Edinburgh has been penalised for growth'

EDINBURGH and its economy have been transformed since John Swinney was a boy growing up in Corstorphine.

But the SNP leader believes the Capital has been penalised for its economic success. High business rates are imposing heavy burdens on firms and the lack of an adequate transport system makes it difficult for people to get around efficiently, he says.

And while he welcomes the Scottish Executive’s announcements last month on funding to bring back trams to Edinburgh and the go-ahead for a rail link to the airport, he wants them to be put in place faster.

"The essential thing is there has to be a quality public transport system," he says. "And I think we could all agree that has not been here beforehand. With the growth of the city, that transport infrastructure does not have the capacity, the quality or the integration we need.

"Edinburgh was a lovely city to grow up in as a boy, and it’s a lovely city to come back to for part of my working week, but the city and its development and activity is undoubtedly compromised by the limitations of its transport infrastructure.

"The measures that are coming forward - the tramlines, the link to the airport, the expansion in capacity at Waverley Station - are all welcome developments, but they have been a long time in the coming and a long time in the talking about."

He adds: "Thinking about public transport improvements in Edinburgh over the last six years, I might manage to come up with a station or two. I can’t really think of anything other than that which will have transformed the public transport of this city and its surrounding area.

"We have got to intensify the pace of undertaking these developments. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard the new Waverley Station was just around the corner, the new Edinburgh airport rail link is just round the corner. People are fed up with these promises always being round the corner. They just want to see some diggers constructing these things."

Although the Scottish Executive is providing 375 million to get the first trams going, Swinney says there is still a question over who pays for the other developments. He points out that when it came to building the rail links for London Docklands or from Stansted airport into the city of London, the UK taxpayer footed the bill.

"This isn’t a whinge for more money," he says. "It’s just a simple point - why don’t we just take responsibility for these things ourselves?

"Let’s just take these decisions in the Scottish Parliament. So many of these decisions have to wait for a decision from the Strategic Rail Authority, what they are going to put into the pot and these kind of things. I suspect that is just a recipe for a lot more talking and a lot less action."

Swinney says he is impressed by the growth and dynamism that has emerged in Edinburgh, but points out it has brought with it complications about affordability of housing and affordability of transport.

"And if we want to address that and avoid having a skills shortage, a strategic look at the transport infrastructure is required."

He says that should include the whole of east and south-east Scotland, and it has to keep pace, not just with the Capital’s growth so far, but also to look ahead to what the capacity of the city is likely to be in ten or 20 years’ time. I don’t think Edinburgh has been thanked for its economic growth, it has more been penalised. People can’t rely on the transport system to get to work on time and then back home to see their families at a reasonable hour."

But he also cites the rates burden carried by businesses. The Nationalists have pledged to reduce business rates in Scotland below the prevailing UK rate over the term of an SNP administration.

"That’s a pretty concrete example where we can use the powers of the Scottish Parliament as they currently stand to make a difference to the costs facing individual companies," says Swinney.

"With the normal financial powers we think the Scottish Parliament should have as an independent parliament, we could do an awful lot more to make companies much more competitive in Edinburgh, and that brings opportunities for economic growth. It means more people in employment, more taxes getting paid, better public services, more money to invest in infrastructure."

But despite highlighting Edinburgh’s challenges, Swinney says he has not detected a west coast bias in the decisions of the coalition.

"To accuse the Executive of bias towards the west of Scotland would be to accuse it of a level of energy and a level of excitement of which it was unworthy. It would suggest they are doing more than I think they are doing."

The SNP backed the legislation allowing local authorities to introduce road tolls, but the party opposes plans to introduce the charges in the Capital.

"I don’t think there should be congestion charges in Edinburgh. I wouldn’t say there’s never a circumstance in which that would be appropriate, but you can’t have congestion charging if you have no credible public transport alternative and there is no credible public transport alternative for people in and around Edinburgh just now.

"The proposal that has been brought forward and the whole debate about congestion charging is just an exercise in penalising motorists who have virtually no alternative to bringing cars into the city."

So would the SNP accept road tolls if a credible and comprehensive transport infrastructure is put in place? Swinney - who often drives from his home near Blairgowrie to Inverkeithing before catching the train across to Edinburgh - says he hopes a good transport system would change people’s behaviour and make congestion charging unnecessary.

"We should be fair to the commuters and the motorists around Edinburgh, give them a break and give them some credible alternatives. It’s all stick and no carrot. Let’s have a bit of carrot first."

Swinney also says an SNP administration would look sympathetically at calls for Lothian and Borders Police to be given funding in recognition of their role policing Edinburgh with the VIP visits, major demonstrations and foreign embassies that have mushroomed since devolution.

"There is a very reasonable case being made," he says. "I dare say there’s quite a few folk in housing estates around Edinburgh who would love to see such a visible police presence as we see when we walk from George IV Bridge round to the Assembly Hall.

"There is a need for security around the city centre for events and visits and the rest of it, but that shouldn’t be at the expense of effective policing in local areas in and around the city. There are particular burdens that need to be examined and it’s certainly one of the issues I would give a commitment that we would look at."

One of the major topics in Edinburgh at the moment though, aside from transport and policing, is the Executive’s announcement to move 270 Scottish Natural Heritage jobs from Edinburgh to Inverness.

Swinney says he supports the principle of dispersing civil service jobs from Edinburgh to spread the benefits of devolution, but is unhappy about the handling of the SNH decision.

"I was surprised at such a major relocation of an existing organisation," he says. "I’m all for dispersal of civil servants to different parts of the country. The process has to be managed effectively and you manage it most easily by relocating new organisations and by having a forward programme rather than the abrupt news some individuals are having to deal with."

But he is reluctant to promise a reversal of the SNH decision. "I would need to see the issues looked at by ministers and see if the issues were sound. Without that information, I couldn’t give a commitment.

"It certainly begs some questions why such a decision was taken so close to an election campaign. I don’t think I would be speaking out of turn if I speculated there might have been some politics in play of the really murky, pork-barrel type."

Swinney is firm in his opposition to the private finance initiative, which has built the new Royal Infirmary and is also refurbishing schools in the city. He says: "The citizens of Edinburgh are going to find out the hard way the limitations of the newly-built Royal Infirmary, where there is a reduction in capacity which will lead to longer waiting times."

The reduction in capacity has only come about, he says, because the hospital has been "shoehorned" into the economics of profiteering by private finance companies.

"The infirmary is there, the project is done and dusted, but I want to make sure that in our approach to the public finances we strip out that element of profiteering and instead of spending that money on excessive profits for private companies, we spend it on investing in schools and hospitals."

He says there is no question of an SNP administration halting the refurbishment of Edinburgh schools, but if possible he would switch them to a not-for-profit system.

"It depends what state of development the process is at," he says.

"If they are so far advanced that the contract cannot be changed into the not-for-profit trust model I favour, the contracts will run their course.

"But if there is an opportunity to make sure these schools are delivered on a more efficient basis for the public sector, then that’s an opportunity I would take."