Stronger communities

Scottish Labour will:

Fix the mess by:

  • Establishing a £350m pothole fund to fix the roads and fill up to five million potholes.
  • Delivering reliable ferry services, merging CMAL and CalMac into a single public ferry agency with local representation on the board.
  • Reforming Creative Scotland to improve transparency and put more creative funding into the hands of artists.

Get the basics right by:

  • Delivering fair funding for local services, agreeing a new funding formula for local government.
  • Agreeing a statutory new deal for the third sector, with multi-year funding and shared objectives to tackle social inequality and reduce poverty.
  • Promoting digital inclusion and helping more people to get online.

Deliver a better future by:

  • Delivering fair funding for local services, agreeing a new funding formula for local government.
  • Agreeing a statutory new deal for the third sector, with multi-year funding and shared objectives to tackle social inequality and reduce poverty.
  • Promoting digital inclusion and helping more people to get online.

Stronger communities


Scotland’s towns, cities and neighbourhoods should be places where Scots can grow up, raise families, live well and grow old together in community. Each part of Scotland has distinct characteristics and strengths that should be celebrated but huge inequalities persist, with poverty and deprivation holding back so many individuals’ and families’ potential. Uncertainty about the future, injustice going unaddressed, and a sense that nothing works only stokes division and discontent in our society. Scottish Labour will empower local people and rebuild the resilience of our communities, so they once again promote fairness and improve lives for the better.

Skip to:

Restoring good local services → Boosting local ownership → Transport that is better for people → Championing culture and sport → Challenging discrimination and inequality → Standing up for Human Rights Promoting digital inclusion

Restoring good local services

People across Scotland want local services that deliver the basics well – bin collections, clean streets, green spaces, well maintained roads, accessible leisure centres and open libraries. These building blocks help create strong and supportive communities, but they have been undermined by years of cuts and centralisation. Scottish Labour will ensure local people can create good places to live by:

• Delivering fair funding for local services, agreeing a new funding formula for local government that takes account of local levies and the services that councils deliver, so that local areas can never again be shortchanged by central government.

• Passing a Local Democracy Act, to push decision making power out of Holyrood so local people have more of a say over public services in their area and have the right to elect regional mayors.

• Agreeing a statutory new deal for the third sector, with multi-year funding and new agreements on resourcing, as well as shared objectives for tackling social inequality, reducing poverty, and increasing social prosperity.

• Pausing plans for further cuts to the fire service, ensuring the service has the resources needed to keep the public safe and develop their role supporting the wider emergency services.

• Work to deliver reliable postal services, so everyone in Scotland can access the affordable delivery services they need. 

Boosting local ownership

We believe that local people should benefit from the wealth that is generated within their communities. To boost local ownership and community wealth building we will:

• Work with local authorities so they can generate income from community owned assets, making sure they have the powers and resources as part of our new fair funding agreement.

• Ecourage the expansion of cooperative and employeeowned models, with better data on their prevalence and success in Scotland, and specialist advice available for business on how to convert to these models.

• Redefine community benefit, so funds derived from local energy projects deliver tangible, long-term results for communities, and mandating contributions in future consenting of offshore wind projects.

• Establish a community energy fund, ringfencing at least £100m of ScotWind revenues to be used as low cost finance for communities to develop or take equity in local energy projects, ensuring the money is recirculated for the benefit of future generations.

• Simplify Community Right to Buy, making the legal process easier for local people to buy and own local land and assets for the benefit of communities.

Transport that is better for people

Good transport should make our lives easier but many of Scotland’s communities are being held back by unreliable and poorly maintained services. New transport projects are continually delayed and the public transport connections that people rely on are frequently cancelled or cut altogether. Scottish Labour knows that if we are to boost the prosperity of our regions, we need to deliver transport that works for people. We will:

• Establish a £350m potholes and road maintenance fund so that local authorities can fix the state of Scotland’s roads for all road users, repairing almost 5 million potholes over the course of the Parliament and improving oversight and maintenance of road repairs.

• Bring local bus services back under public control, reforming regulations to fast track franchising and supporting local authorities to purchase the infrastructure needed to deliver locally run services that boost bus routes and improve affordability.

