budget time.

If not, then neglect was inevitably followed by decline, often hastened by other decisions to allow development (housing, retail, offices, leisure, government) away from the town centre.

This lack of voice has always been exacerbated by a lack of focus amongst those responsible for the various, complex, integrated functions a town centre needs to survive, let alone thrive. Caught between the regulatory role of planners, the engineering bias of the roads department and the economic portfolio split between local councils and Scottish Enterprise, our town centres have been strangled by costs, competition, regulation and inaction.

This patchwork of responsibilities and the bias towards the modern, more easily and more cheaply built and operated developments out of town has encouraged fragmentation, decentralisation, neglect and then decline. You can't blame authorities, businesses and then consumers for their actions, when we go out of our way to make town centres difficult and expensive places in which to develop and operate. We are, as someone has recently said, all in this together, without even a banker to blame.

We have to rethink and re-invigorate our town centres. We have to re-imagine and re-define their roles. We have to ask fundamental questions as to their function and place in modern society and then decide how we look at, and after, them. If we are to give them the confidence to change their futures and provide the economic, social and cultural focus that they demand and Scotland deserves, then we need to take a fresh look at our town centres.

We have to ensure that:

• All action promoting town centre activity is co-ordinated and concerted

• We measure where we are, assess what works and dump what does not

• Funding streams are repositioned and focused to drive activity within town centres

• Local solutions are encouraged, tried and supported

• Policies for town centres are aligned and implemented.

There are a number of concrete (forgive the pun) measures that can be taken. One of these costs money, many of them do not. First, we need to re-create the Town Centre Regeneration Fund, because once is simply not enough. The TCRF's £60 million spread across Scotland was a start, but if you consider that the proposed extension to the Buchanan Galleries is likely to cost £100m, the Parliament building cost over £400m and the new Forth Crossing will cost at least £1.5bn, then it's not hard to see the need for a much more significant investment in Scotland's town centres.

Secondly, existing revenue budgets need to be pooled and localised in our town centres. The cash which councils spend on street-cleaning, street-lighting and signposting should be centralised into one facilities management pot, along with that collected in waste management charges, litter fines and of course non-domestic rates.

The town centre budget could then be significantly enhanced with income generated through targeted taxation, for example the collection of car parking charges, the introduction of green taxes (e.g. to meet recycling targets) and the use of Business Improvement Districts, and their ability to agree upon a small additional levy in return for a specified, targeted package of enhancement measures and a say in the management and leadership of the town centre.

Out of centre activities, be they public or private office, leisure, retail or any other function which should be contributing towards the vibrancy and vitality of Scotland's town centres should pay their fair share. This is not about "punishing" activities for impacts they have, or the fact they are successful, but instead is about rebalancing the costs and opportunities for the good of Scotland as a whole. This is not a single-sector policy issue, but a locational issue across all sectors. Any activity that leaves an empty footprint on our high street should be considered a candidate to contribute to its regeneration, but equally we have to make it cheaper and more attractive to develop inside towns and town centres.

It is all too easy to blame one sector or policy for town centre decay. We have, by our own actions over half a century, neglected our town centres. Driven by many factors. The way we live has changed, and will change further. If town centres are our lifeblood, then we have to support them, guide them and encourage radical thinking and actions over a sustained period. We do not need, nor will we get back the town centre of the 1950s or 1960s, but what we need is energetic and effective town centres for Scotland in the early 21st century.

The alternative to action now is a continued spiral of decline and the loss of something that makes us Scottish, an integral component of this place called Scotland, what it is, and more importantly, what it can be.

Ross Martin is Policy Director at the CSPP, the Centre for Scottish Public Policy

Leigh Sparks is Professor of Retail Studies at the Institute for Retail Studies, Stirling Management School, University of Stirling."

• This comment represents personal views though informed through the Scottish Towns Policy Group established by CSPP.

Idea 50: Internationalise the public and not-for-profit sectors in Scotland

2011-04-05T13:18:00.000+01:00

Internationalisation of the Public and Not for Profit Sectors in Scotland.

Internationalisation is a subject that is of interest for many public and not for profit sector organisations in Scotland, but many lack the internal capacity and operational understanding to maximise their potential in such a market place. The present economic climate when we are faced with budget cuts may not feel like the best time to launch an internationalisation strategy, but the reality is that even more than before organisations need to look for different methods of delivery and need to identify new opportunities to sustain their operations.

For example, the arrival of structural funds in the new EU Member States has caused a shift in the market place and the reality of the situation is that now the New Member States have a significant share of the EU structural funds and very limited operational capacity. In contrast, Scotland has a large share of the operational know how and capacity but a diminishing share of the funds. This brings forward new and emerging opportunities for international partnerships between public and not for profit organisations in the old and new EU member states, and potentially in transition economies.

There is potential for Scottish organisations to establish institutional and professional partnerships, to provide technical assistance and know-how transfer to support the continuous growth, and increase the absorption capacity of their under-developed counterpart organisations in other countries. There is real scope for Scottish organisations to expand their operations into a number of clearly focussed sectors and for the public and not for profit sector to take forward the Team Scotland approach foreseen in the Government’s International and European Strategies.

In 2008 representatives from a number of organisations were willing to work together to develop a pilot project that could bring forward international partnership opportunities for the whole of public and not for profit sectors in Scotland. Although this idea did not move forward, the interest and opportunities still exist. We would therefore call for the establishment of a pilot project, based around the model that has been successfully applied by NICO in Northern Ireland.

This idea was provided by Ann Hyde, a European Consultant @ Think International, who was a member of our now defunct European advisory group.

Do you have a good idea? Let us know and we'll post it.

Ideas 41-49

2011-04-05T13:09:00.000+01:00

41. Condition schools funding on raising educational attainment.

All public funding should have an element of performance-related payment in order to ensure that each and every public pound is being spent to maximum effect. With schools, it would be relatively straight-forward to devise assessment criteria which determine how good a school is doing to meet agreed objectives, whether that is academic performance, community involvement or sporting/artistic achievement.

Such a performance management system would encourage a results-driven culture (not simply exam results) that ensures that young people coming thru the school system are being given the tools required to make their next steps in the world.

42. Empower voters by giving them the ability to recall MSPs who have committed serious wrongdoing

The current Holyrood election campaign is again revealing the growing gap between those in the “Holyrood bubble” and the electorate. We need to seriously look at ways to reinvigorate our democracy and to make it relevant and accessible for all. Giving voter’s the ability to recall is no silver bullet but it is part of the narrative to refresh our apathetic democracy.

43. Appoint local electoral commissions to encourage turnout and locate polling stations in major shopping centres.

44. Football clubs to fund the entire policing operation for their games.

After the farce of the Old Firm this isn't an unreasonable ask.

45. Establish one year sabbaticals for talented yet tired teachers.

46. Roll out the lend a hand initiative to kick-start the mortgage market and boost the construction industry

I’m one of thousands of first time buyers who cannot afford to get a mortgage. It’s not that we don’t want to, we do, but we can’t afford the minimum 10% deposit the banks require. And so many first time buyers get stuck in a vicious circle where they cannot save for a deposit because their forking out a minimum of £500 per month for inflated rent rates.

This is not to mention the knock on effects this has on the mortgage market itself, the local/national economy and the construction industry.

Thankfully, the UK Coalition Government have responded to the crisis with their “local lend a hand” imitative, a pilot involving 15 local councils. Through a pre-existing Lloyds TSB scheme, local authorities will provide a cash-backed indemnity of 20% leaving the buyer to put down a deposit of 5%. Thus far only one Scottish local authority (East Lothian) and one bank is participating in the scheme.

It’s a step in the right direction, but it isn’t enough. If the pilot is successful after 6 months we need to roll this programme out nationally. Undeniably, it is a fair and cost effective way to kick-start the ailing mortgage market.

