Author: Senscot

Late in 1998, the Big Issue in Scotland hosted a gathering of community activists – which identified the potential benefit of some mechanism to keep them in touch with each other. This remains the core purpose of Senscot today – a national network to connect and support community activists and their social enterprises.

Along with informing, connecting and facilitating the development of social enterprise networks (SENs) – ever since 1999 – Senscot has also been working to put in place a support infrastructure for a strong and sustainable social enterprise community in Scotland.

But in pursuing this mission there has been a conscious determination not to create a large, centralised ‘intermediary’ organisation – and certain key principles have been applied: to let the ‘network’ determine what’s required next; to only take and develop initiatives in areas with no existing players; coalitions and partnerships wherever possible; relinquish ownership and control of new initiatives ASAP; unrestricted access to our materials on Open Source principles.

Senscot consistently seeks to resist growth beyond a maximum of ten persons; this reputation greatly assists our role in co-ordination of new developments.

Developing Support Infrastructure

2001    Established – with six other partners across the UK – UnLtd (The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs) and Scotland UnLtd to provide seed capital in the form of grants to emerging social entrepreneurs and social enterprises. Scotland was the only part of the UK that had a ring-fenced awards budget and delegated staff and decision-making processes.

2002    Beginning the process of converting our small Edinburgh office base into a social enterprise incubator with a range of rooms for rent – on easy in/easy out licenses – along with common services such as kitchens, meeting rooms and Wi-Fi. Today we manage two separate spaces in Edinburgh and Glasgow – providing accommodation to eight separate organisations.

2003    Set up, with others, the Development Trust Association Scotland (DTAS) to support local communities in taking greater control and ownership of local assets via the creation of robust local ‘anchor organisations’. Some 250 communities across Scotland are now either full or associate members of DTA Scotland – with many owning and managing significant community assets.

2004   Working with CEiS and Scotland UnLtd, we helped establish the Social Enterprise Academy  to provide training and professional development to boards and staff in the social enterprise and wider third sector with action learning as its central feature. In the same year, we set up the Senscot Exchange as an in-house business advice and support service to social enterprises on a peer-to-peer basis.

2005    Acted as a founding member of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition (SSEC) which later evolved into Social Enterprise Scotland. Its original objective was to act as representative/umbrella body for the social enterprise community in Scotland.

2007    Formed Firstport  –  through merging of services delivered by the Senscot Exchange and Scotland UnLtd to create an integrated one-stop shop for funding and advice for start-up social entrepreneurs and their enterprise. Firstport has gone on to establish itself as Scotland’s leading development agency for start-up social entrepreneurs and their enterprises.

2009    Partnering with Social Firms Scotland and CEiS to establish Ready for Business LLP  – a web portal and advisory service – to deliver the Scottish Govt contract, – “Developing Markets for Third Sector Providers”.

2010    Taking a lead in creating standards for the social enterprise sector by trying to establish a Scottish version of the Social Enterprise Mark. Senscot withdrew its support for the SE Mark towards the end of 2010 when the Mark agreed to approve 50% dividends to shareholders. Also established additional premises at 43 Bath St in Glasgow as a base for a new subsidiary – Senscot Legal.

2011    Formally established Senscot Legal – to provide accessible and affordable quality legal support to the social enterprise and third sector in Scotland. Since it began trading in March 2011, Senscot Legal has provided services to almost 800 social enterprises and third sector organisations. 2011 also saw the emergence of the SE Voluntary Code of Practice  Steering Group.

2012    The SE Voluntary Code of Practice was launched in March 2012. Later that same year, Senscot began exploratory talks into the establishment of a community banking facility for and by the sector – in partnership with Airdrie Savings Bank.

2013    The Steering Group for the  Scottish Community Re:Investment Trust (SCRT) was set up – with the objective of recycling third sector financial resources for reinvestment within projects and communities in Scotland.

2014    Formally established SCRT and secured initial 12-month funding. Also, later in the year, Senscot convened the initial Steering Group for the SE Vision 2025 – the cornerstone of what became the Scottish SE Strategy (2016-26) – co-produced with Scottish Govt.

