Swinney 'deeply concerned' over Alexander Dennis job cuts

The first minister has said the Scottish government will do "everything it can" to support workers at bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis.John Swinney said he was "deeply concerned" the firm was planning to move its full operation to a site in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, putting 400 jobs at factories in Falkirk and Larbert at risk.However, he faced criticism from Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who claimed his government had ordered more buses from China than it had from the firm.Swinney said most bus ordering decisions in Scotland were made by private operators, and the government had to comply with state subsidy rules in the way it supported businesses.
At First Minister's Questions Swinney said: "This issue has been occupying a great deal of the focus and the attention of the deputy first minister and I and the UK government ministers since we became aware of the situation over the last few weeks, and then ultimately to the decision that was announced yesterday."He quoted a joint letter from the UK and Scottish governments, which pledged to "work closely with Alexander Dennis at this challenging time".
Alexander Dennis (ADL) cited strong competition from the China, which has seen its market share grow from 10% to 35%, among its reasons for the move.The firm also criticised UK policy, and called for jobs and local economic benefit to be factored in when taxpayers money is invested. Earlier Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham pointed to an order of 160 ADL buses for the publicly-owned "Bee Network" in the city, and questioned why the Scottish government could not do the same. In a statement, Burnham - who has previously visited the Falkirk site - said: "Our iconic Bee Network buses are a bit of Scotland right here in Greater Manchester."We have over 160 Alexander Dennis buses criss-crossing our city-region every day - connecting our communities to opportunity."If Greater Manchester can invest in world-class Scottish bus manufacturing, then why can't the SNP Scottish government?"Sarwar claimed the Scottish government had secured just 44 buses from ADL as part of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB) scheme last year.The fund was initially established in 2022 to "disrupt the bus and coach market" and allow operators the chance to make the move to zero-emission vehicles.
Sarwar said that number was "five times" less than the number of buses ordered by Greater Manchester.However, that figure only covered the second phase of the rollout.The first phase, in which 276 buses were procured at a cost of about £62m, saw 137 buses ordered from ADL.An additional 116 buses were ordered from Chinese manufacturer Yutong, while the rest were built in the UK, Ireland and Europe.ScotZEBs predecessor, known as the Scottish Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme, also saw 207 electric buses ordered from ADL by operators between September 2020 and March 2021.
Swinney said state aid regulations - in the form of the UK-wide Subsidy Control Act - prevented the government from directly procuring from a single supplier.In Scotland, most public service buses are procured by private operators, who then run them on routes across the country.Swinney said: "What I am doing, what the deputy first minister is doing, is how can we find a way in which we can remain legally compliant with the Subsidy Control Act and enable these obstacles to be overcome?"We are going to do everything we can to find a way through the Subsidy Control Act provision, so the government can continue to work within the law, and so we can support manufacturing in Scotland."

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

BBC News

an hour ago

• BBC News

Could Glasgow's skyline be set to change with skyscrapers?