Yet to make it sustainable local councils in Scotland have to be able to raise revenue- they cannot continue to allocate further spend when the budget isn’t there. Local Government in Scotland is severely restricted on how they can raise additional revenue given their reliance on Central Government funding. But they can raise council tax. The big question is this: will the next Scottish Government allow councils the flexibility and autonomy to make this decision on their own terms?

47. Create a national planning policy that enables pharmacies to be constructed on NHS sites

48. Advocacy Groups to be given formal role as parliamentary advisers

The Stop Climate Chaos Campaign played a pivotal role in the development of the landmark Cliamte Change Act. Should they, or other advocacy groups that clearly improve the quality of legislation, be given a formal role as parliamentary advisers?

49. Scrap the Waverley line and extend the Trams to Gorebridge with Borders Transport Interchange.

Solutions for Scotland: 2011 Scottish Lib Dems Manifesto

2011-04-05T11:54:00.000+01:00

The Lib Dems launched their manifesto this morning and can be read by clicking here.

Again, expect it to feature on tonight's Newsnight Scotland and it to feature on our blog review by the end of the week.

Common Sense for Scotland: 2011 Scottish Conservative Manifesto

2011-04-05T11:49:00.000+01:00

The Tories were the first major Scottish party to launch their manifesto at Glasgow's Science Centre yesterday.

Click here to read the document and here to watch a feature courtesy of Newsnight Scotland.

P.s. Expect a more meaty review in a few days.

Ideas 31-40

2011-04-04T15:35:00.000+01:00

31. Council garage/lock-up sites to be released for social housing sites

Far too many council garage sites are used for lock-ups and should be removed (replaced by central facilities either run by local businesses or by a specially established social enterprise). This would release these sites, adjacent to and in many cases in the centre of already established housing areas, for a mix of social housing, including affordable, social rented, shared equity, etc.

Every council should be undertaking an asset management assessment of these sites, where they exist, or indeed other parcels of land that would help to solve Scotland’s terrible housing shortage.

32. Establish a Healthy Towns Initiative through a Town Centre Regeneration Fund II

33. All civic representative bodies to share an office base near Holyrood at affordable renting rates.

34. Fund GARL with M8 and/or M74 motorway tolls

35. National Newspapers to have PSO to cover national, regional and local government

36. Introduce a sequential test for office developments along the lines of that in place for large retail applications.

This would secure existing usage and drive new footfall into our town centres

37. Initiate a loft and garage (and perhaps basement) conversion scheme to increase building density.

38. Establish a Senate of the Leaders for Stirling.

39. Develop stronger links at each level between the Court Service and the rest of the public service family.

40. Divert a percentage of the TV license fee to the arts community.

Ideas 22 - 30

2011-04-01T12:42:00.000+01:00

Idea 22. Create an ARTS-ISA for those operating in financial markets (bankers etc)

Idea 23. Move to electronic voting making participation legally binding

Idea 24. All public funding of football to be tied to national restructuring. Ross wrote a great article on this issue in the Scotsman - click here.

Idea 25. No in-service days during term times.

Idea 26. Move from four year to three year honours degrees.

After four years many graduates do not have the requisite skills to succeed in the labour market given the abstract nature of their education. I was one of them. Cut it down to three and embed work related skills much more fully in the curriculum.

Idea 27. Each school cluster to be encouraged to develop its own media profile.

Idea 28. Create a Scottish League of Cities.

The cities in America, for instance, organise themselves as a well-oiled, well drilled, powerful collective against central government. Scottish cities should do the same and in fact some already doing it.

Idea 29. Replace ASBOs with high visibility reparation activities.

ASBOs don't work.

Idea 30. All new housing developments over 500 units to include local integrated health facility.

A different 100 ideas returns - Idea 21

2011-04-01T12:38:00.000+01:00

Ok we’ve not been keeping up with this as well as we should have, but we just published the culmination of four years of policy work. We deserve a bit of leeway!

Now it’s back, but with a twist. We want this process to be much more of a dialogue rather than a one-sided, constant stream of our policy ideas.

So, from now on we’ll be posting our ideas in batches of ten. We’ll expand on one and provide a line on the others. That way it’s easier to digest and its specifically tailored to kick-start a conversation.

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Idea 21. Fast track CPO for community purchase of vacant buildings and derelict land

The Land Reform legislation should be tweaked to allow local communities to buy derelict buildings and vacant sites that impact upon the desirability, vitality and vibrancy of town centres. We must enable local people to take control of their own high streets in this way of an environment conducive to economic and social activity is to be sustained, developed or in some cases created.

CSPP Manifesto for the 2011 SP Elections

2011-03-16T10:11:00.000Z

We are delighted to publish our manifesto for the upcoming Scottish Parliamentary elections. During this Parliamentary term we have conducted our own conversation with over 1,000 stakeholders and members of the public - who we like to call the "unusual suspects".

Rigorous research projects and extensive engagement at dialogue dinners, Party Conferences, CSPP events, as well as an active social media network base, have provided a series of practical solutions that already have a cross section of support across the Scottish body politic.

This document outlines our policy recommendations for the next parliamentary term at Holyrood, whilst also picking up on themes for the 2012 council elections. Our vision for future Scottish public policy is accompanied by steps detailing how to deliver that change. These steps are practical – at best budget neutral, at worst cost effective – within the context of the precarious economic situation currently paralysing Scotland’s decision makers.

Our policy prescriptions will shape the discussion we hope to stimulate in the run up to the 2011 Scottish Parliamentary elections; an inclusive conversation that targets not just our members or the political classes but all of civic Scotland who have become increasingly detached from, and disappointed in, the old style confrontational politics that has strangulated political discourse and choked policy discussion in our parliament.

Click here to read the manifesto and let us know what you think.

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Please note that the link on P12 (point 5) is broken. You can access information on this initiative here below.

Inverness City Vision 2010 (see docs to the right hand side as well)

Consideration of report from Councillors

Inverness City Partnership

Idea 20: Make planning training compulsory for members of Planning Authorities

2011-03-08T12:09:00.000Z

Make planning training compulsory for members of Planning Authorities (as it is for Licensing).

Although most Planning Authorities have made moves to ensure that the majority of their members have received an amount of initial training, legislative backing for mandatory training, as is the case for Licensing Boards, would ensure that all members who take part in the determination of a planning application will have at least a fundamental understanding of:

1. The planning system.
2. Relevant planning policy
3. The impact their decisions have in relation to the wider aims of their local authority and/or community.

Idea 19: Condition schools funding on raising educational attainment

2011-03-08T12:03:00.000Z

Condition schools funding on raising educational attainment.

All public funding should have an element of performance-related payment in order to ensure that each and every public pound is being spent to maximum effect. With schools, it would be relatively straight-forward to devise assessment criteria which determine how good a school is doing to meet agreed objectives, whether that is academic performance, community involvement or sporting/artistic achievement.

Such a performance management system would encourage a results-driven culture (not simply exam results) that ensures that young people coming through the school system are being given the tools required to take their next steps in the world.

Idea 18: Introduce Congestion Charging to fund the modernisation of the Glasgow Subway

2011-03-08T11:59:00.000Z

Introduce Congestion Charging for Glasgow to fund the modernisation & extension of the Subway network.

All major cities need large amounts of capital to fund transport infrastructure. Glasgow is no different. Introducing a congestion charge would generate enough capital over a period of time to fund the modernisation of the Subway, and the introduction of an Enterprise Zone along the length of its route would enable further cash to be collected from the uplift value that it creates.

These, and other mechanisms to increase the income into the Subway, must be considered if it is not to be an embarrassment come the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Idea 17: Move to zero base budgeting across the board

2011-03-08T11:52:00.000Z

Move to zero base budgeting across the board

All public authorities must move to zero-based budgeting, questioning the spend of every single public pound. Only by undertaking this fundamental review of public services can we hope to ensure budgetary control and therefore sustainable service design and delivery.

The use of annualised Base budgets has had its day. It is time that the Elected Members of local government and Board members of appointed government bodies moved from concerning themselves with single figure percentage of the budget to the budget as a whole.

