The Scottish Greens are launching their manifesto as the “party of hope”, positioning themselves as a more radical alternative to both the SNP and Labour on issues such as the cost-of-living crisis, climate change, and economic inequality.
Unlike the SNP (governing for 20 years) or Labour (struggling in the opinion polls), the Greens are able to frame themselves as both an outsider and having experience as a junior coalition partner to the SNP. They point to that record of delivery including on free bus travel for under-22s, rent controls, expanded school meals and doubling the Scottish Child Payment. Having left the Scottish Government two years ago, they are also positioning themselves as representing radical change.
The Greens’ strategic argument is distinctive: the solutions to the climate crisis and cost of living crisis are one and the same. Free public transport, household energy efficiency, nature restoration, and fair taxation are presented not as environmental luxuries but as economic necessities that will reduce household bills, create jobs, and tackle inequality simultaneously.
The Scottish Greens strategy is either to return to government or, at a minimum, to gain enough seats that the SNP cannot ignore them in post-election negotiations. With the SNP holding a commanding lead in the polls, the amount of post-election influence that the Greens can actually wield waits to be seen. It is important therefore to read the manifesto in that context; there is little attempt to provide detail of how these proposals would be funded, and they act as more of a list of policy asks to bring to a negotiation.
The manifesto opens with explicit commitments across five areas:
Cost of living and public services
- Expand free bus travel to everyone (not just under-22s)
- Introduce free dental care
- Expand free school meals universally
- Increase Scottish Child Payment to £40 (aiming for £55 by 2030)
- Introduce free walk-in mental health hubs
- Deliver £600 million renewables investment programme
Climate and nature
- Get Scotland back on track to net zero by 2045 through coordinated climate action delivery programme
- Oppose all new oil and gas extraction
- Increase Nature Restoration Fund to £200 million
- Reforest 9,000 hectares of native woodland annually
- Introduce Scottish Environmental Court with powers to enforce
- environmental accountability and hold corporate executives to account
Housing
- Build 15,700 social homes per year with multi-year funding certainty
- End homelessness by 2040 through Housing First approach
- Strengthen rent controls with inflation caps (maximum 6%)
- End non-residential care charges immediately
- Introduce radical land reform bill limiting individual/corporate ownership to 500 hectares
Fair work and jobs
- Deliver 40,000 green energy jobs
- Introduce £15/hour minimum wage for social care
- Ban zero-hours contracts in public-funded work
- Support co-operatives and employee-owned businesses
- Make Fair Work First conditions mandatory for all public procurement
- Implement worker-led green transition plans with proper retraining and income support
Taxation and redistribution
- Scrap Council Tax and introduce Residential Property Tax based on actual property value
- Implement mansion taxes on £1m+ properties (15% Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) rate)
- Introduce 20% surcharge on overseas buyers
- Reform LBTT to close exemptions (monarchy, foreign military, agricultural land)
- Introduce surcharges on businesses causing environmental/social harm (Amazon tax, alcohol/tobacco surcharge, betting surcharge)
- Develop proposals for Scottish Wealth Tax (pending Westminster devolution)
Read our full Scottish Green manifesto analysis here.
by Sam Rowe