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Does COSLA or CIPFA have any comments on that?

I will build on what Liz Smith and Daniel Johnson said about the fiscal framework. Is there a fundamental problem? The point has been made that we compare ourselves with the rest of the UK and, if we cannot grow as fast as the rest of the UK, we are disadvantaged. The rest of the UK is dominated by London and the south-east. The figures seem to show that we can compete well with the midlands, the north-west and any other part of the UK, such as Wales or Northern Ireland, but that we struggle to compete with London and the south-east. Is that a fundamental problem that we need to tackle?

The point has been made that we need more taxpayers—therefore, more people. We are not having enough kids, so is the only answer to have more immigration?

I do not know whether Ms Murray wants to say anything on that. I also have a question specifically for her. We talked earlier about how complicated the fiscal framework is. Is it inevitable that it would be more unfair if we made it simpler? Are we balancing fairness against complexity, or is that not a fair thing to say?

You have stressed that point quite a lot, so I take that on board.

I have a final question, which is on a completely different subject. One of the submissions—I think that it was the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s paper—mentioned inflation. Is that something that we should be worried about, or will it just go back to 2 per cent, so we will be okay?

I will move on to another topic. There is a theme in your written submission about flexibility, which has already been mentioned. The problem for the Scottish Parliament is that, if there is flexibility and, say, Orkney does one thing and Glasgow does something else, we are immediately accused of a postcode lottery, even though it is local decision making. Can you comment on that or give us advice on how we tackle that problem?

My next question is on the fiscal framework and may be for Mr Russell. When I was a councillor, we had the prudential framework for borrowing, which I thought was a good idea. Councils could borrow what they could afford, and there was no arbitrary limit. Does that still work for local authorities? Could it also work at the Scottish level?

I am interested in paragraph 22 of the COSLA-CIPFA paper, which says that the Scottish child payment

“is an example of an intervention that addresses a symptom of poverty but not the cause.”

There has been a lot of support for the Scottish child payment, as well as for doubling or quadrupling it. If you are saying that we could use that money better, how do you think that we could do so?

My next question is for all three witnesses and is about where we are going with council tax. Both of the written submissions make the point that we have been planning for quite a long time to replace council tax. Should we adapt council tax, or should we replace it and, if so, with what?

I would like to return to a point that Ray Perman made, which was also in his submission. I think that you used the term “Barnett guarantee”. Some people have said that the Barnett formula has worked through the pandemic, and that that is what has given us the money that we have used. Are you suggesting that that was bypassed? Can you tell me what you mean by “Barnett guarantee”?