Think of skyscrapers and images come to mind of New York City's skyline, or hundreds of buildings soaring above the streets of Hong could Glasgow be poised for a similar boom in tall buildings?The city council formally approved its new tall buildings policy on Thursday, with a design guide establishing what areas could benefit from construction, such as Charing Cross and local authority hope the plans would lure more developers to the city, building upwards and therefore creating more accommodation and also space for businesses - at a time when land for development is becoming limited. It's a strategy other cities in the UK have pursued in recent years, with London and Manchester building clusters of skyscrapers at Scotland News understands the hope from some in the city council is that the new policy would shatter misconceptions regarding Glasgow having limits on building heights, and therefore encourage more interest from the moment the city's tallest building - the tower at the Science Centre by the River Clyde - is under the minimum height for a skyscraper, which is taller than 150m. It sits at began last year on the Ard development in Blythswood Hill, a 36-storey tower of student accommodation. But some of the city's tall buildings already lie vacant, while large blocks of flats - like on Wyndford Road - have been demolished in recent to redevelop the 14-storey Met Tower as a digital tech hub were cancelled last year. The new design guide doesn't set sights quite so high, defining tall buildings via various factors - including how it's perceived on street level and how it affects the skyline around highest category - metropolitan - is classed as a building three and a half times above the height of "the broader context" surrounding it, meaning somewhere like the Met Gerry Hogan, who works with the firm Collective Architecture, believes the policy is quite conservative, but welcome nonetheless."We've been a little reticent to be bold with in our approach to tall buildings, and arguably with architecture in Glasgow generally," he says. "If anything, the guide doesn't go far enough – they go through a very careful analysis of where tall buildings should be located and it doesn't give much encouragement for parts of the city." That belief is centred on the guide's suggestion on placing larger spaces - ideally mixed-use developments with shops or leisure facilities below housing - in certain parts of the city, therefore avoiding clashes with conservation areas like Pollok Park. Russell Baxter, a director with architecture and engineering firm NORR, believes the guide encourages clusters of buildings together."If you look at London, there's a lot of clusters there," he says. "It has a very protected skyline, so things like cathedrals and churches are retained, and key views are retained – that's everything in these cities. "So in Glasgow something like Trinity Tower at Park Circus is a key view – you can't obliterate that view for people. The idea is to cluster them together so you get a number of them in one area - the edge of the motorway is always seen as a place where that can happen." Mr Hogan believes that the quality of the new builds themselves will be key to making them a success, wherever they are situated in the city."A tall building is the same as any building, it comes down to how good it is," he explains. "Sure, height is a factor but if it's well designed and how it sits in the skyline has been considered then there's no reason it couldn't be put in more sensitive areas if they were well enough designed."What this seeks to promote, and what I agree with, is having multi-use buildings that bring in people throughout the day and engage people in using both the building and the wider area around it. "You don't want it putting a nearby park in the shade for example." 'You have to justify these buildings' Cllr Ruairi Kelly, the convener for development and land use at Glasgow city council, said the proposals will play a "significant role in our ambition to grow the city centre population" through providing a housing Manchester's recent boom in tall buildings was driven by public money, in particular the £300m Greater Manchester Housing Investment Glasgow will have to box clever, including with locations."You've not got the ability to do what you could do in Victorian times where you could just place a church or town hall at the end of a street, like a church being right on Ingram Street," says Mr Baxter. "If you go down Buchanan Street and the way the station entrance is sitting there – those were classic Victorian moves for how you masterplan cities and those buildings were key public buildings. "Now what you get are all buildings that are full of students and you have to justify them taking up these key positions."The guidance itself was drawn up through a public consultation and feedback from designers, developers and amenity Baxter believes the guidance will be helpful, even if the city having its own version of the Burj Khalifa remains a pie in the sky thought for now. "At the end of the day, you're not going to stop developers building tall. So what you need to do is control it, and that's what the policy is there to do – control where they are and control the quality of them."

Times

an hour ago

• Times

Alison Johnstone to stand down as Holyrood presiding officer

Alison Johnstone will quit politics next year when she stands down as Scotland's sixth presiding officer at the Holyrood elections​. The departure of the 59-year-old, who sparked controversy in recent weeks after a series of rows with Douglas Ross, the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, will raise hopes among her critics that her successor will drive more radical reforms of Holyrood. While Johnstone's tenure has been seen as steady, many at Holyrood believe the parliament would benefit from Westminster-style reforms which would weaken the control of party leaders and whips over committee memberships and encourage independence among backbenchers. The King listens as Johnstone speaks during the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Scottish parliament in 2024 EFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES Meanwhile, there has been concern about the quality of debates, with some MSPs in the habit of reading out pre-written speeches rather than engaging in genuine dialogue with opponents. Speaking to The Times, Johnstone said: ' I was elected in 2011 and it was always my intention that this would be my last term in Holyrood. 'I came from a wholly non-political background and got involved in a campaign to save a school playing field​.' She said, 'I was not in a political party but campaigned for the creation of a Scottish parliament​ and I then worked as an assistant for Robin Harper, the first-ever Green parliamentarian in the UK elected to the first-ever Scottish parliament.​' Johnstone is the second female and the first Green party member to hold the presiding officer position, which comes with a £126,452 salary. Nicola Sturgeon, the former first minister, left; Johnstone and Lord Offord of Garvel during a Remembrance Sunday service and parade in Edinburgh in 2022 JANE BARLOW/PA She took over the reins of Holyrood at a challenging time during the Covid pandemic, a period without precedent, and even her opponents said she did a good job steering its proceedings through uncharted waters. More recently she was involved in a series of rows with Ross who accused her of failing to 'act in a neutral manner ' after she suspended him from the Holyrood chamber. Johnstone was elected as a Green MSP in 2011, and before that was as an Edinburgh Green councillor for Morningside in 2007. ​S​he is a qualified athletics coach and former board member of Scottish Athletics​, previously​ holding the East of Scotland​ records in the 800 metre and 1,500-metre events. A quarter of the present crop of 129 MSPs have announced their departures including a handful of MSPs who have been in Holyrood since its creation in 1999. This week Sarah Boyack, the veteran MSP, announced she was leaving next year, leaving Jackie Baillie as the only Labour MSP with ministerial experience on Holyrood's benches. Baillie is also the only Labour MSP who was elected in 1999 who has been in the Scottish parliament continuously since the outset and will stand again next year.

