Time for Scottish Government to deliver
This is it – the final curtain call of this Scottish Parliament.
The Scottish Government is about to unveil its last Programme for Government before voters head to the polls next year.
The time for more promises is over; we need tangible progress delivered in the next 12 months.
But recent announcements don’t inspire confidence.
Legislation to speed up the switch to clean heat in our homes has been watered down. The target to reduce kilometres travelled by car by 20%? Ditched. And, despite some welcome progress, the interim child poverty target was also missed.
Instead of delivering at scale and speed, Ministers are dithering.
Meanwhile, parents are skipping meals so their kids can eat. Carers are working without enough rest and recognition. Homes remain draughty and cold. Public services are stretched beyond breaking point. And Scotland’s excess emissions are fuelling the climate crisis.
It doesn’t have to be this way. This needn’t be Scotland’s story.
Oxfam Scotland has laid out a series of practical steps to accelerate progress towards a fairer, greener and kinder Scotland. Not in five years. From now.
Let’s start with carers, both paid and unpaid. This invisible network holds our communities together, yet carers are often treated like an afterthought and pushed into poverty. That needs to stop.
Pay social care and childcare workers what they’re worth. Recognise and support unpaid carers as the vital lifeline they are. And don’t just talk about valuing care – make it count by immediately implementing the proposed National Outcome on Care, which the Scottish Government drafted, but quietly shelved.
For children in poverty, demonstrate genuine urgency by increasing the Scottish Child Payment to £40 per child per week while protecting families in Scotland punished by the UK Government’s cruel two-child limit.
To lower living costs and emissions, expand concessionary travel to everyone under 25, unpaid carers and people on the lowest incomes. A free or affordable bus pass isn’t a luxury, it’s a passport to opportunity, education, employment and better mental health.
It’s also time to close the gap between Scotland’s rhetoric on climate action and its stagnating record. Targets to reduce emissions have been axed as a consequence of inadequate action, leaving the future price tag to grow ever larger.
Meanwhile, the wealthiest are still hopping on pollution-spewing private jets at Scottish airports. The First Minister says he backs taxing them fairly – but so far, it’s all talk, no take-off.
Action to deliver a fairer tax system that works for all of us, not just the privileged few, can’t stop there. Yet more consultation alone won’t cut it. We need concrete proposals to replace the Council Tax with a fairer tax on property wealth, and broader proposals to use local taxes to raise more money, combat yawning inequality and to reward businesses that do right by people and planet.
The next year is a chance for the Scottish Government to prove it’s willing to deliver perceptible progress. But the clock’s ticking. And the people of Scotland are watching.
Read our briefing for the Scottish Government’s 2025-26 Programme for Government here.
This article originally appeared in the Herald.
