NEWS RELEASE – Renewable role for the public sector

Scotland has a huge renewable energy potential but will be missing a trick if it allows all of the benefit to be captured by a handful of multinational companies. That’s the warning from Green MSP Patrick Harvie, giving the keynote speech today (17 April) at the Renewable UK International Small and Medium Wind Conference in Glasgow. It is the UK’s first conference of its kind, with over 300 people expected to attend.

Last month Greens used valuable debate time in the Scottish Parliament to argue the case for greater involvement of the public and third sectors in securing the benefits of small and medium scale renewable energy. It resulted in a promise from the energy minister to make his officials available for talks on the issue.

Patrick Harvie said: “Households, small businesses, farms, and the public sector could have a huge role to play in developing small scale renewables which help meet our climate change targets and help share the economic benefits. Scotland’s councils should be leading partners, using public land and buildings to generate clean energy which will bring in much needed funds to protect public services. 

“Let’s not fall into the trap of thinking that renewable energy is only ever an industrial-scale enterprise. Scotland could have a truly Green future if we use the transformation of our energy system to benefit the common good, not just business interests. Small is still beautiful and the role of smaller scale wind power should not be underestimated.”

Osborne budget fails to invest in Scotland’s green future

Scottish Greens today claimed the UK Budget will undermine Scotland’s renewable energy ambitions.

George Osborne’s measures including further cuts in corporation tax for big business, incentives to extract more fossil fuels and no support for Scotland’s massive renewable energy potential.

Green MSP Patrick Harvie said:

“Scotland has the lion’s share of renewable energy resource in the UK, but the Chancellor has shown himself stuck on the dirty fuels of the last century. By investing in Scotland’s renewable energy potential rather than old fashioned fossil fuels, the UK government could have given our economy the shot in the arm it needs. Tax breaks for big oil and gas corporations do nothing for the environment or equality – Scotland needs this budget like a hole in the head.

“Aside from the failure to support green energy, this budget is the clearest sign yet from this government that the rich can expect to get richer at the expense of the least well off. The millionaire Chancellor has offered up a true blue budget, and the LibDems have rushed to support it.”

Greens call for capital expenditure fit for 21st century

The Green MSPs today described the Scottish Government’s new Capital Spending Plans (1) as “a blast from the past”, reserving particular criticism for substantial new expenditure on oil and gas extraction (2). Some aspects of the plans were welcomed by the party, including support for district heating schemes (3), but on transport SNP Ministers seem determined to do nothing to prevent a substantial increase in road traffic, congestion and pollution. (4)

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“The SNP are clearly stuck in a 1970s blast from the past mindset, where Scotland’s future is built on oil, not renewables. They don’t seem to have noticed that oil output from the North Sea peaked in 1999, and are in danger of trashing Scotland’s record on taking climate change seriously. These proposals would instead see tens of billions of pounds misspent on oil and gas extraction and on unconventional sources of fossil fuels. SNP Ministers appear to want tens of billions of tonnes of fossil carbon to be pumped into the atmosphere.

“At the same time, they appear to have nothing at all to say about the most important infrastructure we need for a low-carbon energy system in the future – a subsea grid connection across the North Sea to let us trade electricity efficiently with the rest of Europe. This is an outdated approach, one which misses opportunities and aggravates existing problems, and one which would guarantee the much-trumpeted targets on renewables and climate change are missed by a mile.

“Greens back moves to support district heating schemes, if they materialise, but we must go further and develop local energy companies in every council area in Scotland. This remains our greatest opportunity to generate energy locally and renewably, boosting both jobs and revenue for vital public services.”

“The SNP’s transport plans remain utterly unsustainable. Scotland could instead be investing in a transformational approach, building new public transport services, expanding light rail in the cities, and supporting a new bus fleet running an affordable and regulated service. With an Oyster-style smartcard, the whole system could be made simpler to use, and a programme of repairs and redesign work for urban roads and pavements would make walking and cycling easier and safer, as well as improving winter resilience.

“Instead, we’ve got the continuation of the discredited ‘predict and provide’ model. They’re projecting a 15-20% increase in road traffic, and doing nothing to prevent it. SNP Ministers are committed to sitting on their hands as pollution and congestion rise, roads become less safe, and the mobility gap between rich and poor grows ever wider. New road investment, such as the AWPR and the additional Forth Road Bridge, are based on fantasy economics, and would only make sense in a world where climate change wasn’t happening and where urban roads experienced no congestion.