2015    Continued to convene Steering Group for SE Vision and also sector-led approach to SE Strategy. After 15 years in Manor Place, Senscot moved its Edinburgh operation (and registered office) to new premises at 21 Walker St.

2016    Launch of 10 year Scottish SE Strategy and supporting SE Action Plan. After running a two-year pilot, Senscot also received funding to establish a new service – Partnership for Procurement (P4P) – in partnership with Social Firms Scotland, the Scottish Community Alliance and Co-operative Development Scotland.

Author: Ed Mayo, Civil Society

One lesson of our lockdown voluntarism is that as a nation, the UK does not lack volunteers or community spirit; it lacks the infrastructure to harness their potential for public benefit at a time of continuing need.

A colourful history of social action is reflected in the work of 166,000 charities across the UK, mostly micro and small organisations that are people-rich but money-poor. Research by Lloyds Bank Foundation suggests that these operate on average with around three volunteers for every five thousand pounds of income.

Everyone knows that a flourishing community will have a flourishing voluntary sector. But, with the exception of historic programmes such as CapacityBuilders and ChangeUp, the idea that a flourishing voluntary sector needs a nurturing infrastructure has evaporated. Over the last twenty years, to talk of local voluntary sector infrastructure has been seen as code for funding requests to support a web of network of agencies, sometimes overlapping, sometimes competing.

The case for infrastructure was lost over the austerity years. Good things happened; the best of those network bodies adapted and new infrastructure organisations emerged – including Pilotlight. Even so, with grant funding withdrawn, the overall result was a far weaker voluntary sector, anaemic in the context of growing need. Despite a welcome turn to place-based programmes, the conclusion of the 2015 Change for Good commission on local infrastructure remains true today, that “the most under-resourced areas tend to be those with high social need”.

Arguably, even at a time of austerity, it didn’t have to be so. There has been growth in community foundations. A concern for saving money through prevention has seen resources flow to experiments around social investment. A concern for better social outcomes through co-production has seen resources flow to new partnerships in devolved contexts such as Greater Manchester.Meanwhile, technology can shape new forms of collaboration. What was missing has been the core case for infrastructure.

The same used to be true for physical infrastructure in the wider economy, but that has changed entirely. There is a recognition now that a low-interest environment is precisely the right time to take forward work that has long-term gains. There is now a substantial policy agenda backing action and investment on infrastructure such as transport and energy networks. We need the same for the social sector. The economic models used point to how to resource the infrastructure for the voluntary sector, with patient capital and long-term planning.

The vital, voluntary services and community response during the lockdown has opened people’s eyes to the role of infrastructure. In the Wirral, the local Age UK charity – one of Pilotlight’s charity partners – pivoted almost overnight from in-person services to an all-remote support, becoming a significant leader in the local coronavirus response, and has won extra support locally of more than £600,000 over six months. At a national level, in the context of the #NeverMoreNeeded voluntary sector campaign, Government has put funding into the infrastructure for homeless and justice charities.

There is a risk that this is seen as temporary, about delivering food parcels during lockdown, instead of a continuing capacity to deal with challenges from loneliness, public health and community safety to climate adaptation. Foundations have stepped up in the crisis, but by bringing forward funding, there may be risks to funding in future years. What is needed is a patient framework of long-term funding – of the kind that the best localities have long sustained.

The economic case for infrastructure is strong. It is not about funding bureaucracy. It is about effective capability at the secondary level that creates value for the primary voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises that operate across the UK. This is something the cooperative sector has always done well – with central service organisations serving, for example, credit unions and value-adding networks such as Plunkett Foundation for community shops. It helps that one of the principles set out in the rules of a co-op is co-operation with other co-ops – a contrast to voluntary sector funding programmes which encourage competition. The best infrastructure is therefore collaborative and is bottom up, responsive and accountable to members, rather than top down.