Idea 16: Designate Glasgow subway a special planning area...

2011-03-08T11:44:00.000Z

Designate Glasgow subway a special planning area and modernise it via congestion charging

We have learned very little from the New Towns experience except how to build, sponsor and decorate roundabouts. The Enterprise Zones which the New Towns were could be used to drive investment and economic growth if applied to new situations in the current climate, such as along transport corridors/routes/networks.

The Strathclyde Subway (it is used by people from greater Glasgow and beyond) is a case in point. By designating the ground-level (and the sub-surface) of the route, delineated perhaps 25metres either side of the central rail plumb line, as an Enterprise Zone with a range of investment incentives, it would be possible to create conditions for development and capital value uplift that could make a major contribution to the modernisation of the existing Subway.

Idea 15: Create a single Scottish NHS with local area de-centralisation on LA boundaries

2011-03-08T11:30:00.000Z

Create a single Scottish NHS with local area de-centralisation on Local Authority boundaries.

The debate over the single Scottish Police Force can equally be applied to other members of the Public Service Family, whether it is health or education. This is not really a structural issue but a battle for power and the long awaited debate which surrounds the relationship between central and local government. In the case of policing there are three intertwined strands at the heart of the issue:

1 Where does operational control and democratic accountability lie? Is it in the centre or down at divisional level.
2 What functions are best provided at the national (or indeed regional) level?
3 At which level is democratic accountability likely to be best achieved?

The same core issues lie at the heart of the NHS. Discuss.

Idea 14: A BID for every town in Scotland

2011-02-21T12:28:00.000Z

A Business Improvement District for every town in Scotland.

As we struggle our way along the bumpy road from recession towards economic stability and hopefully onwards to growth, it is essential that we ensure our town centres have the tools for success. A Business Improvement District (BID) enables businesses to work together, to pool resources and raise revenue, delivering a true local partnership between the public and private sectors, with the primary aim of delivering local solutions to local issues and concerns and improving local economic growth.

A BID brings focus and energy from the private sector which when combined with public sector support can make a real improvement and difference to Scotland's town centres.

All towns of whatever size have different issues and problems that are of concern to local businesses and these problems often impact on the local community and the wider regeneration aspirations of the public sector.

The creation of a Business Improvement District will encourage greater use of our town centres. From physical improvements to marketing campaigns, from food festivals to community safety, BIDs make a real difference to the vibrancy of our town centres, recognising the vital role they have to play in the economic and social fabric of our communities.

Idea 13: "Portrait of the artist as a valued resource"

2011-02-18T11:24:00.000Z

Published in the Scotsman, 18/2/11

All artists who are supported by the public purse should repay that investment with energetic and enthusiastic interest.

"In the run-up to the election, Ross Martin will look at options for the new Scottish Government. Here he outlines how to get better value from arts grants and improve education at the same time.

ALL artists who are supported by the public purse should repay that investment, with energetic and enthusiastic interest. Art is heavily subsidised by the public pound. We should view that sizeable financial contribution as something upon which the public can see a real return. Just as we expect publicly funded enterprise to contribute to economic growth, so too should we expect a community, as well as a cultural return on our investment in all forms of art.

In addition to recognising the inherent individual and societal value in art - art for art's sake - so should we develop ways in which we can build in a better deal for state investment. For example, we should demand that all artists who benefit from financial support from the public purse should put an equivalent value back into our public services.

That is the principle. What of the detail? As we debate the role of public services, their funding and their reform; where does art fit within that developing picture? What contribution can and should art play? Can we ensure, for example, that all painters, sculptors, actors, dancers, musicians, writers and all others involved in the arts community who benefit from public financial support, return the favour?

If so, what form might that take?

As a starter, let's go back to school. Imagine a world where our leading players in the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe take to the school stage as an integral part of their time in the capital. How exhilarating, inspiring and yes, educational, would that opportunity prove for the primary pupils across the city, and perhaps beyond, especially in areas such as my home housing estate, Wester Hailes?

Picture if you will the scenes in Scottish secondary schools if the stars of the silver screen who annually grace the Edinburgh Film Festival, were to spend time coaching our kids on the finer points of method acting. Play out in your mind the very notion of our leading musicians strumming their stuff in school halls the length and breadth of the land as part of an orchestrated campaign to support music tuition, which is increasingly a target for budget cuts.

I have witnessed myself the benefit of listening to, and learning from, great artists such as the entertaining and engaging writer Alan Spence.

I have even basked in the reflective glow of a school mate, Tommy Smith, jazz saxophonist, as he practised his way on those first crucial steps towards critical acclaim and commercial success. This is mental nutrition of the very best kind.

I have attended many a Fringe performance and the occasional Festival concert enjoying the undoubted benefits to my own personal cultural development, but I can't help thinking that in all of these cases, wherever public money is used, there must be a better way to reach a wider audience base. As we approach the 5 May Holyrood election, we should remind ourselves that the audience in question also plays a role in a political performance - that of the electorate.

It is surely possible to conceive of a system of public funding for all of these, for sculptors and other artistic specialists too, where they give back to the public some of the very thing that the public pound has enabled and encouraged them to develop - their talent.

All of these artists must pass on their incredible, sometimes traditional, skills to school students eager to learn and develop a way in which to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive labour market. It must also be possible for them to think a little differently and devise ways in which their public funding can be valued by those in whose name the cheques are signed - the public.

It is easy to envisage a way in which that publicly celebrated talent can celebrate the public that nurtured it. It is of course possible to put in place simple mechanisms by which actors, singers and dancers who rely on public funding to pursue their chosen career paths use a small part of their publicly funded time entertaining the elderly. It would be fantastic if we could structure a programme of entertainment for those who most deserve to be looked after and entertained, our senior citizens, around the general programme of arts entertainment which is simply not accessible to them.

Additionally, it is now quite common practice for famous actors, artists, singers and dancers to "do their duty" entertaining front line troops. Well, what about the veterans back home, and the families, without whose support these brave men and women would have foundered? It must be possible, in all good conscience, to put together a programme for the families of our brave and dedicated service personnel, as a matter of course, at least each year we remain at war.

In Scotland, we do none of this. We spend millions of pounds supporting "art", in all its forms, without a single thought of how to make that spend sustainable. We must devise a mechanism by which we ensure that art is indeed a public good. We must be able to put in place funding systems that deliver public benefit for every public pound invested. Otherwise public funding for art will exit stage left.

The purists will, no doubt, label me a Philistine.

Who cares? Not me, and certainly not, I would suggest, those members of our communities who either can't get access to the arts, or perhaps more importantly, those who simply do not see the benefit of engaging with our artists. In other words, the people who would most benefit from an active arts policy of public engagement.

Far from being a threat to public funding of the arts, this proposal could be an integral part of their survival. By locking an artist's participation into not only the delivery, but also the design of public services, our artistic community can truly weave themselves into the fabric of Scottish society. In so doing, our actors will be playing out a sustainable funding mechanism that benefits them in the longer term, protecting them from the spending cuts that currently threaten their existence.

We operate in what people call "silos", each contained in our own world. We put needless barriers in between different sectors. Public or private. Voluntary organisation or social enterprise, we love to categorise and keep control by maintaining degrees of separation that do not need to exist. The arts are for all. In the current economic climate it is essential that we ensure that the public are not only the audience but that they play their part alongside the professionals.

It was all too easy to run separate organisations, separate structures, with separate funding streams when the cash kept flowing from both the public purse and private sector sponsorship. Those days are over and we must now work creatively to nurture and develop all forms of art if we are to avoid a descent into an abyss.

Let me finish by slightly mixing my metaphors but, I hope, to effect. The stage is set. There is pretty much a blank political canvass on which to paint. This is a huge opportunity to sing a song of support for our arts community. We can't sit back awaiting a policy idea to applaud. It is time to put in place a self-sustaining funding model that celebrates all that is good about the arts in Scotland. It's in our genetic make-up".

