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Thank you.

You have touched on the next point that I wanted to make. The Government has consulted on a wider package, which includes increasing the levels for long-term empty homes and changing the thresholds for short-term lets. Are members of the panel happy about the regulations being made in isolation, rather than having the holistic package that the Government has consulted on, which could potentially stop some of the behaviour change and unintended consequences that we have been speaking about?

If we are talking about change-effecting behaviours and the policy potentially leading to second-home owners selling, I hope that councils would be in a position to buy any such homes that were being put on the market. Timothy Douglas spoke about the additional dwelling supplement applying to private landlords, but do council colleagues have views on the additional dwelling supplement still applying to councils, and would you like that to be removed so that you could support buy-back programmes to increase the supply of affordable housing and social housing in your local authorities?

What is your view on local authorities having to pay the additional dwelling supplement? It seems like a tax that is circular in nature, and something from which local authorities should be exempt.

You have just said that the council tax freeze will be fully funded, which is a commitment that has come from the First Minister. What is your understanding of what a fully funded council tax freeze means?

You can understand that one person’s description of fully funded may be different from another’s. I find it difficult that the minister and First Minister can give a guarantee or a pledge that the council tax freeze will be fully funded without being able to say what a fully funded freeze would look like.

I want to touch on an issue that the Scottish Tourism Alliance has raised. It said that it would like the national parks to receive a share of the investment from the revenue raised. Councillor Macgregor, do you have any idea of how that could work in practice? The STA suggests that there are multiple local authorities in one national park, so how could that work?

Thank you. My second question is about a review. If the legislation is passed, what will be a measure of success? Do local authorities have any data about historical spend on the tourism offers versus what it might be after the introduction of a levy, and what should we be looking at in, say, 10 years’ time to measure whether the levy has been a success?

Good morning, minister. If the legislation passes through the parliamentary process and is implemented, what will be the key ways in which we should measure its impact? What should our successor committees be looking at in 10 years’ time to see whether the bill has had the desired effect?

When Opposition members such as myself ask questions or ask for additional budget, the first thing that ministers say is, “You need to identify where that funding is coming from.” What discussions have the minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance had with other cabinet colleagues to identify where the funding for the potential council tax freeze will come from?