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The measures to introduce a 12.5% cap on business rate increases for hotels, pubs, restaurants and cafes and Aberdeen / Aberdeenshire offices will apply for 2017-18 and we will consider if any future support is required in due course.

Taking next year’s local government finance settlement, including the extra £160 million announced on 2 February, plus the other sources of support available through actual and potential increases in council tax income and the support through Health and Social Care Integration, the overall increase in spending power to support local authority services amounts to over £400 million or 3.9 per cent in cash terms, or £249.7 million or 2.4 per cent in real terms. North Ayrshire Council's overall increase in spending power to support local authority services amounts to over £26.7 million or 9 per cent in comparison to 2016-17.

These figures are for 2015-16 entry to university and predate the work carried out by the Commission on Widening Access. More recent UCAS figures show clear progress on access, with a record entry rate of 10.9% in 2016 for 18 year olds from the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland and an increase in the application rate for the same group in 2017.

The Scottish Government is committed to fair access to higher education and has committed to implementing the recommendations of the Commission on Widening Access in full. This includes the target to ensure that by 2030, students from the 20% most deprived backgrounds should represent 20% of entrants to University.

Our commitment to invest over £3 billion to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes over the lifetime of this Parliament – 35,000 of which will be for social rent – presents a huge opportunity to meet the housing needs of communities across Scotland.

Funding is allocated to local authorities through a Resource Planning Assumption (RPA) system. This gives each council the flexibility to apply the available Scottish Government funding to its strategic housing priorities within its geographic area. For North Ayrshire Council the RPA for the current financial year is £9.106million. Their strategic priorities are set out in their Strategic Housing Investment Plan 2017-2022, available on their website and includes a development of 26 units on the Isle of Arran.

In addition to the RPA allocations to councils, we also have our £25 million rural housing fund and the £5 million islands fund. Both funds aim to increase the supply of affordable housing of all tenures in rural Scotland and will contribute to our 50,000 affordable homes target.

Ofcom’s Connected Nations Report 2016 indicates that speeds of 30 Mbps or above are now available to 83% of premises in Scotland, up from 73% in 2015. Superfast coverage for SMEs is currently 72%, up from 55% in 2015

A link to the report is provided below:

The Scottish Government believes that the best option for Scotland is to become a full member of the EU as an independent country. As Jacqueline Minor, head of representation for the European Commission in the UK, said earlier this month, not only is there, no reason, that Scotland wouldn’t be accepted into the normal EU accession process but also that the country would be, starting from a point different from other applicant countries, due to its current EU membership.

Our paper, Scotland’s Place in Europe, sets out proposals that would mitigate the worst effects of being taken out of the EU against our will. It highlights the importance of remaining in the Single Market and sets out a route to protect Scotland’s interests, even if the remainder of the UK chooses to leave. The proposals in this document are a significant contribution to on-going efforts to build consensus and represent a compromise on our part. We expect the UK Government to show similar flexibility.

The Scottish Government has committed to invest £500million into the £1.13 billion Glasgow City Region Deal. As part of this Deal, detailed options to improve surface access to Glasgow Airport are being progressed by Glasgow City and Renfrewshire Councils

Any further improvements relating to surface access to airports can be considered as part of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review which will look at future transport infrastructure projects for the whole of Scotland.

Following the EU Referendum result the Scottish Government embarked on an extensive programme of engagement with businesses in order to listen to concerns and offer reassurance. One of the prevailing messages received from businesses was to emphasise the continuing importance of trade with and access to EU markets. That is why the Scottish Government has called on the UK Government to deliver full single market membership in the forthcoming negotiations, preferably for the UK as a whole and certainly for Scotland.

In advance of the 2016 procurement process, discussions took place, including telephone and written correspondence, at the request of a private operator regarding the potential of a privately-operated, non-subsidised ferry service between Gourock and Dunoon.

We expect the STAG report from our consultants by the end of February and hope to be able to make a decision on the mainland port as soon as possible thereafter.