• Ross Martin is policy director of the Centre for Scottish Public Policy

Idea 12 - Votes at 16 (by the SYP)

2011-02-16T15:41:00.000Z

Lower the voting age to 16.

"At the heart of the Scottish Youth Parliament’s work is our belief that young people should be involved in making every decision that affects them. We feel that that one of the best ways of getting involved in making decisions is through the ballot box. Through our work we’ve seen many capable, confident and well-informed 16 and 17 year olds who have a real interest in politics, but are unable to play their full part as citizens by exercising their democratic rights on election day.

“For us, it’s an issue of fairness. In Scotland 16 and 17 year-olds can sign up for the armed forces while not having the right to have their say at the ballot box on defence policy. They can leave school, get a job and be taxed without being represented at Westminster or Holyrood. The SYP firmly believes it’s a real injustice that under 18s are considered mature and responsible enough to get married or drive a car, but not mature and responsible enough to choose who they want to represent their communities.

“Most importantly, our belief is based on the views of young people. We regularly consult thousands of young people across Scotland on issues that are important to them, and consistently the message comes back loud and clear – young people want the right to vote at 16 and they believe that it’s an essential part of encouraging young people’s participation as active citizens.”

The Scottish Youth Parliament

Adopt an intern and help graduates take first step

2011-02-16T11:46:00.000Z

Published in the Scotsman, 15/2/11

Now is not a good time to be a graduate. The economic crisis has left more than a million 16-24 year-olds unemployed in the UK, with graduate unemployment up by 44 per cent in 12 months.

One answer to this economic and social challenge is an increase in the volume and variety of intern opportunities for our graduates. It is vital that graduates are given the chance to gain suitable work experience and the opportunity to develop the kind of workplace skills that employers need. Sadly, an accessible internship culture does not exist in Scotland.

The importance of paid, well-structured and accessible internships cannot be understated if we are going to achieve social mobility, promote economic growth and avoid a lost generation of youth.

That is why my organisation set up a new programme – Adopt an Intern, with financial support from the Scottish Government. This innovative programme is intended to help Scotland's graduates into paid internships using the centre's network of cross-sector member organisations.

After the first year of operation, the initiative is bringing energetic new talent into organisations, big and small, as well as providing young people with the opportunity to take their first step on the career path.

Feedback from the public, private and voluntary sector employers has been tremendous as they benefit from access to a talent pool of individuals with graduate-level education, adding real value to their business.

We aim to embed a vibrant intern culture across Scotland, creating a route to graduate employment. All organisations – small, medium and large, public and private, voluntary and charity – can play a positive part in securing the first opportunity for graduates who would otherwise be denied the chance to demonstrate their potential. These graduates are self-starters bursting with new ideas; they're keen to make their mark.

Joy Lewis, CSPP Intern Programme Manager

Idea 11 - STV for the Scottish Parliament.

2011-02-11T15:30:00.000Z

STV for the Scottish Parliament.

Since the adoption of the Single Transferable Vote in 2007, Scotland has been ruled by four different electoral systems. Some work better than others. Yet it is undeniable – regardless of whether or not you support or reject it – that the use of STV for Scottish Local Government elections has had a transformative impact.

Not surprisingly, we think it has been a resounding success. Despite the scaremongering from opponents, STV has on the whole produced stable and more consensual decisions and ensured on-going competition in the local political marketplace.

It would be hyperbolic to suggest that the creation of coalition councils has ushered in a new era of “new politics”, but it has ultimately benefited our local democracy. Why?

1. Multi-member wards “remove political ownership” of electoral areas.
2. Council coalitions and multi-member wards increase the number of “political synapses” within councils and across council boundaries.
3. Council coalitions make for “more mature and considered” politics.
4. Tight competition in the political market improves service provision.

It is our belief that the next stage in the democratic evolution of Scotland should be the replacement of the Additional Member System (AMS) with STV for the Scottish Parliamentary election in 2015.

Those campaigning hard for the vote for a change campaign are rightfully supporting the campaign for AV in future Westminster elections; but let’s face it it’s difficult to get excited by a flawed system like AV.

The same cannot be said for the adoption of STV in Holyrood elections. It would end the “half-way house” and the two tiered system that doesn’t work.

Click here to read our RDII report that covered this issue.

CSPP in the News - Local Government

2011-02-11T14:58:00.000Z

CSPP Board Member Richard Kerley was interviewed on Newsnight Scotland last night.

To watch the piece click here and fast forward to 17:43.

Idea 10: Create Limited Liability Partnerships between Local Authorities and providers of capital looking for long term investment

2011-02-11T13:32:00.000Z

Create Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) between Local Authorities and providers of capital looking for long term investment(Pension Funds, Sovereign Wealth Funds) to build and manage new social housing.

The council provide land, planning permission, tenants, maintenance and a rent collection mechanism; the provider of capital puts up the cash.

The two parties agree to share the rental revenues according to the LLP agreement.

Tenants are housed in clean, healthy, energy efficient homes; the council is freed from debt obligation; and the funders have a long-term, low risk return on their capital - not to mention the benefits for a struggling construction industry.

Is it time to change the school year?

2011-02-10T12:21:00.000Z

When we launched our "100 ideas for 100 days" venture last month we didn't think that the inaugural idea would create such a fuss.

And yet after our Policy Director mentioned it on Newsnight Scotland (17:23 in) we have been inundated with emails from angry teachers. I'll skip the sometimes unsavoury language/tone and simply offer a series of links for you to make up your own mind:

1. GMS piece, 9/2 - 3min:24sec in and 1hr:19 sec in.

2. Coverage in today's Scotsman.

3. Debate piece in today's Scotsman.

4. Further coverage in today's Daily Express.

CSPP in the News

2011-02-08T12:26:00.000Z

The last few days have seen a lot activity at the Centre (we finished the manifesto and held our AGM) which has been met with increased media exposure.

Policy Director Ross Martin featured in an education piece on the BBC's politics show which you can watch here - 38 mins in.

Ross was also interviewed on the large retail levy on Newsweek (47 mins in).

Lastly, both Richard Kerley (CSPP board member) and Ross appeared on Newsnight Scotland - (15:39 and 17:23 respectively).

Idea 9: Allow Scottish Water to produce, bottle and sell its own water to restaurants and all public sector buildings

2011-02-07T12:52:00.000Z

Allow Scottish Water to produce, bottle and sell its own water to restaurants and all public sector buildings.

Bottled water is, apparently, the item with the largest single mark-up on the supermarket shelves. Scotland is awash with water. Scottish Water doesn’t sell it in bottles but requires huge public sector subsidy to function. The public sector is responsible for over 50% of GDP in Scotland and uses lots of bottled water.

Discuss.

Idea 8: Elected mayors for the Core Four

2011-02-03T16:08:00.000Z

Pilot Elected mayors for the Core Four cities in Scotland.

Why is Scotland the only country not to recognise the value of directly elected City Mayors? Ok, some may wish to call them Provosts but let's at least agree on the need for a strong, clear purposeful voice for our cities, as happens all over the world.

Would the Edinburgh congestion charge shambles have happened under a Mayor like Red Ken? Would Aberdeen be having the troubles it now faces with a Guiliani? Who would you choose as Mayor of Glasgow with the rich mix that great city has of politicians, business leaders and other personalities?

Other than gorgeous George can you name a single leading politician discovered in Dundee? Our Cities are the engines of the Scottish economy, they deserve and need strong, high-profile, powerful leadership that can get things done on pressing issues like budgetary constraints, shared services and climate change.

And of course, the mayoral model we use can learn from the mistakes from down south where the balance of power between the executive and the legislature is severely skewed in favour of the former.

Idea 7: New planning policy to encourage residential back into town centres

2011-02-03T16:05:00.000Z

New planning policy to encourage residential back into town centres.

Throughout the 80’s, and into the 90’s, pedestrianisation of town centres was all the rage, and although these schemes often created much more pleasant environments in which to transact day-time business (economic, social or other) many of our high streets became dead zones in the evening, with no activity and no signs of life.