Behind any successful infrastructure is collaboration. Over the lockdown, in my past and now my new role, I have been one small part of the coordinating group for the #NeverMoreNeeded campaign. What I have seen is a step change in terms of a culture of collaboration emerging, free for now from the egotism that characterised voluntary sector action in the past. Organisations such as Volunteering Matters, NAVCA, NCVO, Small Charities Coalition, Voice4Change, Women’s Resource Centre, Social Enterprise UK all working together, with an open embrace of those challenging the traditional voluntary sector, on gender, race and inclusion.

We need resources for the voluntary sector yes, but more than that we need a system for making the most of those resources. It is a word we should use with pride when it comes to the voluntary sector: infrastructure.

Ed Mayo is the new CEO of Pilotlight, having come from ten years leading Co-operatives UK and before that the New Economics Foundation. He is a former chair of trustees for Involve, the participation charity, and is author of Values: how to bring values to life in your business.

Author: Source Direct

Highland Council is teetering on the brink. It has been the hardest hit in the UK financially from the Covid-19 crisis in terms of cash lost per head of population, standing at £411 per resident, according to research by the BBC.

The council is the fourth worst hit overall in the UK, with total estimated losses of £96.9 million. It is the council with the highest proportion of furloughed staff, with head of finance at the local authority Ed Foster saying cutting its deficit would not be possible without “shed loads of pain” as most of its expenditure is tied up in staff costs, implying it would mean large-scale redundancies.

As well as £55 million in lost income during the crisis, the Council has had £40 million in additional expenses, with its older population spread throughout a land mass larger than Belgium requiring care workers to travel long distances during the crisis. It also hasn’t helped that NHS Highland has had to step in due to private sector failure, taking over operations at Home Farm care home from HC-One on the Isle of Skye.

Alasdair Christie, chairman of the recovery board set up to steer Highland Council out of the crisis, said the impact could be long-term.

“I think, because of the nature of our economy, we could see increasing unemployment and even more demand for our services,” he said.

This is a Council which has become reliant on tourist income, and especially the high-end, luxury yacht variety. Its major sources of income come from tourist car parks, docking fees and the sale of marine fuel at its 100 harbours. That has all been reduced to almost “zero overnight”, Foster said, with a single car park in Inverness earning £200,000 a month on average prior to the crisis, which was reduced to £75 for April.

Of course, while Highland Council is strapped for cash, there remains plenty of wealth in the Highlands, mostly tied up in its land. Scotland has the most concentrated land ownership in Europe, and no more so than in its rural areas. Research by Andy Wightman has found that 10 per cent of all private rural land in Scotland is owned by just 16 people. Scotland’s richest person, the Danish clothing billionaire Anders Povlsen, owns 220,000 acres across the Highlands.  The idea of a tax on land has long been muted, but Scotland inexplicably remains stuck with the out-of-date and grossly unfair council tax introduced by the Tories almost thirty years ago.

Unsurprisingly, the Economic Recovery Group report had nothing to say about land reform or a land tax, as it was headed up by Benny Higgins, the Chief Executive of the Duke of Buccleuch’s Estates, one of Scotland and the UK’s largest land-owners. But the idea has also been advocated by the Scottish Land Commission, and before that muted by the Commission for Local Tax Reform, both Scottish Government established bodies. Not only could a tax on land and property raise vital revenues, it could incentivise the use of land for productive purposes, rather than as inflationary assets for the super-wealthy. That could lead to a much needed diversification of the Highlands economy and, hopefully, the break-up of large estates.

Highland Council is absorbing most of the costs of its land being a playground for the world’s super-rich, including NHS services and road repair, but is getting little of the revenues. This contradiction has now reached crisis-point. The fact that the value of land has increased more than 450 per cent in the UK since 1995, but that our system of taxing wealth, the Council Tax, has not changed in that time, with its valuations based on 1991 property assessments, and taxes tenants rather than the owners of landed property, shows just how far economic governance has fallen behind the reality of economic power in Scotland.

Highland Council is crying out for a tax on land/landed property – why won’t the Scottish Government let it happen?

