WEAll Scotland responds to 2025 Programme for Government

In Scotland, we are facing a rapidly intensifying climate and nature crises, widening inequality, rising levels of poverty and a deepening cost of living crisis. People across Scotland are being forced to make impossible choices just to survive. 

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 But the Programme for Government demonstrates that the Scottish Government remains stuck in outdated economic thinking that is failing the people of Scotland. 

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 is rooted in a long term, preventative approach that requires economic policies focused on dignity, nature, participation, purpose and fairness. 

It is deeply concerning to see once again no mention of the Wellbeing Economy in the Programme for Government. As a founder member of the international network of  wellbeing economy governments the Scottish Government was recognised as a world leader in the Wellbeing Economy movement. But now it is falling behind on an agenda the rest of the world is waking up to. 

We welcome the commitment to the permanent return of off peak rail fares, a measure that both eases the pressure on household budgets and encourages more climate friendly travel. 

We are also pleased to see a continued commitment to important policies, such as free bus travel, the Scottish Child Payment and eliminating the two child limit in Scotland. 

But, on their own, these measures do not go far enough. Building a Wellbeing Economy in Scotland requires more. It requires an approach that sees beyond short term solutions and sticking plasters. An approach that will improve the wellbeing of people in Scotland, now and in the future.