This was partly as a result and partly a cause of residential properties being converted to other uses, especially those above shops and offices.

We need to put the life back into our evening economies in our town centres and get people back where they belong – at the heart of their communities.

Idea 6: All local newspapers to have a 'public service obligation' in return for continued public sector advertising spend

2011-02-03T16:01:00.000Z

All local newspapers to have a 'public service obligation' in return for continued public sector advertising spend

As local authorities and other public sector organisations begin the painful process of budget cut-backs, one of the areas of spend which will again come under the spotlight is advertising - for jobs, councillor surgeries, planning applications, etc – in local newspapers.

If a deal could be struck whereby the local newspaper was to provide an agreed amount of coverage of council activity (obviously maintaining complete editorial control) – say reportage of council committee meetings, work with young people or international links – then it should be possible for them to secure, albeit a reduced rate, a steady, reliable flow of advertising revenue from the authority.

"SNP risks losing the 'business vote'": Alastair Ross

2011-02-03T11:18:00.000Z

Published in Public Affairs News, 31/1/2011. Click here to view.

"David Cameron has begun 2011 as pro-business, pro-growth and pro-jobs, but in Edinburgh Alex Salmond appears to be taking a different tack.

The SNP won power in 2007 not least by convincing a previously sceptical business community through a confidence-building campaign around boardroom tables. The party was even prepared to park the independence issue to debunk the risk factor from an SNP Government that advocated lower taxation, entrepreneurship and supporting businesses at all levels. Some of Scotland’s leading business people even put their names to SNP newspaper adverts.

Four years on, it looks rather different. The financial crisis encouraged opponents to challenge Salmond’s close links to the Scottish banks. Then came a showdown with drinks giant Diageo, which announced its withdrawal from Kilmarnock. The SNP demanded a change of heart that was never likely.

Tackling Scotland’s battle with ‘the booze’ was to have been a defining act of this administration, but a minimum unit price for alcohol set SNP ministers at loggerheads with the whisky industry.

Now the respected finance secretary, John Swinney is levying an extra £30m on large shops in business rates – a straightforward hit on those businesses the SNP thinks can best afford it. There’s a tangible concern that it may become more expensive to run a business in Scotland than other parts of the UK.

This from a social democratic party whose success was in part based on championing lower corporation tax, less red tape and sustainable economic growth (ahead, even, of the raison d’être of independence).

Small business still enjoys a rates relief scheme, and SME owners and employees may be more inclined to vote than those in large corporations. The SNP might think the Scottish business vote has nowhere else to go, but in public affairs terms it still seems quite a gamble in an election year.

Alastair Ross is a CSPP Board Member and director (public policy) at McGrigors LLP

"Tesco Tax not past its sell-by date yet"

2011-02-03T10:55:00.000Z

Published in the Scotsman, 2/2/2011. Click here to view.

As the Scottish Budget deadline approaches, the proposal for the so-called "Tesco Tax" should remain in the parliament's shopping basket. Alongside a range of other taxes, the economically nutritious value of this levy on retailers grossing more than £3 million-£4m annually should be more carefully considered. It is not past its sell-by date yet, but it needs quick action to ensure that it doesn't rot on the political vine.

OK, the original attempts at selling this new product line made it appear like a colourless, tasteless offering from a Soviet Russian store. Not exactly the glitzy marketing effort that would sell its virtues to the sales-savvy big retail sector.

However, as Gok Wan is currently demonstrating to great effect with his new series, a little bit of skilful handiwork can quickly turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.

It is surely possible for the large retailers levy to be reviewed, rebranded and reboxed. Yes, it should be returned to the shelves of the Holyrood policy store, but this time with a few additional features to tackle the criticisms that it attracted in its bargain basement state.

First and foremost, all taxes must have a purpose. If a tax on big retail is indeed to be levied then even their representative body, the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC), recognises the value, and crucially the fairness, if this money is to be recycled into our town centres. This is the same point made by the vast majority of retailers, the small independents, and articulated by their representative body, the Federation of Small Businesses.

Giving evidence to the parliament's local government committee, alongside its colleagues in the SRC, the FSB was at pains to ensure that our parliamentarians understood that here is a chance to build upon the Town Centre Regeneration Fund, and develop a sustainable funding model for supporting the beating hearts of our communities.

This desire to help town centres already has unanimous support across the parties in parliament, so it is very frustrating watching them descend into a political price war over an issue which should actually unite them in earnest endeavour. If there is broad agreement that savage spending cuts, as currently being visited upon the English public sector, are to be avoided in Scotland, then one way in which to tackle the budget deficit is to raise more taxes.

However, we haven't got a history of targeted taxation and hypothecation is a big word for our wee parliament.

Surely, though, the Calman legislation, for all its unnecessary complexities and overtly politicised purpose, will bring with it at least a basic idea of what taxes are for, what level they should be set at, who decides how they are spent and, crucially, who should pay them.

Without this fiscal discipline, tax proposals like the large retailers levy will always be in danger of being viewed in the abstract - as general revenue-raising schemes, not funding targeted economic or social interventions, backed by policy principle. This lack of a direct link between taxation and the social or economic benefit that it is designed to bring about has been a consistent weakness of Holyrood. It is time that the Scottish Parliament took responsibility for raising its revenue to fund its own social programmes and for creating the capital to finance economic investment projects.

Another way to democratise public expenditure is to localise. The large retailers levy could, for example, be devolved to the local level, but ring-fenced for town centre regeneration. This form of hypothecation is likely to become ever more popular as the various spending departments of the local state fight over a slice of the decreasing national expenditure pie.

Furthermore, if the levy was also to fall on other sectors operating in the high street, such as the banks, carbon-heavy office blocks or even industrial premises that should be encouraged to relocate from congested town centre streets, then it would be seen in a different light entirely. It could even develop a green core.

If our MSPs are serious about employment and the ability of workers to shape their own operating conditions, then an exemption for social enterprises, co-operatives and other mutuals would be in order.

By tailoring the tax to suit these other policy aims, as well as simply generating revenue, the parliament could clearly demonstrate a social as well as an economic purpose for this new tax.

And what of the parties, what ideas might they individually bring to the inevitable post-election shopping trip for new ways to balance the budget? Could they actually move towards the style of new politics which our parliament was meant to usher in? Is it likely that they will develop, through cogent discussion and debate in an atmosphere of intellectual rigour, against an evidence base supplied by academics and practitioners, a basket of policies that could create a more positive context for the isolated Tesco Tax?

If the political focus is to switch from being dazzled by the brilliant, full-on marketing blitz of big retail attacking this tax, what other products might we see moving along towards the Holyrood policy till? In these times of economic constraint,
are we for example, likely to see a move towards more vintage policies? Like their clothing counterparts, these policies could be right back into fashion.

For example, a workplace parking levy, city congestion charges, inter-city motorway tolls, not to mention bridge tolls. These demand management measures for our transport network were all pushed in the 1980s and 90s, but although they were more fashionable elsewhere, they didn't prove popular here in Scotland. However, in these times of economic restraint, when the only other option is to slash services, will our MSPs have the imagination, skill and ability to persuade the public that demand management measures of this nature have their place in a fair and civilised society?

To put the Tesco Tax into perspective, it is worth noting that the projected £30m to be raised is a tiny 0.001 per cent of the Scottish block grant from Westminster, which currently stands at an eye-wateringly unsustainable £30 billion per annum. The political benefit, if taken on its own, is akin to the loyalty card points gained from a single visit to the ubiquitous supermarket. In other words, a very small gain for an awful lot of political pain. So why take it on in the first place?

We can hope our politicians want to do the right thing, and that they come to a considered conclusion after open, honest debate, rather than them viewing this proposal as a precursor to the introduction of yet more stealth taxes. Make no mistake, tax rises, new taxes and more charges there will be, so let us at least have it out in the open and not see tax rises sneaked in after the ballot papers have been counted.