Author: Locality

A new report (released on 15 June) from Locality highlights the vital role that community organisations have played in meeting community need and supporting people during the Coronavirus crisis.

As we look to recovery, we hope this, combined with the new wave of community spirit we’ve seen, will equip us to deal with the social and economic challenges that are coming down the track.

– Danny Whitehouse, Chief Executive, Charles Burrell Centre

• Community organisations often quickest to mobilise and key to coordinating and delivering emergency support.
• Locality call on government to: support a community-powered economic recovery; create collaborative public services; and, provide support to turn community spirit into community power.
• Community organisations have been the ‘glue’ linking mutual aid groups with private and public sector responses.
• Over 100 organisations contributed to the report, with input from community organisation chief executives and council leaders from across England. This includes case studies with organisations in Berwick, Bristol, Coventry, Grimsby, Hackney, Manchester and Thetford.

Download the “We were built for this” report (.pdf)

The report looks at how community organisations reacted and adapted to the challenges of the crisis. Over 100 organisations contributed to the report, with input from community organisation chief executives and council leaders from across England. This includes seven in-depth case-studies with groups in Berwick, Bristol, Coventry, Grimsby, Hackney, Manchester and Thetford.

When crisis struck, across the country community organisations were early responders, coordinating volunteers, delivering emergency supplies, supporting isolated groups, and finding creative ways to keep communities together.

The report revealed that:

• Community organisations have often been the quickest to mobilise and adapt their services to the crisis – but need support to meet the challenges of the future
• Community organisations have been the glue that has held together the community response – coordinating and connecting grassroots groups with public and private sector responses.
• In areas where the public, community and private sector already have strong, collaborative relationships, support was made available faster and has been more effective.
• Community organisation have been able to harness the upsurge in community spirit – working with and coordinating grassroots groups and hyper-local support.

Danny Whitehouse, Chief Executive, Charles Burrell Centre, Thetford, said:

“We were able to mobilise a response to the coronavirus so quickly because of our strong networks locally. We’ve formed deeper partnerships with our key local partners: our town, district and county councils, mutual aid volunteer groups, other voluntary sector organisations, our membership network, Locality, and our funding partners. As we look to recovery, we hope this, combined with the new wave of community spirit we’ve seen, will equip us to deal with the social and economic challenges that are coming down the track.”

Amy Kinnear, Chief Executive, Southmead Development Trust, Bristol, said:

“Our role is vital as we have established relationships with all the GP practices, adult social care and through the community so we have been able to quickly identify those at risk, link services up and become a trusted and known source of advice and support.”

The report also explores various changes and challenges that have emerged during the crisis, giving the following recommendations:

• Expand the Community Ownership Fund to capitalise community organisations by leveraging Dormant Assets and other funding to establish a £1bn investment plan for community assets over the next five years.
• Provide £500m revenue funding to protect, strengthen and grow existing community organisations and provide a pathway for new mutual aid groups to become established.
• The procurement flexibility to work more collaboratively with suppliers introduced at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis should be spread across public sector contracting authorities, through further Cabinet Office guidance.

Tony Armstrong, Chief Executive of Locality, said:

“We cannot overstate the role community organisations have played in providing and mobilising support during the coronavirus crisis. They have taken a lead in the distribution of food, medical supplies, and hot meals, provided a friendly voice for isolated people and delivered ongoing support for people in crisis. The challenge we face now is ensuring that these groups are given the voice, power and resources they need to support their communities through the recovery from the pandemic.

“Rebuilding our economy is going to be a national priority, but we have to learn the lessons of failed economic policies over several decades. Our recommendations for devolution of power and resources to communities are radical, but common sense. They would deliver much of the Prime Minister’s ambition to level up the country, build self-reliant and resilient communities and help us bounce back stronger from this crisis.”

