Seòmar agus comataidhean

Going to the Halo project was a seminal moment in my life too, because it occupies the site of the former Johnnie Walker plant in Kilmarnock and a phoenix has risen from those ashes.

Is the dynamic that happened at Halo missing from some of the other growth deals, and do you hope to see that sort of thinking being transferred to the development of growth deals elsewhere?

Do you want to be, or were you invited to be?

Are any of you on any of the regional growth deal boards? Do you have a seat at the table and if not, why not? Have you pushed the door open to ask for a seat at the table? Have you tried and been rejected or have you not asked? What is the position?

Carolyn, are you a member of any of the growth deal boards in any shape or form?

Are you talking about direct, rather than spin-off, investment?

Thank you very much for those comments and for what you said about Halo, Carolyn. It was worth hearing.

That is a really positive message.

I have a final question. You spoke about bigger and smaller projects. The growth deals have tended to focus on big engineering or infrastructure projects and have, perhaps by implication, excluded smaller and more localised businesses. Is that gap being bridged at all, or should it be bridged much better? Do we need economic osmosis to allow smaller businesses and enterprises to gain from growth deal investment? There is a total of £3 billion that must be spent wisely. Do you want to see a downward spread of the benefits from growth deal investment?

Vikki Manson, what would you say about that?

I was going to ask some questions about cohesion, but what we have heard so far is making me rethink that.

Duncan Thorp spoke about lack of co-ordination among the various layers, initiatives, projects and programmes. Give me a flavour: do the three of you feel as if you are on the outside of the growth deals, looking in? I think that you are going to say yes to that, but I want to probe why that is and why it is taking you so long to get inside.