AS I SEE IT: TERRY MURDEN says Scottish Enterprise is rushing to find a new chairman . . . and asks why SNIB is investing in a deposit return scheme
Scottish ministers are looking for a chairman to succeed Lord Smith at Scottish Enterprise, though they’ll have to get a move on, given that he’ll be getting ready to clear his desk at the end of July. Instead of announcing that the job is being advertised one would have expected by now to have the name of his successor.
I hear someone was approached about the job but turned it down, perhaps explaining why we don’t yet know who’ll be at the helm of the agency in the summer. Ministers now seem keen to make up for lost time, setting a deadline of 23 May for applications.
Whoever gets the post will at least have the satisfaction of a 10.2% hike in the remuneration package from £44,520 to £49,049 for a job that requires a commitment of just 1.75 days per month. Other public sector workers might have a view on that.
It’s difficult to assess Lord Smith’s record since he took on the challenge in August 2019 and the agency’s efforts over most of his tenure were switched heavily towards an administrative role in getting businesses through the various lockdowns.
Beyond that, its focus has been pivoted around the net zero agenda and supporting growth firms, mainly through syndicated investment packages.
Whoever becomes the next chairman will oversee an agency which has seen its remit diminished, with many of its former roles hived off or re-engineered around other agencies giving it less command over such key areas as skills (Skills Development Scotland), business advice (Business Gateway), digitisation (Mark Logan and his ‘key’ advisers), and transport and infrastructure (Transport Scotland).
Lord Smith also lost his CEO, Steve Dunlop, who admitted to imposter syndrome and resigned after just two and a half years in the job. He was replaced by Adrian Gillespie, a commercial officer from academia, who’s yet to stamp his identity on it.
With the creation of South of Scotland Enterprise in addition to Highlands and Islands Enterprise, even the name Scottish Enterprise is becoming a bit of a misnomer and is surely due a change. Apart from re-affirming what it stands for, it’s necessary to avoid confusing those who think it represents the whole of the country.
SNIB’s low return
The Scottish National Investment Bank, that other instrument of growth, has handed out £9m to Circularity Scotland to help get the delayed and still to be clarified Deposit Return Scheme up and running. Its aim is to encourage consumers to take their used bottles back to the shops which will then return their deposit.
Some retailers and their representatives don’t like the DRS, claiming it will be expensive and logistically difficult to manage. The DRS gets my full support because it’s the right thing to do.
However, why is the Scottish National Investment Bank getting involved? The simple answer is that its investment was key to securing matching capital from Bank of Scotland.
But is this really the sort of project that SNIB should be backing? Isn’t an investment bank supposed to invest in big ticket risk projects with a high chance of a proper return rather than a neighbourhood deposit scheme offering a few pennies to environmentally-conscious shoppers? A project of this sort is surely suited to funding through the government’s departmental budget.
A photo to accompany the press release offers some further explanation. Fronting the shot is Lorna Slater, the Green Minister who, of course, also offers her gratitude for the funding. As well she might. A bank financed by the taxpayer, is funding a government-backed project run by a government-approved organisation.
This was surely not the sort of investment that veteran-of-the-City Eilidh Mactaggart signed up for when she became CEO. Of course, she has left. For personal reasons.
tmurden@dailybusinessgroup.co.uk
Terry Murden held senior positions at The Sunday Times, The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and The Northern Echo and is now editor of Daily Business
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