Download the “We were built for this” report (.pdf)

 

Author: Community Land Scotland and Community Woodlands Association

To read the full report – Built in resilience

Conclusions

What the coronavirus emergency has clearly underlined, is that the community

ownership model ensures a local resilience. Not only should that not be lost, it should

be extended to new areas as an integral element in government thinking on how

best to rebuild Scotland. The strength of communities who own their own assets –

be they large estates like Galson, or inner-city centres like Kinning Park – have been

tested and produced amazing results. Their innovative and risk appropriate responses

to this crisis have been founded on their local strengths in engagement, trust and

organisation. How can we build on this and ensure the progress made won’t be lost?

Community Land Scotland has already made a compelling case to Ministers and

MSPs for a bold ‘Rural New Deal’ embracing further land reform, as a driver of

economic recovery and a means of building a greener future. Community landowners

have already led the way in renewable energy generation and conservation.

The Scottish Land Fund should continue to operate but with a significantly increased

budget, up to £20m a year. This would provide the investment necessary to ensure

that there is new momentum to community acquisitions across Scotland, continuing

Scotland’s strong tradition of investing in its local communities to help them address

the needs and opportunities of their own local areas.

A Land Value Tax and other fiscal measures should be considered, to reduce the

inflated land values which only currently help ensure that so much land is owned by a

private few.

A supplementary charge to the Land and Buildings Transactions Tax for private sales

of large rural estates over a certain size, could help finance the Scottish Land Fund.

The Fund in turn would support more community buyouts and provide ongoing

support for those already purchased.

Community Land Scotland’s Policy Director Calum MacLeod said:

“Now is the time for bold thinking and the political will to make that happen. We need

more community land and asset ownership because it’s a proven model of enhancing

the resilience of rural and urban communities.  That’s why we’re calling for retention

and expansion of the £10m Scottish Land Fund up to £20m annually to provide the

necessary investment to ensure that scaling-up of community land ownership across

Scotland.”

He said that while the economic storm created by the coronavirus had to be addressed

urgently, so too did the climate emergency which had not gone away.

“Community landowners have already led the way in renewable energy generation and

conservation. The more community landowners there are, the greater their contribution

to a Green economic recovery would be. This would be achieved by ensuring the

sustainable management of land for carbon capture and renewables development –

leading to payments for public goods to address the climate emergency – which are

reinvested in our communities. Strengthening further those communities and giving

them the tools to help address both local problems and global problems.

We need a Rural New Deal, diversifying how land and other assets such as forests and

marine resources are owned and used so as to deliver the climate change mitigation

and adaptions, affordable housing, employment creation and growth that are essential

to the sustainability of our rural places and to delivering wider public benefits.”

Ministers must listen. Nobody should think that returning to the way things were

before the pandemic, would be a goal worthy of all the effort, loss and sacrifice.

Author: Colin Morrison, CP

Full report from the  How Are You Doing Survey carried out in April and May

How might we summarise the picture that is emerging for our children in these challenging times?

Across all areas there is a small but noticeable decline in the wellbeing of children. This is particularly true for girls, and especially for girls aged 12 to 14.

When it comes to learning at home children are reporting less choice and a declining sense of fun or pride in work and increased levels of boredom.

Meanwhile they are increasingly worried about doing school work and learning at home. Older children, 12 to 14 years old, are less likely to see learning at home positively.

Most children can access information, express opinions and experience their rights. However there are indications of a decline in these areas which is of importance in our preparedness for incorporation of the UNCRC.

Children are indicating a decline in mental wellbeing; fewer generally feel cheerful and in a good mood and they have less energy. Children are increasingly feeling lonely and less sure that in difficult times they will be okay.

The period of lockdown has shifted the balance of children’s lives – not going to school or meeting friends means that family time and relationships become even more central. Most children are safe and happy at home but for those children who are not the experience of lockdown may intensify concerns or worries.

Children are increasingly worried about a number of things. What they worry about is influenced by age and sex, but as time passes they worry more. Most children have someone at home or external to their family to speak to, but a significant number indicate they do not have someone.

