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What would you like to change? If it was up to you, what would you like to see being done differently? Whether that is around paperwork or staffing costs, what would you change?

I guess that, in capital terms, any extra money that local authorities spend will have to be taken from somewhere else.

On the desire to have a national rate, does there not need to be regional variations? If I compare Edinburgh with Elgin, for example, is it not the case that property, building costs and maybe even staff costs are more expensive in Edinburgh? If there was a national rate, how would we be able to square that off?

Maybe there should be a minimum rate, which might be higher in other areas.

However, you also set targets, for example in relation to reducing the public sector head count by 30,000 over the next few years. That will feed back to local government, too.

The figures show a 7 per cent reduction in real terms. Are you saying that it will not be as bad as that for local government?

You have spoken about things such as digitisation and reducing the estate. Do you not accept that many local authorities have been doing that over the past four years? Therefore, for that to be set out as a way for those bodies to save money is actually quite insulting to them, because they have been doing it already.

You said earlier that you are not cutting the budget for enterprise but cutting duplication instead. Will you give us some examples of duplication within the enterprise budget?

Yes, but the take is going up by 20 per cent.

It is just that I struggle to see the transparency around that £620 million. I do not understand how you can approve it, almost, or say that it is okay, if you do not know what is going to be in it.