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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 12 July 2025
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Displaying 2336 contributions

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Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]

Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 11 June 2025

Willie Coffey

I see that Dr Crighton wants to come in.

Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]

Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 11 June 2025

Willie Coffey

I have a final question for Jane Martin, which is a bit like the one that Daniel Johnson asked. What role do you see Scottish Enterprise having in the community wealth building process? How do you see the organisation working with, say, South Lanarkshire Council to grow and develop the whole principle of community wealth building?

Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]

Grangemouth’s Industrial Future

Meeting date: 11 June 2025

Willie Coffey

On the legacy issue, are you convinced that Ineos is committed in that regard? The fact that a bundle of money has been put on the table is really welcome, because Kilmarnock did not get that from Diageo. However, from your engagement with Ineos, are you convinced that it is committed to participating in that legacy process for the community?

Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]

Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 11 June 2025

Willie Coffey

Good morning. My question is probably for Jackie Taylor from South Lanarkshire Council, but I would be obliged if our other two colleagues were able to respond, too.

Jackie, you will have heard committee members say that we were down in Irvine in North Ayrshire on Monday, where we met fantastic local people who deliver local projects there, as well as some great officials, who provide support.

My colleague Lorna Slater mentioned the diagnostic tool that North Ayrshire Council has developed. I am keen to ask you whether South Lanarkshire Council has been able to do something similar. Your authority has a big area and many communities to cover; it stretches all the way from Rutherglen away down to Biggar, it includes East Kilbride, and there are small villages all over the place. Do you intend to embark on a diagnostic process that engages with communities at their level to understand their needs, their hopes and their aspirations for what community wealth building could bring them?

12:00  

Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]

Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 11 June 2025

Willie Coffey

Thank you.

Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]

Grangemouth’s Industrial Future

Meeting date: 11 June 2025

Willie Coffey

Thanks for saying that.

I turn to the issue of the workers. How just is it for them to get either a redundancy check or an offer to take their families and move away somewhere else to work? If a just transition were in place, we would surely see people who live in that community being able to transition to these wonderful projects that are coming on stream rather than having to move away. That is what I understand a just transition to mean, and I hope that you share that view, too. I would be keen to hear whether the workers at Grangemouth think that we are in a just transition process, or whether they agree with me that everything has been rather sudden and they have been forced into the situation that they now face.

Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]

Grangemouth’s Industrial Future

Meeting date: 11 June 2025

Willie Coffey

Good morning. We use the term “just transition” a lot and the public hear it a lot, but I am not certain that we know what it means. For me, it means that a community is given the time to adjust to a situation, rather than what has happened, which seems to have been an almost overnight closure and asset-stripping exercise by Ineos. I think back to the days when Diageo announced the closure of the Johnnie Walker plant in Kilmarnock. Even Diageo took three years to effect that closure, which gave our community time to adjust, plan and prepare. Looking at Grangemouth as an outsider, I do not see that. That is anything but a just transition.

10:45  

To your credit, you have mentioned a number of projects that have been under way for a while, not only since the closure announcement. That is great, but a just transition has to be embraced by all the parties around the table—all the Governments and the company. Do you get the sense that we have such a process in place and that the company is committed to that?

Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]

Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Willie Coffey

Good morning. I am excited to hear the passion with which you speak about this subject. I have heard it before from some of you, and it is very encouraging.

I will stick to the community dimension and the participation element. I have seen community wealth building working in North Ayrshire and East Ayrshire, and I am encouraged to hear from Councillor Forson about what is happening in Clackmannanshire. I have seen it work in practice, and that was before the bill appeared.

I invite you to share some views about what is actually making community wealth building work. Is it committed and passionate staff and community members who drive it? We could have more strategies and guidance notes than we have ever seen, but that is not what makes this thing tick; it is down to the commitment and passion of local officials to drive it forward and gain participation from the community.

Do you recognise that? Can you see that happening in your own authority and elsewhere? Do you see it reflected in the proposals in the bill to try to encourage other authorities to embrace it?

Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]

Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Willie Coffey

How do we do that? How do we transform that wonderful local experience of community wealth building in some parts of Scotland to other parts that might be yet to embrace it? What is the key to that? It is not about writing strategies and guidance notes—we need to do something else, do we not?

Economy and Fair Work Committee [Draft]

Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 June 2025

Willie Coffey

Professor Escobar, how do we share that experience across the rest of Scotland?