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It is interesting that you said that it has not been supported. We had a lack of vegetables on our shelves recently, and I understand that, through glasshouses, we could move towards a lot more production of Mediterranean-type foods. If that was supported, we could increase the size of that sector.

Good morning. You have touched on some of my questions, but I will go into them a little bit more deeply. My questions are about the payments and the fact that we have more than half a billion pounds coming—hopefully; I share your concern about the potential cut-off in 2024.

The NFUS has said that it would be in favour of some form of front loading, with an uplift in payments on the first number of hectares, but it remains opposed to capping payments or tapering them down above a certain size of holding. I would be interested in hearing why you would not support capping payments per farm at, for example, £50,000 per farm, which could then free up money to put towards other aspects. You have talked about the central importance of food, but you also recognise that farming can take us forward with climate and biodiversity issues and rural development.

That is interesting. More support is needed for that certainty for producers, which you talked about at the beginning of the meeting.

I would like to move the conversation on a little bit and continue with the food supply chain piece. You mentioned supermarkets and the issue with eggs. I will be interested to hear your thoughts on supermarkets and alternative options for farmers to get their food to market and on the idea of subsidising the price of Scottish fruit and vegetables at the point of sale. There are a few things in there.

Thank you for explaining the clarification in the draft regulations. Do members have questions?

The next agenda item is a round-table discussion about community planning. This is the fourth evidence session in our post-legislative scrutiny of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. The inquiry is looking at the impact of the act on community planning and how community planning partnerships respond to significant events, such as the Covid 19 pandemic and the current cost of living crisis.

Many thanks to our panel of witnesses for joining us. We are looking forward to speaking with you about your experiences of community planning in your communities across Scotland. We are joined in the room by Ellen Wright, who is a community councillor in Glasgow; Lionel Most, who is the chair and secretary of Dowanhill, Hyndland and Kelvinside community council; and Louise Robb, who is the chair of Largo Communities Together, which is a development trust. Online, we are joined by David Watson, who is trust manager at the Kyle of Sutherland Development Trust.

Anyone who is online can let the clerks know that they would like to reply to a question or join in the conversation by typing R in the chat box. Those of you who are in the room do not need to turn your microphones on or off—we will do that for you.

I will begin our conversation by inviting everyone to briefly introduce themselves. I am Arianne Burgess, the committee convener and an MSP for the Highlands and Islands.

Thanks very much, David. Annie, do you have another question?

That is a good point. How can we have community empowerment if we are missing whole sections of the population, who cannot engage in that way?

People know that there are systems in place that it is likely could be easily adapted.

I bring in Paul McLennan on the third sector’s role in communities.

Is there a need for skills development in communication and relationship-building processes?

This has already been such a rich conversation. The next theme is on local outcomes improvement plans and locality plans. We have already taken quite a bit of evidence on such plans. I am interested in hearing from you about the awareness of the existence of those plans. In my community, people do not necessarily know that they exist. In addition, if you have experience of locality plans, do you have a sense of whether they are targeting resources where they are most needed?

We have also heard in evidence that the landscape is very cluttered and quite confusing, given the number of plans that must be created with communities and councils. When we talk about community planning partnerships, we are thinking of the services that are delivered to communities rather than about the planning of facilities on the ground. That, too, becomes confusing.

Another aspect of community planning partnerships is the intention to move to a preventative approach. Lionel Most and Ellen Wright spoke about the need for communications to ensure that we can prevent things from emerging, that we are aware of what is happening on the ground in our communities and that we can move to support people where that is needed.

I am packing in quite a lot, but I am interested to hear if you have a sense of whether we are managing to achieve a preventative approach through the plans. There is a lot in that. You can pick up whatever bits have stuck in your mind and you feel that you want to respond to.