“On rail, the promise of a service that’s lower cost and more focused on local needs sounds great, but it bears no relation to the franchise consultation, which included a list of umpteen ways Ministers have come up with to make the Scotrail service worse. If Ministers are ready to dump that earlier document and produce a vision for a railway fit for the 21st century, then now is the time.”

Notes

1. See:
www.scotland.gov.uk

2. See p. 57

3. See p. 52

4. See pp. 44-45

Greens backing Nov 30 strike action

The Green MSPs today confirmed the party’s support for tomorrow’s coordinated strike action against UK Ministers’ assault on public sector working conditions. Patrick Harvie MSP, the party’s co-convenor, will take part in an STUC event with the leadership of Scottish Labour and with striking public sector staff in the morning, (1) before taking part in the march from the Usher Hall to Holyrood and then meeting Holyrood staff on the picket line around Parliament.

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“Tomorrow is a day when politicians of all parties should be supporting the unions and their action, which comes with a stronger democratic mandate than the UK Ministers who are imposing these unfair and economically illiterate cuts to public sector pensions. The strikes are therefore a crucial statement of resistance, and I will be out with public sector staff in Glasgow in the morning and in Edinburgh in the afternoon.

“MSPs have a responsibility to back both Scotland’s public sector employees and the wider public they serve. It’d be better if all politicians would offer the support that unions have asked for, and not cross the picket line today, but the focus must remain on UK Ministers and their reckless and divisive attack on the public sector.”

Notes

1. This event will take place Wednesday 30 November between 10.00 am and 10.30 am, at the Story Telling Centre, Royal Mile, Edinburgh.

SNP and UK Government will form unholy alliance on strike day

The Green MSPs today condemned the decision by SNP Ministers to ignore representations from public sector staff and unions to close Holyrood during the day of strike action, 30 November, and instead to support the UK Coalition parties’ anti-union position.

Patrick MSP said:

It’s an utterly cynical move, and an abuse of the Scottish Government’s power, to schedule a debate about the strikes so that only MSPs who cross the picket lines are able to take part.

On November 30th, the country will see the strongest wave of coordinated action for generations, all to challenge the UK Coalition’s ideological and counter-productive cuts. On that day, the SNP and the Coalition parties will sit together as an unholy alliance on the wrong side of the picket lines. Is this really what the SNP stand for now?

No doubt there will be empty rhetoric from Ministers about supporting the right to strike – despite knowing that Parliament can only meet if employees and MSPs alike cross the picket lines. The SNP claim they’re on the other side of the argument from the Tories and LibDems. Wrong. The picket line is the argument, and the SNP have picked a side, the same side as the parties primarily responsible for this brutal attack on pay and pensions.

The unions have been very clear about how MSPs can support them – by joining them at pickets and rallies right across the country. That’s the work we should be doing on November 30th.

NEWS RELEASE – Tax rates should reward responsible companies

Green MSPs today argued for business tax rates to be linked to a wide range of social and environmental criteria, while supporting the Scottish Government’s call for control over corporation tax to be moved to Holyrood. In an amendment* lodged ahead of tomorrow’s debate on corporation tax, the party argues that company policies such as maximum wage ratios and payment of a living wage as well as their environmental performance and local purchasing policies should be reflected in their tax bill.

The amendment also calls for much stronger safeguards against corporate tax avoidance, in particular given recent moves by a number of large businesses operating in Scotland, including two companies praised last week by the First Minister.

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“At a time when the Scottish economy is under serious pressure, it is surely right that we should reward companies who act responsibly and are a positive force in our society. Companies that pay a living wage to workers or make serious efforts to reduce their carbon impact should see a reduction in their taxes to reflect the contribution they make to society and the wider economy.

“It’s also right that we create incentives for Scottish companies to source as many services and goods as locally as possible and challenge the mantra that cheaper is always better. There’s not a mention in the SNP’s strategy of the Sustainable Procurement Bill promised in their manifesto, but moving quickly on this issue could multiply the economic and social benefits of every pound of public money spent in Scotland.