If the parties are indeed serious about raising revenue to invest in infrastructure and service improvement, especially in our town centres, maybe they could learn from the supermarkets themselves.

In the run-up to this election, the parties could be promoting more policies that may cost them a little politically in the short term, as loss leaders if you like, knowing that the majority will happily endorse them come election time. Every little helps!

Ross Martin is policy director of the Centre for Scottish Public Policy

Idea 5: Create a single Scottish Police Service

2011-01-31T13:57:00.000Z

Create a single Scottish Police Service but de-centralise decision-making to divisional command co-terminus with LA boundaries.

1. Localism. Any move to a national force must be balanced by a drive to localism, with the devolving out of functional responsibility to the local command level. This will be greatly assisted if local command divisions were co-terminus with Local Authority boundaries.

2. Independence. To safeguard against political interference there has to be legislation to properly define operational independence.

3. Rebranding. Brand the local police divisions with local names. So, for example, you would have a Glasgow police force; a Shetland police force and so on.

You can read more on this issue in an article Ross Martin (CSPP Policy Director) published - view here.

Idea 4: "Large Retail Levy needs reviewed, re-boxed and rebranded

2011-01-28T14:03:00.000Z

Large Retail Levy needs reviewed, re-boxed and rebranded

From the Town Centre Regeneration Fund to the growing debate on the large retail levy, town centres have never had a higher political profile. This, for an issue that rarely features in most political parties manifesto’s in Scotland, is an achievement.

Indeed, it is now commonly accepted by all parties that town centres play an important role in securing Scotland’s economic recovery and also in providing creative spaces for the social interaction that makes for a vibrant community.

Yet this debate – triggered by the proposed Large Retail Levy – has become hugely politicised and divisive. This is a mistake. This is not a “them & us” debate between town centres or our out of town retail. We need to ensure that a rational and mature debate begins to ensure the issue doesn’t become a party political football in the budget process or the Scottish Parliamentary elections.

Any new initiative should be viewed as part of a coherent package that includes consideration of other policy ideas, such as out of town car parking charges, transitional rates relief for smaller sized traders, a review of existing planning policy and the sequential test and the small business bonus scheme. If seen in this context, and reshaped to avoid targeting a particular part of one identified sector, the 'big retail levy' could conceivably make a contribution.

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Note: this information was based on a recent press release from the Scottish Towns Partnership (STP), an alliance of key representative bodies and experts. It was borne out of the *Centre for Scottish Public Policy's Scottish Towns Policy Group in 2009.

Ahead of the Scottish elections, the STP released a policy group paper on Scotland's Towns and Town Centres: Creating Confidence - Changing Futures, lead-authored by Professor Leigh Sparks with support and input from all members of the Group. A copy of the paper can be found here.

Idea 3: Local Government Graduate Programme

2011-01-28T11:15:00.001Z

Every local authority in Scotland takes on one (or more) graduates for two years. The starting salary will be a minimum of £15,000 and the graduate will be exposed to a range of projects and placements in a council(s).

Funding: Scottish govt led and funded from LA budgets.

Why: (1) Skills. Scottish Local Govt has no entrance point for graduates. There is no mechanism in place for talented graduates to become the next generation of Local Govt leaders. They move to London or the EU. Inspired by the programme in England, a Times Top 100 Graduate employer.

And with 1 in every 3 job in Scotland residing in the public sector, Government have a duty to provide opportunities particularly in the islands where the public sector accounts for at least 70% of the economy, not to mention ensuring they do everything possible to tackle graduate unemployment (20% of new graduates are now unemployed) or graduate migration.

(2) Economic. This programme would be a hugely cost-effective buffer for local govt employment levels. Many are already stretched due to the budgetary constraints and will be letting people go, mostly through natural wastage. The LA would only need to contribute (at the most) £20,000 per annum. This is less than a consultant’s fee for one project.

In the long term the council are making a shrewd investment. For a modest sum there are recruiting ambitious and talented graduates who will provide the fresh blood - and future leaders - that Scottish local government needs. Individuals who are not deeply enmeshed in local government ways.

(3) How: Implementing the best of the NGDP down south, the programme would be run by the Centre (as a companion to our increasingly successful adopt an intern programme) and with the current (and former) bright lights in local government. The placements will be workplace based but will include quarterly seminars with other recruits and local government experts to discuss and share best practice

Idea 2: Fourth Road Bridge Out; HSR Link In.

2011-01-26T11:33:00.000Z

Scrap the commitment to build a 'fourth' road bridge and fund the Scottish end of High Speed Rail.

In austere times tough choices have to be made. Promises made in time of growth have to be reviewed again due to the turbulent economic times. Only yesterday the ONS published new data that showed public sector net debt was £889.1bn or 59.3% of GDP at the end of December 2010.

It is for this reason, and our belief that HSR2 would have a significantly greater economic impact, that we suggest scrapping the commitment to build a new fourth road bridge (or in Government parlance, " a replacement crossing") and diverting £1bn to start the High Speed Rail Line from Scotland. The other £1bn should be used for other transport projects that will boost economic growth.

Idea 1: Rearrange the School Year

2011-01-25T16:00:00.000Z

Rearrange the school year into four terms of ten weeks each.

The current school year does not suit a well planned curriculum. It shuts out professional expertise that could enrich the learning experience and causes hard working parents unnecessary difficulty arranging childcare on ‘in-service’ days.

Four ten week terms, standard across all of Scotland, would allow better modular planning of courses; it would open up schools to accountants, anthropologists and architects to provide professional expertise; and it would remove the hassle to thousands of parents of finding childcare on all those Spring Mondays.

The Launch of 100 ideas for 100 days

2011-01-25T14:29:00.000Z

For some Burns night is a celebration while for others it is simply another day. Of course, there is one small group who view it differently from the rest. At the CSPP we are using Burns night to kick-start our “100 ideas for 100 days” feature which will count down the days until the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May. Think of a healthy advent calendar with surprise policy contributions behind each door.

Every weekday we will tweet a new policy idea with links to this blog explaining the idea in more depth. Of course, it’s not an academic article so don’t expect long, cited efforts. Rather, expect short, snappy pieces that are designed to stimulate a dialogue with those interested in the future of Scottish politics. Love it or hate it, we want to hear from you.

Every week we'll email a summary of our ideas to our networks so if your not on the mail list get in touch - barry@cspp.org.uk

Today's idea will be posted very soon.

Happy 100 days!

Ross Martin: May the national force be with us

2011-01-12T12:43:00.000Z

Published in the Scotsman 12/1/11

If we are to move towards a single Scottish police service, then let us also strengthen local accountability

IN CASE of emergency, centralise! Merge eight into one. Create a single Scottish Police Force. The clarion call rings out. Save cash. Cut red tape. Never mind the thin blue line. These are siren voices rather than the sound of emergency assistance, rallying to the country's call in a time of national economic need. This blunt proposal is ill thought out, ill-judged and ill-timed.

This is a lazy call for cost efficiency. A proposition with evidence more scantily clad than the cast of the Sheridan show trial. Well-thought out change to Scotland's police service, along with the rest of the public service family, should have been a priority for the emerging Scottish Parliament. It wasn't. It never has been.

Tough decisions need strong political leadership. Constructive, sustainable change demands mature political debate, public reflection and professional refinement. What we are now all witness to is a belated rush to reform as the money well, out of which our MSPs have been drinking to excess, dries up. This game-changer demands a fresh policy tonic.

The tight fiscal discipline of the new UK coalition government is at last focusing MSP minds on the need to manage the demand for public services, rather than casually turning on the tap of ever-increasing supply. This driver for change should at least be welcomed, but the primacy of price over value should be much more rigorously interrogated.

Public-service reform can't be a slave to cost efficiency. Quality of provision and a desire to improve must drive any real reform, if the changes that are made to vital public services are to be publicly supported and economically sustainable. Public services should be exactly what they say on the tin. Public and a service. Scotland's police are an integral part of the family, serving the public.