Daily Mail​

2 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

Fergus Ewing's furious broadside as he says he'll now run AGAINST the SNP

One of the SNP 's longest-serving politicians has launched a vitriolic attack on the party for having 'lost its way' as he announced plans to stand as an independent. Fergus Ewing, a former Cabinet minister who has been an MSP since the Scottish Parliament was opened and an SNP member for around 50 years, said he cannot stand for the party again and 'defend the indefensible '. He said that the party has 'deserted' those it used to champion over the past decade and focused on issues 'largely irrelevant to most people's lives'. The politician also said that devolution is presently 'letting Scotland's people down' and the country is in a state of 'managed decline' under the SNP. Following the explosive statement, it was confirmed that the SNP had rescinded his membership - and he was also told he would be evicted from his office in the SNP corridors in parliament and the party whip removed. Mr Ewing, who had intended to remain an SNP MSP until the election before standing as an independent candidate for Inverness and Nairn, condemned the way the issue had been dealt with, saying: 'Fifty years' service, two line missive.' Emma Roddick, a former minister under Humza Yousaf who is on the Left of the party, will now stand directly against him as the SNP candidate next year. In his personal statement issued yesterday, Mr Ewing, whose mother Winnie is one of the biggest figures in the SNP's history following her landmark by-election victory in Hamilton in 1967, said the Scottish Parliament has been 'at its worst' in recent years. He said: 'The SNP has been part of the fabric of my life for more than half a century. Indeed, I believe there has been a distinctive thread of Ewing running through its plaid for even longer. I hope that is never removed. 'But fabrics can become worn. I hope the SNP can repair itself and return to the honour and traditions of those who first wove it in a manner that meets Scotland's real modern needs. 'The failures of the SNP to deliver on its long-standing pledges to dual the A9 and A96 are a major part of that. I cannot stand again for the SNP and defend the indefensible. 'I believe the SNP has lost its way and that devolution itself - presently - is letting Scotland's people down. It doesn't need to be this way.' He heavily criticised recent SNP leaders for choosing candidates who will 'slavishly support them' and for 'choosing the pliant over the talented'. In the decade since Alex Salmond stood down and was succeeded by Nicola Sturgeon, he said the SNP 'seems to have deserted many of the people whose causes we used to champion' on issues including oil and gas, farming, fishing, rural affairs, tourism and small business - and accused the party of 'betraying generations who fought for women's rights'. He said he has tried to act as a 'critical friend' to the party and said he warned Nicola Sturgeon about the 'strategic blunder' of entering a power-sharing alliance with the Greens, and also highlighted that current First Minister John Swinney negotiated the deal. Mr Ewing said: 'These failures - plus a strange preoccupation with issues regarded as largely irrelevant to most people' lives - have all cost the SNP much loss of electoral support but also something else which is priceless. Public trust. 'Scotland is indeed in a state of 'managed decline' as Sir Tom Hunter recently said.' Urging different parties to work together, he said that Holyrood needs to 'grow up'. It was confirmed by the SNP that its constitution sets out that party membership ceases when any individual declares their intention to stand against the party. Mr Ewing confirmed that he was informed yesterday (FRI) that his 'membership was over', that he would be evicted from his office at Holyrood and the SNP whip would be removed. The Inverness and Nairn seat is now expected to be hotly contested next year. In 2021, Mr Ewing secured 48 per cent of the vote for the party, with the Conservatives in second place on 28 per cent, Labour in third on 12 per cent, and the Lib Dems in fourth on six per cent. Edward Mountain, Scottish Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said: 'It speaks volumes about John Swinney and the SNP's appalling failures in government that even nationalist royalty is prepared to twist the knife in this way. 'By standing as an independent Fergus Ewing has made it clear he simply cannot defend his party's record to voters while out on the campaign trail. 'The SNP have shamefully abandoned the Highlands over their 18 years in power.' Neil Alexander, Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Inverness and Nairn, said: 'Fergus Ewing has sat around the cabinet table or on the backbenches for the entirety of the SNP's 18 years in government. He can't just walk away from the big part he has played in their record of failing the Highlands. 'While the two nationalists try to turn our constituency into a battleground for their party feud, I'm focused on what really matters to people here.' Mr Swinney said: 'It was with real sadness and deep regret that I heard of Fergus Ewing's decision to leave the Scottish National Party. 'We have both served the SNP and the cause of independence for many years, and I commend him for all that he achieved while serving in the SNP Government until 2021. 'Fergus had the option of standing at the forthcoming election for the SNP, given his status as an approved candidate. He chose not to accept that opportunity and I regret that he has ultimately decided instead to leave the party. 'The SNP approaches the 2026 election ahead in the polls, with growing support for independence, and I am looking forward to taking our positive, ambitious vision for Scotland's future to the people.'