I can speak more for infrastructure investment and public investment than for anything else. As you heard from the previous panel of witnesses, that has been hit significantly since the global economic crisis of 2007-08. Since then, public budgets for spending on infrastructure have dropped significantly.
In Scotland, we have been using all the levers that we have to try to maximise infrastructure investment because of the impact that it can have on the economy in both the short run and the medium to longer term—although the short-run impact is supported by a lot more people than the longer-run impact, which is questioned by some people. We can come back to that if you wish. Things such as tax increment financing and the non-profit-distributing programme have been put in place to try to use all the available levers to maximise investment during that period.
Scotland has a reasonably good regional performance. The OECD report on transport said that, in 2016, Scotland was the region outside London that had the most investment. The commentary of Graeme Roy’s Fraser of Allander institute shows that, in 2014-15, the construction industry in Scotland was particularly strong, which was driven by public sector infrastructure investment. Across all the areas where the public sector spends and invests money, it has a particularly high multiplier effect, so it is a good thing to invest in and spend money on to get that short-term economic effect. The longer-term impact of that investment is more characterised by the need to make the investment in the right thing.
The short-run economic impacts of investment in infrastructure activity—the Keynesian effect, if you like—is much the same whether we are digging holes and filling them back in again or rolling out broadband infrastructure across the country. The medium and longer-term impacts are massively greater, I suggest, if we make great investment decisions about where to focus that infrastructure investment. There are strong links with things such as decarbonising to transform the economy, and digital connectivity. I note the information that the OECD has given you on the correlation between broadband and mobile connectivity and productivity. We can definitely make the best of that investment by directing it to the right place.
However, connectivity is not everything in that investment. A lack of affordable housing can be a big barrier to an economy in a particular place, and the social infrastructure is really important for the inclusive growth that we have talked about, particularly in relation to young people and creating aspiration through having great places to learn.
Across all of those areas, infrastructure investment can do a lot for the economy and for inclusive growth, but the SFT and a lot of other people are particularly engaged in targeting it in the right place. That will give maximum benefit over the medium to longer term as well as the short-term impact.