Press Story

IPPR Scotland responds to Programme for Government

The think-tank welcomed the first minister’s reiteration of his four strategic priorities – eradicating child poverty, growing the economy, tackling climate change, and ensuring high quality and sustainable public service– and this Programme for Government's focus on delivery.

However, there was little in the speech or the accompanying documents to explain how substantial progress would be made across any of the four priorities over the course of this year.

Stephen Boyd, IPPR Scotland director, said:

“First minister John Swinney identified the right strategic priorities but failed to provide sufficient substance on how rapid and significant progress on child poverty, the economy, climate change and public services would be delivered over the coming year.

“The first minister’s ongoing commitment to eradicate child poverty is welcome but, as our modelling has shown, it is almost impossible to get there based on current policies. Indeed, it is highly unlikely that the Scottish government will even achieve its 2030 target of getting the child poverty rate below 10 per cent.

“On climate, the Scottish government continues to say little about decarbonisation across the economy beyond the power sector. In both heating and transport, the PfG promises progress on policies it recently diluted—a heat in buildings bill lacking measures to drive take-up, and a policy statement on reducing car use after abandoning its own target to cut driving by 20 per cent.

“Delivering substantial progress on all four of the first minister's strategic objectives will require a policy programme significantly more radical than anything witnessed to date under devolution and much higher public spending. This reality cannot be avoided. The Scottish government needs to urgently start developing a more detailed, coherent plan for delivery for this year as well as future years, backed by serious analyses of potential impact.”

ENDS

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW:

Stephen Boyd, director of IPPR Scotland.

Dave Hawkey, senior research fellow at IPPR Scotland.

CONTACT:

Sukhada Tatke, media and impact officer at IPPR Scotland: s.tatke@ippr.org, 07901169121

NOTES TO EDITORS:

IPPR Scotland shapes public policy in pursuit of a fairer, greener, more prosperous Scotland.
IPPR Scotland published a briefing of proposals that could have led to tangible progress across all four priorities.