A Green Economic Recovery

A Green Infrastructure Investment Plan

Investing in green infrastructure will play a key role in a green recovery, creating jobs and building the infrastructure Scotland needs to tackle the climate emergency. Given the UK and international consensus that we should be pursuing an investment-led recovery, significant additional funding should be made available over the next five years.

For as long as Scotland is part of the UK, all infrastructure investment should be devolved. This means the UK’s Shared Prosperity Fund in Scotland should be directed by the Scottish Parliament, allowing this funding to focus on delivering a fairer greener recovery.

The Scottish Greens are proposing a detailed green infrastructure programme for the next five years, drawing on at least £7.5bn in public investment to create over 100,000 green jobs.

Over the duration of the next Parliament we will invest:

•  £3.2bn in public transport, including the including the first stage of the Rail for All programme, a 20 year £22bn programme to renew our railways, supporting at least 16,800 jobs.
•  £3bn in warm and zero-carbon homes and buildings, leveraging £7.5bn in private investment and creating over 75,000 jobs.
•  £450m in renewables, a new deal for onshore wind and a support programme for the development of a world-leading tidal sector in Scotland, creating 10,000 jobs.
• £895m to restore Scotland’s natural environment, creating over 6,000 green rural jobs.

A New Deal for Workers

As a nation, we are indebted to the supermarket workers, teachers and school staff, carers, nurses and and doctors, hauliers, delivery drivers, refuse collectors, and every other worker who stepped up when the pandemic hit last year and kept this country going. These workers have always been the backbone of our communities, but too many are still on low pay, zero-hour contracts, working in difficult conditions and now with the ever-present risk of contracting covid at work. Meanwhile, the rich got richer. The top fifth wealthiest in the UK saved an additional £23bn over the first three months of lockdown alone.

Building a green and fair economy starts with a new deal for workers. The Scottish Greens have published detailed proposals setting out how the UK and Scottish Governments can deliver this new deal. At the UK level, this includes raising the minimum wage to establish a real living wage, introducing additional protections against wage theft, expanding the coverage of statutory sick pay (SSP), and increasing it so that it pays at least the real  living wage. For as long as we are in the UK, we will seek the devolution of these powers and will issue a formal request to UK Ministers to legislate in these.

Using existing powers, we will:

• Use public procurement to require firms to recognise trade unions, ban precarious contracts, and pay at least the real living wage, respecting union negotiated rates for work.
• Make public procurement and receipt of Scottish Government support conditional on compliance with compliance with Fair Work standards.
• Facilitate the creation of national collective bargaining structures in areas linked to the public sector which do not currently have high levels of collective bargaining, such as social care and early learning and childcare.
• Ensure enterprise and infrastructure funding is targeted at the low carbon economy and green manufacturing and apply strict conditions to ensure that companies support jobs in Scottish supply chains.
• Support the transition to a four-day week with no loss of pay.

Gender Equality and a Green Recovery

The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women and set back progress on gender equality. As women are more likely to work in low-paid jobs they are likely to experience greater economic and domestic disruption. Similarly, the gender biases in Scotland have meant women often taking on more unpaid care work, which has in turn been exacerbated by the need for school and childcare closures. A green recovery must have gender equality at its heart, and in the next Parliament we will work to incorporate Engender and Close the Gap’s Gender & Economic Recovery Principles.

An Expanded Jobs Guarantee

In 2016 we argued for a Scotland Guarantee of an offer of work, education or training for all young people aged 16-25, recognising the importance in investing in the future of our young people. Whilst it took the coronavirus pandemic for the Government to adopt our approach, we believe this will be transformative for many young people in the years ahead.

A guarantee of work, education or training opportunities will be core in the just transition to a green economy. Over the course of the next Parliament, the Scottish Greens will expand the Young Person’s Guarantee to all under 30 and to those who work in fossil fuel industries.

An Industrial Strategy and Re-energising Scottish Manufacturing

Around 190,000 people are employed in manufacturing in n Scotland, producing half of the nation’s exports.

However, the sector is in historic decline in Scotland and across the UK. Approximately 4,500 of these jobs supply the low carbon industries, particularly renewable energy, where there is enormous potential for growth.

This growth will be delivered through our investment plans and underpinned by a green industrial strategy, taking an interventionist approach to building the skills, workforce and demand that will together create a world-leading green industrial sector in Scotland.

We will:

• Establish a Scotland-wide programme of people and  place centred industrial strategies which will have the powers, mandate and finance needed to enable regions and localities to set out their own industrial plans which can connect directly to funding from the Scottish National Investment Bank.
• Set conditions for Scottish content in supply chains where possible, including through the renewables leasing processes.
• Directly invest in deployment of innovative renewables and their supply chains where Scotland can be a world-leader and build an export industry.
• Establish a centre of excellence to deliver a technical skills programme for green manufacturing, providing grant funding for manufacturing firms to retrain and upskill their workforce and provide apprenticeships.

Support Good Business

Over a million Scots work for small and medium- sized businesses, and we all rely on these businesses for vital goods and services. Rebuilding our economy after the pandemic, tackling the climate emergency and building a fairer Scotland all depend on businesses doing their bit and getting the support they need. The Scottish Greens will ensure businesses are supported and incentivised to behave in an environmentally-sound and socially-just way.

We will:

• Establish a Good Business Council to advise the Scottish Government on the delivery of a green economic recovery.
• Align public procurement, enterprise agencies and other business support and grant schemes, including Business Gateway services, behind supporting good business.
• Encourage greater diversity and representation of workers on company boards, and make worker or union representation mandatory for businesses with a turnover of £5m or more.
• Encourage community ownership through business rate reductions for social enterprises and employee-owned businesses.
• Require businesses with a turnover of £5m or more to publish an environmental, social and corporate report alongside their annual financial reports.
• Support the partial replacement of corporation tax at the UK level with a carbon tax that increases over time in line with our climate targets.