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The way that you phrased that question is particularly helpful. You have instantly grasped some of the challenges that we face. We have worked on a strategy for six months, and I am quite pleased with what it intends to achieve. Its objectives and evidence base are clear, and it has been heavily informed by quite a remarkable council of advisers and extensive consultation.

That said, there are, obviously, acute risks in publishing a strategy at a time when businesses are quite rightly saying that they face challenges now, tomorrow and next week, without the Government investing significant time and attention in looking at what we should be doing in 10 years’ time. That is one of the tensions. We have that tension with some of the other strategies that were due to be published before Christmas, including the retail strategy, because that is all focused on recovery.

There is a particular tension in publishing a strategy that is 10 years long. Obviously, it must take into account not only the immediate impacts of Covid, which we are well versed in, but two other elements: the long-term structural challenges that there were pre-Covid and which there will be after Covid—perhaps in an exacerbated form if we do not grapple with them—and trying to identify where Scotland can grow over the next 10 years. This week alone, we have seen a pretty substantial and significant announcement on ScotWind. There are phenomenal opportunities for our supply chain, but I am of the view that economic success is never inevitable; it comes as a result of clear targets, clear approaches and working collaboratively with business.

I hope to be able to publish the strategy very soon. I certainly hope to publish it as soon as we have emerged from the protections—the First Minister announced the removal of many of those yesterday—and we are all, including the committee and the business community, in a space in which we can continue with that. I see that as happening in a matter of weeks, not months.

You are right to say that the initial £25 million during this financial year was from Covid consequentials. That goes to the heart of comments that I made in my opening remarks about the difficult choices in the budget. There are some difficult choices on where to prioritise funding, which I am not shying away from. Areas across the board were previously funded by Covid consequentials, and we have had to determine whether they can be absorbed in our budget.

I have engaged with representatives of STERG, and we have not withdrawn our support for the recommendations in the STERG report. We have previously accepted the recommendations. I would very much like us to be able to progress those recommendations, and I am working with VisitScotland and others to see how we might do that. The door is not closed on trying to progress them with financial support, but we have not identified a specific ring-fenced pot of money in the budget to progress them.

I have been in conversation with the tourism industry quite intensively over the past month or so. There is an opportunity, particularly once all the protections are removed and tourism can function fully and trade normally. There is a real appetite to then focus back on recovery. I would like to see whether there is more that we can do on the finances to ensure that we can progress some of the early points.

The tourism industry is citing the real need to invest with confidence. That comes from marketing internationally as well as locally. We have perhaps been holding off on our commitment to invest in a big marketing campaign because of the uncertainties of the time that we are living in, particularly when it comes to international visitors. There is still a commitment to do that when the time is right, and the door is certainly not closed on identifying additional support, but that will probably need to be in-year rather than in the budget.

It sounds as if Colin Smyth and I are on the same page. It is entirely because of the huge economic challenges that we face that the total allocation across the three enterprise agencies—Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise—is the highest that it has been since 2010. In the overall budget this year, we have not just protected the enterprise agencies’ budgets, but ensured that there is funding to help them to respond to the economic challenges that we face.

I have discussed the budget allocation with each agency’s chair and chief executive, and they are planning their business activity right now. We are also fully funding the financial transactions requirements for the Scottish National Investment Bank. You cannot get away from the fact that not only have the enterprise agencies been protected, but there is funding in place to help them respond.

You talked about cuts to HIE and South of Scotland Enterprise. There are two changes to their budgets. One is removing the ring-fenced Covid funding, which I have explained already, and the second is the non-cash element that seems to be dominating discussions. Non-cash funding is not spending power. It is just to cover depreciation and accounting standards, and it is determined by what the enterprise agencies tell me they need. That is where there is fluctuation, particularly for HIE and South of Scotland Enterprise. Incidentally, Scottish Enterprise’s non-cash allocation has gone up significantly, because of the need to cover some of those issues. It is not about spending power.

I can go into that in great detail, but anybody who suggests that the structural challenges in the Scottish economy are entirely the result of budget decisions on the enterprise agencies is missing the point in the SFC’s evidence and the evidence from many other commentators.

There are a number of challenges. Productivity is an obvious example. Although productivity has increased in Scotland over the past decade and a bit, it still lags behind. We need more significant investment in businesses from the private and public sectors. We need to tackle the skills challenges and try to reduce economic inactivity. There is a whole host of issues on productivity and growth. There is also our dependency on particular sectors in the economy. When those take a hit, as happened with the oil and gas sector in the Covid period, there is a disproportionate impact on the Scottish economy compared with the impact in other parts of the UK.

We could probably spend an entire evidence session on the structural challenges and also the opportunities, but suggesting that the entirety of the structural challenges is purely linked with enterprise agencies’ budgets is probably short-sighted.

One way of doing that is to apply fair work conditionality. For example, if a company cannot access a grant or get a public contract unless it is investing in its employees, there is an incentive for it to invest in its employees. The primary way of creating incentives is through conditionality. We are trying to embed conditionality in all forms of business support.

I think that they get it, increasingly. My sincere hope is that they take the approach that once a strategy is published it will become a defining mission. There is a lot to be considered about dealing with structural inequalities in participation and about the benefits of a thriving economy. I think that the enterprise agencies are getting there. A more nuanced approach is being taken. Clearly, enterprise agencies are—to go back to the previous question—leading the charge on net zero, for example. They have expanded their approach.

Yes, we are absolutely doing that. The primary way that we do it is through working with Co-operative Development Scotland and the enterprise agencies to support the growth of co-operatives and other alternative business models. The matter is very much on our radar and we have mechanisms to work with and invest in alternative business models.

We have extended the deadline for the voucher scheme because we understand some of the challenges for businesses. The overall value of a voucher is determined by whether a household or business property is likely to get access to commercial build or R100 build. The voucher is worth less for those that are in the scheme’s scope. That might have come into it, but the deadline has been met. In terms of overall contract delivery date, you are probably more interested in the R100 north lot contract, which is expected to be let by 2026-27. The delivery years for the central lot and the south lot are earlier because the more remote and rural areas will require more investment and will take longer.

I will answer the question in two parts. The first is that, although I do not want to constantly compare households north and south of the border, it is important to do so, because the same overall settlement is involved, as a result of the Barnett formula. Shona Robison has said that council tax is lower in Scotland than elsewhere. We should remember that, on average, council tax went up significantly in England last year after a number of years of rises, whereas, in Scotland, there has not been the compounding effect of an increase last year. That is precisely why, on average, band D charges are about £590 more in England and £423 more in Wales than they are in Scotland.

On what we are doing, witnesses on the previous panel alluded to the fact that, from April, we are reforming the council tax reduction scheme, with £351 million being baselined in the local government budget for the policy costs. We have changed the scheme to ensure that we do not miss people as a result of changes to universal credit. In other words, we are trying to cover as many eligible households as possible. For the past few years—certainly the past five years—the money that we have provided to cover council tax reduction schemes has been higher than the demand, so there has been headroom for local government to manage that.

My final point is that we cannot look at council tax arrears in isolation. Challenges with paying council tax are part of a challenging financial situation for households. We cannot look at the council tax reduction scheme, for example, in isolation from our wider budget commitments. There is £197 million in my budget to double the Scottish child payment and extend it to under-16s. Over the past few months, Shona Robison has taken forward a huge amount of work to provide additional support to households.

We need to look at the wider support. Without getting too political, a lot of that is compensating for a welfare system that does not help families when they need to be helped. Removing £20 a week from households will not help them to pay their council tax.

I assume that you are talking about the funding for business support relating to omicron.