“We want to reward responsible companies but we must also clamp down on those who seek to avoid paying their way. Greens back the campaign for control over corporation tax to shift to Holyrood, but new powers need new safeguards and we must create robust rules against corporations who move offshore to avoid corporation tax. If Holyrood does win control of business taxation proper regulation will be essential to ensure Scottish public services don’t lose out at a time when they are under pressure as never before.

“Last week the First Minister sung the praises of multinational companies, one or two of which have worked hard to ensure they don’t pay full UK tax rates, including Amazon, who in 2007 paid less than £20,000 in corporation tax. Greens cannot support this kind of activity, and it’s time for the First Minister to be clear where he stands on tax avoidance.”

* The amendment in Patrick Harvie’s name replaces the end of the Scottish Government motion with the following wording:
“support a wide range of social, economic and environmental objectives, including the need for well-paid, skilled and genuinely sustainable jobs, by allowing the Government to link tax rates to a wide range of criteria such as maximum wage ratios, payment of a living wage, local procurement, and reductions in waste generation or carbon emissions; further agrees that if corporation tax was devolved to Scotland there must be clear and robust safeguards against the kind of tax avoidance and evasion practices which have placed additional pressure on public services across the UK.”

A Manifesto for Public Services

You may already have noticed this, but there’s an election coming. On May 5th Scotland will choose its next group of 129 people to send to Holyrood, and we think it’s the most important election since devolution began.

Those 129 people will decide how Scotland responds to the UK Government’s cuts to public services. Should we do as George Osborne and Danny Alexander have done, slashing the services people most depend on and turning health and education over to the market? We don’t think so.

This week we launched a manifesto which shows how Scotland can stand up to the LibDem/Tory cuts, and take our economy in a new and better direction. The domination of right wing ideas is what has brought the country into the mess that we’re in today, and we cannot trust those same ideas to get us out of it. Instead, let’s invest together in the future we want to see. Let’s close the gap between rich and poor. Let’s make economic recovery really mean something.

When I voted ‘Yes Yes’ back in 1998 to create a Scottish Parliament with tax-varying powers, I wasn’t a member of a political party. I did so because I knew there could one day be another Tory government, determined to attack public services and the welfare state, with no mandate in Scotland. I wanted a political institution with the power and the will to protect Scotland from that agenda.

It’s not theoretical any more. It’s happening right now. If we’re not going to live up to those aspirations now, then what really was the point? It’s time to act creatively with the powers we have, and I’m very proud to offer a manifesto which does just that.

Robin Hood comes to Glasgow

Campaigners have been out in force for all the political parties this weekend, doorknocking, leafleting, and generally trying to get noticed. But I stopped off in the city centre earlier to chat with another campaign group – the Robin Hood Tax is a hugely important idea for raising revenue to protect public services, moving the economy away from the buccaneer capitalist’s dream which the other parties love so much, and helping to make the phrase “we’re all in this together” actually mean something.

The RHT campaigners have been touring the country and getting a great response. Like the recent March for the Alternative, along with UK Uncut, the STUC’s Better Way campaign, and others who are drawing attention to the failings of the current deregulated free market system, they are putting positive and creative ideas on the table and challenging the politicians to act.

It’s dismal to see how little there is in the way of a coherent left of centre response to the economic crisis from the political parties which like to call themselves “mainstream”. They were all over the likes of Fred Goodwin like a rash, before he became a pariah. Now they seem to think that the same economic model can simply be refloated.

In the Scottish Parliament it’s only been the Greens who have seemed interested in developing new economic ideas as a response to the events of the last few years. Our proposal for a Land Value Tax is one way of starting to build an economy that’s based on something real instead of the obscure and abstract “products” of the finance fetishists.

But even though with existing devolved powers we can’t introduce a Robin Hood Tax of our own in Scotland, it would be interested to find our which of the other parties would do it if we could.

Tonight I’ll be taking part in the latest TV election debate, focusing on the economy. I’ll be aiming to move beyond the bland managerialism of the others (I’ll see your x thousand jobs in renewables and raise you a small business bonus…) and start talking about the ideas which could underpin a real economic recovery – and remember that recovery does not mean the reanimation of a corpse.

If we get this right, we could build a more equal society, a cleaner greener economy, and a better quality of life. If we fail it will be the low paid and the vulnerable, not the bankers and hedge fund managers, who pay the price for the financial irresponsibility of government after government.