The need for change is of course recognised all across the service, from Police Boards, to chief constables, through the managerial and supervisory ranks and even among Robert Peel's newest recruits. The patchwork of provision that was designed to mirror the former regional councils, long since gone, is simply not fit to walk the modern-day beat.

The role and function of Scotland's police service has changed dramatically since their last major review, undertaken well before the Scottish Parliament reconvened.

We hear precious little from our MSPs on how these differing demands should be reflected in training, in responsibilities, or in the design and delivery of this most vital of public services. Instead, we hear an uninspiring argument about numbers.

There is no policy debate about the primary role of police officers in protecting our communities, preventing or detecting crime. There are no ideas to test the value of feet on the street, rather than simply accepting a supply side case for yet more
men and women in uniform. There is no political discussion regarding the relative value in roles of police officers, for example as security guards around football matches or as nursemaids for drunken teenagers staggering out of irresponsible night clubs.

Instead of fighting about the site, style and cost of a new building for themselves, our first crop of MSPs should have been constructing their ideas for rebuilding the fine institutions that are our public services. England forged ahead with Police Community Support Officers, we never even debated an expansion of the fine Scottish tradition of Special Constables.

Local government was force fed a diet of school closures and the health service tasted the bitter pill of hospital rationalisation. There was no such structural change forced upon our outdated structure of eight police forces.

IN THE second parliament, when the UK government's authoritarian approach to youth disenchantment and disruptive behaviour was being enthusiastically endorsed with the adoption of the Asbo criminalising culture, there should have been a very different line of inquiry.

Instead of a continual obsession with policing their petty political in-fighting, they should have been debating how the police could prevent the real fighting that disfigures their town centres, all over the country, every weekend.

As we near the end of the Scottish Parliament's third term, there are a few signs of a more civilised approach, one where, to borrow an old phrase, we are tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. However, our legislature has just failed so lamentably, in the face of a standard of evidence that would have put the al-Megrahi case to shame, to tackle the primary cause of the majority of crime. Holyrood's collective inability to tackle the nation's drink problem has left all of our public services, from policing to the courts, from health to education, with a major hangover.

Instead of arguing with each other that black is white and vice versa, our MSPs need to add some genuine colour to the current monochrome debate on the reform of our public services in general and the future of Scottish policing in particular.

Where, for example, does policing fit within the developing picture of public service provision, being led by a number of localised initiatives?

When leading Scotland's second-largest police force through its last period of significant change, our most successful reform was to devolve decision-making to the divisional level.

By recognising the close working relationship that our local commanders had with each of the five local authorities within our combined force area we were able to invoke the spirit of the time, in preparation for the Scottish Parliament, and decentralise decision-making.

This power shift proved to be an engine for even greater energy, for more innovative change and, yes, for economic efficiency, too.

We also prepared the way for centralisation of resource-intensive, increasingly specialised areas of common policing such as forensics, serious crime fighting capability and training, with for example a major extension of facilities at the Scottish Police College. The delicate, democratic balance between the centripetal pull towards the centre and the centrifugal push out to the local level can carefully be extended.

SO, IF we are to move towards a single Scottish Police Service to gain the economic efficiencies of scale, then let us also strengthen local accountability by simultaneously devolving operational power out to the local level.

In so doing, we can recognise that decisions are best taken where they have greatest impact and create locally owned, operated and branded subsidiaries of this new single Scottish police force; for example, the Shetland Police, the Perth Police, the Edinburgh Police.

Just as our devolved divisional structure struck the balance then between central command and local control, so can a decentralised police service operate more effectively and with greater efficiency when scaled up across Scotland.

Technology, increased levels of specialist skill and, of course, the establishment of the Scottish Parliament enable stronger national strategic direction for all public services, but they also provide the basis for further devolution of power down to the local level.

It is, of course, possible to structure a single Scottish police service in such a way as to align divisional command units with each of the 32 local authority areas. This would allow for national, strategic objectives to be set, whilst maintaining the operational independence of the police, clear from political interference at all levels.

We can secure the gains of centralised efficiency, whilwe also building on the very strong partnerships that exist between the police and other members of the public service family at the local, democratically accountable level.

Thankfully, any real reform will need to win broad approval in the court of public opinion when the Scottish electorate sits in judgment on 5 May. By then, our MSPs will be facing the reality of the economic crisis and will not be able to hide behind the political perjury of denying the need for radical, lasting change. The incoming Scottish government, of whichever political hue, needs to gather the evidence and construct a solid case for reform.

Step forward the Christie Commissioners, your country needs you.

Ross Martin is policy director at the Centre for the Study of Public Policy and a former convener of Lothian and Borders Police Board

Ross Martin: Curtain up on Political Panto

2010-12-24T13:08:00.000Z

Published in the Scotsman, 24/12/10

"As Scotland continues to feel the effects of an increasingly harsh winter, with economic growth in the deep freeze, we might be reassured if we saw signals that our politicians are stoking the furnace of recovery; that they are burning with democratic desire in preparation for the forthcoming Scottish election; that they stockpiled fresh policy fuel to energise our economic engines. So what positive smoke signals can we discern amidst the freezing fog?

Given the public's propensity towards reality TV, with I'm a Celebrity and Strictly part of a real resurgence of viewing figures, it might be argued that politicians who indulge, and are indulged in return, are simply representing the electorate by seeking their 15 seconds of fame, or alternatively just skating on thin electoral ice. Did the chalk-on-board screech of Lembit Opik's performance grate with you? How did Ann Widdecombe's manoeuvres go down, demonstrating all the grace of a nuclear sub grounded in a Scottish loch? And what of the season's longest-running reality "show"? How has the Sheridan court battle been for you? Enlightening? Entertaining? Enhancing?

As an increasing number of our politicians (current, former and possibly future) finally succumb to the cult of celebrity, we might imagine those responsible for domestic social policy strutting their stuff under the stage lights. If so, how would they fare? Can we picture our MSPs performing on the stage, waltzing around the dance floor or even munching through a bush tucker challenge in the jungle?

However, as there is a fine tradition of pantomime here in Scotland, a strong case for MSPs treading the stage boards can indeed be made. Let's face it, pantomime is essentially an opportunity for the audience to suspend reality, something well-practised in the Holyrood chamber, and for the actors, an opportunity to pretend that life's not that hard. So, in the festive spirit, let us imagine which of our Scottish politicians might tread the boards and what panto character they might play.

First up, it's got to be Cinderella, played by Auntie Annabel Goldie herself.

Still sweeping up the ash from when the Thatcherite flame was snuffed out by the bleak political winter of '97, will she ever get to the ball and find a true partner, or will her ugly sisters, played by Tory MSPs Murdo Fraser and Jackson Carlaw, win the day? Her cousin, dashing Dave Cameron, has already found his true love in the UK coalition, but the plot, such as it is, will focus on whether our Annabel will find her political prince this May.

Perhaps a pair of red shoes would do the trick, as used to great effect by our very own Dorothy, Margo MacDonald. Margo simply needs to click her heels and she is right back home in the corridors of power, using all the magic that the parliament's electoral arithmetic Wizard has granted her, to strike a Capital City Supplement deal.

In the wonderful world of Holyrood, during the production known as the Scottish Budget, other MSPs should learn this very basic lesson in parliamentary arithmetic of working together for the greater good of the areas they represent. Will MSPs find enlightenment on the electoral yellow brick road? We must hope they find a strong heart to lead for their local community, demonstrate the brains to secure a better deal for their patch and display the courage to set aside their party whips and work together for the greater good of their town, city or region.

If the land of Oz is an unusual panto, we must not forget Jack and the Beanstalk. Tavish Scott, the Liberal Democrat Scottish leader, was certainly responsible for germinating some of the beans that grew into the UK Coalition tree, having been an integral part of previous partnerships in Scotland that paved the way for Westminster. In this production the question is can Tavish/Jack now reap the electoral reward for planting those maturing cross-fertilising political seeds, or will he get chopped down by an angry Scottish electorate? Who knows?

