Programme for Government: Delivering for people now and in the future requires interconnected solutions
Iain Gulland, CERG member and Independent Advisor reflects on last week’s Programme for Government. He stresses the interconnected nature of the challenges facing Scotland, and the need for this Government to ‘join the dots’ between portfolios and programmes to ensure that peoples’ lives become measurably better for the long term.
Delivering for people now and in the future requires interconnected solutions.
The Scottish Government cannot achieve its commitment to “relentlessly deliver for people now and in the future” without recognising the deep interconnections between its priorities.
Climate change is no longer a distant or abstract challenge—it is already actively impacting Scotland’s economy, health, public services, infrastructure, and local communities.
At the same time, decisive climate action offers some of the most effective solutions to the challenges the Government is committed to resolve through last week’s Programme for Government.
We warmly welcome that tackling the climate emergency remains explicit as one of the Scottish Government’s four key priorities.
However, more could have been said to set out a strong vision for the future, to highlight the interdependencies between solutions and connect the dots across portfolios. Without such, there is a fear that national priorities will operate in isolated silos—or, worse, are viewed as being in conflict with one another necessitating trade-offs and compromise rather than optimising outcomes through a more systemic approach.
There is a huge, untapped opportunity within this parliamentary period to deliver practical programmes that achieve multiple benefits simultaneously, for example through:
- Energy Efficiency & Retrofitting: Accelerating retrofits for better homes directly cuts household energy bills, alleviates fuel poverty, improves health, and lowers carbon emissions.
- Local Food Systems: Strengthening local food production builds long-term resilience against global supply chain shocks while boosting regional economies and wellbeing.
- Resilient Infrastructure: Investing in climate-adapted transport and infrastructure protects communities from severe weather disruptions and creates high-quality local jobs.
The regionalisation agenda, in particular, represents a major opportunity. As recognised in the draft Infrastructure Strategy and Public Sector Reform Strategy, place-based working allows us to align sectors, pool skills, coordinate investment, and accelerate delivery on the ground. This approach can yield tangible, compound gains for housing, transport, health, nature, and community wealth building.
To unlock this potential, public sector reform and community wealth building must be driven by – and their success measured against -outcomes far richer than traditional economic growth and administrative efficiencies.
Similarly, the focus on prevention should go further than just considering health and social care outcomes and should ensure environmental and other factors are included. Preventative spend would also help to reduce the pressures on our natural environment – such as pollution, waste, bio-diversity loss and water stress. These will all be better served by a more proactive rewiring of our wider economic model to re-shape demand to protect and restore the natural environment on which we all depend.
There are, nevertheless, encouraging commitments to build upon. The forthcoming Buildings (Heating and Energy Performance) and Heat Networks (Scotland) Bil, expanded energy efficiency funding, improvements to local bus networks, and measures to maximise community ownership and local jobs are vital steps.
The task now is to ensure the delivery mechanisms are in place so commitments directly reach people, addressing the everyday issues that matter most to Scottish communities.
By breaking down silos and embracing joined-up, place-based action, the Scottish Government can deliver a resilient, thriving, and sustainable future for all.
Iain Gulland