Children identify a number of things that support their wellbeing and help them feel good at the moment. While overall, between April and May, children are identifying fewer things that make them feel good. Parents and carers are central to children’s wellbeing.

Author: Claire Macgillvray

Making Rights Real is a new grassroots human rights organisation about to launch in Scotland following successful housing rights work using the Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) model to support the most marginalised communities address human rights concerns.

As the trajectory for human rights in Scotland shifts positively with a political will to improve the rights landscape, Making Rights Real will support and empower rights holders to name and claim their rights.

The team behind Making Rights Real want to create a national human rights resource for communities, with projects supporting people to collectively assert their rights to make social and economic change. A national scoping study funded by the Baring Foundation is underway to explore which people, places and rights issues will be Making Rights Real’s first area of work once the organisation is fully up and running later in 2020.

The scoping study is being led by Clare MacGillivray and supported by a Scottish Advisory Group including PPR, community activists, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, Scottish Community Development Centre, University of Glasgow, Amnesty International, the Human Rights Consortium Scotland and the Alliance.

Featuring conversations with rights holders, community groups, third sector organisations, public authority leaders and independent funders, the scoping study hopes to report in Autumn this year. The Chief Statistician for Scotland is supporting data analysis through their third sector analytical exchange programme which will help consider the people and places that are most marginalised and which economic, social and cultural rights are most at risk in Scotland.

From Housing Rights to Making Rights Real

The six-year journey to the dawn of a new national organisation for Scotland – Making Rights Real – began with housing rights work inspired by the PPR model.

On a bitterly cold International Human Rights Day in 2014 at a national innovation forum for Scotland’s National Action Plan on Human Rights (SNAP) in Glasgow the first envisioning of a new partnership for Scotland emerged with PPR, the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) and Edinburgh Tenants Federation (ETF).

Conversations about the success of PPR’s housing rights work and a willingness to test if the approach could be replicated in Scotland led to the ground-breaking Housing Rights in Practice Project – a key action in SNAP to demonstrate the impact of rights in practice for people in communities.

The project aimed to support a group of residents living in poor housing conditions in Leith, Edinburgh to advocate for their right to an adequate standard of housing. People were experiencing problems with damp, mould, ineffective or broken heating, pigeon, rodent and insect infestations, and maintenance issues.

[Residents] secured £2.3m investment in their homes from the Local Authority, including a heating and window replacement programme, new kitchens and bathrooms and a raft of external works.

Over four years, residents used a human rights based approach to monitor and measure progress in their housing conditions to hold the duty bearer (in this case the City of Edinburgh Council) to account. They secured £2.3m investment in their homes from the Local Authority, including a heating and window replacement programme, new kitchens and bathrooms and a raft of external works.

Following the project, which came to an end in 2019, residents reported improved physical and mental health, improved feelings of self-worth, confidence and pride, reduced fuel poverty and a feeling that there is a better sense of community.

The project is a powerful example of using human rights in practice, and the SHRC recently published its Housing Rights in Practice: Lessons Learned from Leith that highlights reflections from rights holders, duty bearers, support staff and the Commission.

Since the completion of the housing rights project, people who had been involved with it considered how this approach could be expanded across Scotland, setting up the scoping study, Scottish Advisory Group and now Making Rights Real as an organisation.

Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR)

The current human rights policy context in Scotland is positive, dynamic and on divergent tracks to the rest of the UK (rUK). With a real “risk of post-Brexit regression in rights” according to the First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership, there is a national ambition “to establish a new framework of human rights designed to improve people’s daily lives” in Scotland. Although still a long way off from embedding human rights in the process, structure and outcomes of Scottish Government and public service policy, several initiatives combine to shift the trajectory and improve life experiences of people in Scotland.

Whilst there is a strong rhetoric push towards participation and empowerment, and positive steps forward in relation to human rights policy context in Scotland; evidence tells us that there remains a gap between policy objectives and the people continuing to experience human rights violations in Scotland.

COVID-19 and the impact on rights in Scotland

The embedded rights violations and inequalities that already existed in Scotland before COVID-19 have been brutally exposed by the disproportionate death and infection rate amongst the poorest, most marginalised and minority groups from Coronavirus.

