Greens welcome jobs guarantee but call for more action
Scottish Greens Co-Leader Patrick Harvie MSP today welcomed a commitment from the Scottish Government to deliver a Scottish job guarantee but warned that greater investment would be required if it was to deliver for every young person in Scotland.
Commenting on the Economy Secretary’s response to the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery report and the Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board report Mr Harvie cautioned that the Scottish Government’s position was ‘underwhelming’.
Patrick Harvie MSP said:
“I very much welcome the commitment to support 20,000 young people in jobs, but its clear that if the job guarantee is to live up to its name we’ll need to see more and longer-term funding.
“The Scottish Greens 2016 manifesto proposed a job guarantee scheme for all young people but it’s clear that with around 50,000 young people entering the most challenging of labour markets this summer and many more impacted by the pandemic far more support will be required.
On the reports Mr Harvie added:
“The underwhelming nature of both reports wasn’t a huge surprise given the usual suspects and vested interests around the table. The “green growth” rhetoric is just a reworking of old ideas which fail to offer the transformational change that’s needed.
“While the emphasis on “wellbeing” should open up the chance for a new direction, there has been no real effort to define it, either by the Government or by the advisory group.
“The Scottish Government says that it wants the COVID recovery to be about building a fairer, greener and more equal Scotland. If they are serious about that we need a far more detailed economic plan than we have seen yet, and a determination to break with the failed free-market ideology which has been allowed to damage our society, our economy and our environment.”