Now, Christmas wouldn't be the same without Snow White, and there would be fierce competition for this glamorous role at Holyrood. It would perhaps be inappropriate for me to nominate any MSP for this role, so I'll let you choose your own favourite. As for seven political dwarves, well, perhaps I can leave you the terrifyingly difficult ordeal of identifying this lot. No mean task at Holyrood.

But what's that noise? Look, he's behind you: There's Iain "Aladdin" Gray, Labour's Holyrood leader, rubbing his policy lamp for all it's worth, looking to unleash the magic that he insists saw his party successfully defend its ground in this year's election, when all his dreams came true. The problem is, however, that he may not have any wishes left to use in next year's manifesto.

And he must fear that the electorate is going to put the anti-Tory Genie that boosted his support back into his bottle, given that they have no chance of winning next year.

And to finish our merry-go-round of Christmas favourites, let us imagine First Minister Alex Salmond as the Widow Twankey, Aladdin's pantomime dame of a mum. Like Twankey tea is "oor Eck" - who some might see as a pantomime villain and hiss whenever he appears - is past his best, it has been said. But he may yet play the part of telling the election story through audience interaction and brew up another stunning election victory. So, the lead role could be Eck's again, or will the electoral gods conspire to effect a result that ushers in a new political cast of players? If so who might these new panto talents be?

Finance minister John Swinney is an obvious Peter Pan, youthful, charming and yet wielding a mean little dagger. Just ask Glasgow Council's Labour leader. But, he's not the one to watch this time around. That role goes to his real-life political partner Nicola Sturgeon playing the part of Wendy. Look, there she goes, sprinkling pixie dust over those pirates in the press gang. Supportive, yet forceful, Nicola has had another good year, soaring above criticism, but will her dream of the top prize really come true?

And who would play cunning old Captain Hook? Enter stage left, none other than that seasoned veteran of the political play, Labour MP Brian Donohoe, scourge of the Scottish Parliament and all things nationalist. There he is, brandishing his amendment to the Scotland Bill, seeking to destabilise the good ship Holyrood by removing its balance, or to you dear voter, the parliament's proportionality.

So, the performance of our MSPs in the panto knockabout that is Holyrood does shed light on the coming election. We did start this winter season with a shock ministerial resignation, when transport minister Stewart Stevenson - after a week of Oh, yes he will, Oh, no he won't - fell on his sword, in a clash of his principle and others' political pragmatism. True grit he had in spades, but even he couldn't plough a clear road through the political storm that hit that week.

This could be seen as a sign that the parliament is growing up, but others may believe our MSPs have still to prove that they are worthy of applause rather than the hissing and booing traditional of pantomime audiences. They will hope that, despite the jokes and slapstick along the way, they are seen as serious people, helping the voters face up to the reality of the economic crisis, and leading us to the happy ending and curtain calls when Scotland becomes a land of stability and sustainable growth?

But hold on, what's that noise? Tick-tock, tick-tock. The electoral croc approaches, as a reminder to our parliamentarians that they are on borrowed time.

If the student fees fiasco, or the disgrace that was the alcohol debate is anything to go by, then alarm bells should indeed be ringing. Just like their pantomime alter egos, our MSPs, whichever groups form the next Scottish Government, will have to front up on opening night and face their audience. Now, that really will be a pantomime worth watching".

Ross is the Centre's Policy Director

Joint Letter to the Auditor General for Scotland

2010-12-15T17:33:00.000Z

Image Courtesy of Planetware.com

Today a joint letter has been sent to the Auditor General for Scotland calling on Audit Scotland to conduct an urgent investigation into the background to the additional Forth Bridge and the alternatives to it before any contracts are let. It calls on Ministers to ensure that any contracts are in the public interest.

The full letter states:

"Dear Mr Black,

As you will be aware, the Forth Crossing Bill is likely to be passed by the Scottish Parliament today, and it will empower Ministers to let contracts for the construction of an additional road bridge over the Forth. This project, should it go ahead, will be the most expensive single capital project ever supervised by a devolved administration, or indeed any Ministers in Scotland, with a final cost currently estimated at over £2bn. We believe it will be essential for Audit Scotland to look urgently into the background of this project and the alternatives to it.

In 2008, the Forth Estuary Transport Authority assessed the cost of repairing the existing bridge at up to £122m [1], even assuming the current dehumidification work is unsuccessful. It should however be noted that this ongoing dehumidification work "is producing the expected slow and steady fall in the relative humidity within the cable" [2], and that a contract is currently being advertised to examine progress in this area during 2012-13 [3]. A decision to proceed with contracts for the additional Forth Crossing prior to the results of this exercise therefore looks premature.

Furthermore, the Scottish Budget is under the gravest pressure since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, with a reduction in overall spending of £1.3bn in 2011-12 compared to the previous year. [4] Further reductions in the Scottish Block Grant are expected during the course of the next Parliament, just as capital sums of up to £400m per annum are projected to be spent on the additional Forth Crossing should it go ahead.

Scotland's recent history of capital project procurement and cost management has been mixed to say the least, and we have also seen recent examples of capital contracts signed prior to an election which ensured that future administrations would pay more to cancel those contracts than to proceed with them - so-called "poison pill" contracts. The timings currently being projected for the signing of the main contracts associated with the additional Forth Crossing are in the immediate pre-election period, and it would be legitimate to question whether such timing is in the interests of good governance. Your 2008 report "Review of major capital projects in Scotland" also notes that "Once a contract is agreed, significant changes to a project are likely to be costly and disruptive, and may not represent value for money." [5]

As that report points out, three fifths of these projects run over cost, with an average over-run of 39% against the initial cost estimate. This report, which does not consider the additional Forth Crossing project, also calls on public bodies to "prepare robust business cases for every project. These should be clear about the project aims and benefits, and include assessment of: risks; the range of options to be considered; and a clear basis for assessing, reviewing and reporting".

With these facts in mind, it is in our view essential that a full comparative audit be carried out before any contracts associated with the additional bridge are signed in order to consider the cost-effectiveness of repairing the existing Forth Road Bridge as against the costs associated with the construction of a new Forth Crossing. Both options will be disruptive, and a consideration of those consequences would also be useful. Finally, in the interests of value for money, it would be useful for Audit Scotland to provide advice to Ministers on the timing for and nature of any such contracts so that the public interests here can be properly protected.

Without such a vital piece of work, the risk is that a substantial amount of public money, even assuming no increase in costs during construction, will not be spent "properly, efficiently and effectively", as Audit Scotland's remit puts it. This project and the alternatives to it will be the most significant test of the public finances, of governance, and of the audit structures of this country for decades to come, and there are risks associated with this project for all concerned if such an audit is not carried out and its advice taken seriously. It will be too late once contracts are signed. Only Audit Scotland has the capacity and skills to deliver this work, and we would therefore urge you to consider taking on this project as a matter of urgency.

Yours

Richard Dixon, WWF Scotland
Keith Geddes, former member of the Accounts Commission (2002-2008)
Patrick Harvie MSP, Co-convenor of the Scottish Green Party
Colin Howden, Director, Transform Scotland
Lawrence Marshall, former Convener of the Forth Estuary Transport Authority
Ross Martin, Policy Director, Centre for Scottish Public Policy
Duncan McLaren, Friends of the Earth Scotland

Notes

1. Information from this Scottish Parliament's Information Centre briefing, page 6:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/briefings-10/SB10-05.pdf

2. See the Forth Estuary Transport Authority's February 2010 "Main Cables and Anchorages Update", page 2:
http://www.forthroadbridge.org/sites/default/files/documents/feta%2026.02.10%2010.00am%20item%2007.pdf

3. For details of this contract, see:
http://www.publictenders.net/tender/84825

4. See the Scottish Parliament's Information Centre briefing, page 2:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/briefings-10/SB10-67.pdf

5. Your report, page 6:
http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/docs/central/2008/nr_080624_major_capital_projects_km.pdf