Human rights in Scotland are at risk, with disproportionate impacts emerging for women, people living in poverty, people in low paid and insecure employment, people with disabilities, prisoners, older people and ethnic minorities including Scotland’s Gypsy Travellers and the Roma community.

Although the scoping for Making Rights Real started before the Coronavirus emergency, the cruelty of human rights violations exposed since the pandemic took hold shows why we need a strengthened collective effort to protect, respect and fulfil rights in Scotland, with rights holders’ asserting their rights from the grassroots.

The time is right in Scotland to set up an organisation that supports and empowers rights holders to hold duty bearers to account and make economic and social change happen.

Over the summer Making Rights Real will be hosting a joint session with grassroots groups across Scotland to see “where the spark will fly” from Leith. #NoOneLeftBehind will keep you informed of Making Rights Real’s progress.

You can also contact Clare MacGillivray at clare@claremacgillivray.org or follow her on Twitter at @Clare_MacG

Author: David Greig, Artistic Director of Lyceum Theatre

‘If you had to design a sector that would be worst affected by the pandemic, you would design a thing called theatre – everything about us makes us vulnerable to this crisis. But if you had to design an art form to help us come back from crisis – to console, amuse, divert, boost the economy and create connections with people – I would create theatre. We really will have a role to play when the moment comes, but it’s going to be tough getting to the other side’

Author: Common Weal

THE OUTLINE STRATEGY FOR A RESILIENT SCOTLAND

This is the first part of Common Weal’s economic recovery plan, showing how Scotland can become a productive, high-wage society without government bailouts by letting Scottish businesses unlock Scotland’s underdeveloped potential. It explains how by focussing on re-profiling public procurement and using public stimulus in housing, energy, land, food, advanced materials and light manufacturing to achieve green reindustrialisation we can replace low-pay service sector jobs that are being lost because of the pandemic with high-pay manufacturing jobs. The report has been launched with the endorsement and support of a wide range of senior politicians.

This is the first of three parts of the overall plan which sets out the strategy and then the actions which can be taken between now and the Holyrood elections in 2021. Part two will cover the four-year period of that Parliament and part three will cover the longer-term shift into a Green New Deal.

Read on….

Author: Just Transition Commission

Just Transition Commission wants to hear from you on tackling climate change  

Climate change is one of the most important issues facing society today. While the move to a net-zero emissions economy will bring benefits and opportunities for individuals and communities across Scotland, it will also present challenges.

The Just Transition Commission was set up to independently advise the Scottish Government on how to manage a fair transition to net-zero emissions by 2045. The Climate Change Act recently passed by the Scottish Parliament contains some of the most ambitious statutory emission reductions targets in the world. The transition required to meet these targets will involve major changes to the way we live our lives and how we do business.

As part of a nationwide call to action, members of the public and organisations are being encouraged to share their opinions on how Scotland can end its contribution to climate change as fairly and as justly as possible for everyone in society.

The evidence received will help inform the Commission’s full report which is scheduled to be submitted to the Scottish Government in January 2021.

Professor Jim Skea is the Chair of the Just Transition Commission: “Our goal is to ensure the benefits of the transition to net-zero are felt across society and all sectors of the economy. The costs cannot fall disproportionately on those who are least able to manage them or on those who are directly or indirectly affected as the economy shifts and changes.

“Many communities have suffered injustices in the past, for example with the decline of coal mining and we must learn from these mistakes, but we must also ensure we maximise the many social and economic opportunities that the move to net-zero emissions offers.

“We do not have all the answers, no-one does, therefore we need people to help identify the various challenges and opportunities they may be aware of. In order to achieve a just transition, it’s important that we hear from a wide cross-section of society and businesses from all sectors.”

You can submit your evidence to the Just Transition Commission here: https://consult.gov.scot/just-transition-commission/just-transition-commission-call-for-evidence/

The deadline for submissions is 30 June 2020.