Right now, people across Scotland are struggling. We are facing rapidly intensifying climate and nature crises, widening inequality, rising levels of poverty and a deepening cost of living crisis.
It doesn't have to be this way.
We welcome the Scottish Government’s continued commitment to eradicating child poverty, tackling the climate crisis and improving public services.
But the Programme for Government fails to put in place the necessary measures to address these challenges. It will not improve the wellbeing of people in Scotland, now or in the future. Instead it is focused on short-sighted thinking and sticking plaster solutions.
Our current economic model, that relentlessly prioritises maximising economic growth at all costs, is a recipe for societal and planetary disaster. The drive for growth has not, and will not, deliver fair or sustainable outcomes.
We have rising poverty, growing inequality, and we are crossing safe environmental thresholds. We must pause and ask ourselves: ‘what are we growing and at what cost?’
The Wellbeing Economy offers a framework for redesigning our economy so it delivers social justice on a healthy planet. It requires economic policies focused on dignity, nature, participation, purpose and fairness.
The upcoming UN Declaration on Future Generations reflects a growing, global movement. Across the world, governments are moving to centre the wellbeing of current and future generations in their decision making. They are embedding long-term and preventative thinking.
The Scottish Government used to be considered a world leader in the Wellbeing Economy movement. But we are falling behind on an agenda the rest of the world is waking up to.
We are disappointed to see just a cursory mention of the Wellbeing Economy in the foreword of the Programme for Government. Followed by no evidence of any serious action on redesigning our economy.
The Scottish Government has failed to deliver on its commitments to a Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill and Future Generations Commissioner. These are key pieces of legislation that would embed long-term and preventative thinking at the heart of public policy - a vital step towards building a Wellbeing Economy.
Delaying a Human Rights Bill is another example of letting down the people of Scotland by failing to lay the foundations for a Wellbeing Economy.
Both the UK and Scottish Government are making a mistake by sticking to outdated austerity thinking that is not working. Scotland is a wealthy country that could provide for everyone.
The Scottish Government is not utilising the full extent of their devolved powers. This Programme for Government was a missed opportunity to utilise Scotland’s wealth to protect the wellbeing of people and planet through our devolved tax powers.
We welcome the commitment to rent controls and to new legislation on Land Reform, Community Wealth Building and the Natural Environment. They present opportunities for the Scottish Government to demonstrate that it is serious about redesigning our economy so that it is fit for purpose.
But, on their own, they do not go far enough. Building a Wellbeing Economy in Scotland requires more. It requires an approach that is much bolder than what we have seen over the past years.
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