NEWS RELEASE – Greens launch plan for fairer, sustainable tax

The Scottish Greens today set out the detail of the party’s proposals to replace both Council Tax and Uniform Business Rates with a Land Value Taxfrom 2012 at an event at the Renfrew Ferry. At the rates proposed by the party, this move would bring in £1.04bn of additional revenue each year, as well as providing incentives for sustainable business development within local planning guidelines. Those living in residential properties currently banded A to E would pay less, and those in Scotland’s most valuable properties, banded F to H, would pay more. Overall, more than 85% of Scots households will see their tax bills fall.

Urban vacant land would be brought into the tax system for the first time, deterring “land banking” and encouraging business development, as would agriculture, forestry and shooting estates, although at a heavily discounted rate compared to other businesses. Land Value Tax is calculated by applying a poundage rate to the overall value of the land in question. Land values in Scotland vary significantly according to location and planning permission – an average hectare of industrial land is valued at £1m, while an average hectare of agricultural land is valued at just over £4,000. At the levels proposed by the Scottish Greens, the tax on the former would be £80,000 per annum while the tax on the latter would be just £100 per annum.

Patrick Harvie said:

“Local taxation is broken, budgets for public services are being squeezed, and vacant land and empty commercial properties are a blight on our towns and cities. Scotland is being held back by a Council Tax regime which was unfair and outdated even before the SNP started setting it nationally. Neither the Council Tax nor business rates provide any incentives to promote either the maintenance of property or the sensible and efficient development of land.

“A switch to Land Value Tax should have happened more than a century ago, when it was the centrepiece of Churchill and Lloyd George’s ‘People’s Budget’ proposals in 1909. Labour also sought to introduce it in 1931, but were again blocked by vested interests. Land values are affected by the local investments society makes, and this change would ensure society in turn benefits from these unearned windfalls, while also cracking down on tax avoidance.

“Scotland is facing the worst squeeze on our public finances in a generation, and all the other Holyrood parties can do is squabble about how to hand on the Tory cuts from Westminster. They all set entirely the wrong course for Scotland – we should be using Holyrood’s existing powers to invest in jobs, education, housing, and the low-carbon economy they all talk about. There is no other credible alternative on the table, and only a second vote for the Greens can protect our public services and our distinctive social settlement for the long term. In the next session of Parliament it’s either Land Value Tax or bust.”

Unlike the SNP’s unworkable and unfair income tax plans, Land Value Tax for domestic properties would also continue to be eligible for Council Tax Benefit under the terms of the 1992 Local Government Finance Act, which allows Scottish Ministers to define the land and properties to which both Council Tax and Council Tax Benefit apply. See 72 (4) in particular here (this is pre-devolution legislation so the role of the Scottish Secretary here is now filled by Scottish Ministers). For the land value figures see p.15 of Andy Wightman’s earlier report. The current proposals supercede the poundage levels set out in that report.

NEWS RELEASE – Patrick Harvie Calls On Council To Keep Accord Promise

GLASGOW GREEN PARTY RELEASE

For immediate release 31 March 2011

PATRICK HARVIE CALLS ON COUNCIL TO KEEP ACCORD PROMISE

Patrick Harvie, top Green candidate for Glasgow, today called on Glasgow City Council to provide immediate assurance that the vital services provided by the Accord Centre to learning disabled people will be protected.

Patrick Harvie said:

“Today’s protest shows the strength of feeling there is about the lifeline provided by the Accord Centre to learning disabled people and their families. Why should members of Glasgow’s learning disabled community pay the price for the Commonwealth Games now and right up to 2014?

“Major events like the Commonwealth Games all too often fail to deliver on promises made for long-term regeneration and community legacy. First, Margaret Jaconelli was displaced from her home and now the Accord Centre is to go, with no promise of a suitable replacement.

“Glasgow City Council promised £250,000 for a replacement for the Accord Centre and it must deliver. But just as importantly, the next Scottish Government must act decisively to raise revenue from those who can afford to pay, to protect Scotland from the Tory-Lib Dem axe.

“The UK Government is waging an ideological war on our public services, and vulnerable people who rely on centres like the Accord are the mounting casualties.”