• Deliver reliable ferry services, merging CMAL and CalMac into a single public ferry agency with local representation on the board and a long-term procurement plan to upgrade Scotland’s ageing ferry fleet.

• Upgrade Scotland’s road network, dualling the A9 by 2035, commissioning a business case for the dualling of the A77 and 75, and creating a new National Roads Plan to prioritise upgrades based on economic need, public safety, and local connectivity.

• Work to deliver integrated smart ticketing across Scotland, making use of the public ownership of ScotRail and progress on bus franchising to finally deliver seamless connections for passengers.

• Deliver a better rail network for Scotland, with no return to peak fares, continued rail electrification, a fast intercity rail corridor between Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, delivery of the Glasgow airport rail link, and a National Transport Connections Plan to identify priority transport projects and investments to improve connectivity and support growth.

Championing culture and sport

Scotland’s talent is prodigious – we have produced some of the best athletes, musicians and actors in the world. Our vibrant culture sector inspires creatives and makes Scotland an exciting place to live. In sport the legacy of the 2014 Commonwealth Games was never delivered so we will complete the legacy following the 2026 Games. To ensure people across Scotland can enjoy thriving arts and sports scenes, Scottish Labour will:

• Promote music and sports in school, with an online music tuition platform to extend access and a guaranteed chance to swim for all P5 pupils.

• Establish a Major Events Bureau, strengthening the Edinburgh festivals, supporting the expansion of the Scottish Events Campus, and positioning Scotland as leading destination for world-class sport, culture, and international conferences.

• Pilot a creative entrepreneur’s allowance, supporting up to 1,000 creatives and artists who have a commercial business plan with their living costs as they establish their enterprise.

• Reform Creative Scotland, improving transparency and accountability so it is representative and responsive to people from all backgrounds. New objectives will ensure creative funding is put in the hands of artists, supports fair work, and delivers for the sector.

•Designate a creative capital fund, to deliver financial support to upgrade and protect venues across the country.

•Extend pilots of alcohol sales at football matches, evaluating the impacts on a rolling basis and working with clubs to improve the experience of fans.

• Partner with Scotland’s Sporting Associations, starting with the Scottish Football Association, to promote the health and community benefits of sport across the country and to people from all backgrounds.

Challenging discrimination and inequality

Scottish Labour believes in the right of everyone to live healthy, happy lives in Scotland, free from discrimination. Scottish Labour is determined break down the barrier that prevent people from fully participating and contributing to public life and society. We will:

• Deliver an additional £10m for Changing Places toilets, renewing the fund for the next parliamentary term to address the lack of provision across Scotland.

• Take steps to close the disability pay gap, ensuring that our reforms to employability support include targeted programmes to help disabled people into well paid work.

• Provide consistent funding for interfaith groups, ending the unpredictable “small pots” approach of the SNP and using the convening power of government to exchange ideas and bring people together.

• Protect the status of denominational schools in Scotland, recognising the high quality education and choice they offer pupils and parents, and the contribution they make to local communities.

•Work to deliver a conversion practices ban on a four nation basis to prevent the creation of any possible loopholes across the UK and protect LGBT+ people from harmful conversion practices.

• Create an accessible information standard for Scotland, learning from the consultation on the proposed Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill, improving inclusive communication by public bodies, and ensuring alternative means of communication, such as easy-read, are provided on request.

Standing up for Human Rights

A Scottish Labour government will also ensure that people’s rights are protected and upheld. We will take a new approach; instead of legislating without resources, we will focus government on delivery of public services that fulfil people’s rights by:

• Reforming the Commissioner landscape so it is more strategic and impactful, reviewing the roles and remits of existing Commissioners, exploring how their powers and back-office functions could be standardised to deliver the best experience for people who need to rely on their services.

• Boosting the work of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, ensuring it is properly resourced and empowered to review and advise on the implementation of human rights in Scotland, and exploring the potential creation of a rapporteur model.

• Delivering single-sex spaces on the basis of biological sex, in NHS wards, schools, sport and everyday life by upholding the Equality Act and delivering clear instructions to public services on how to comply with their legal obligations to women and to trans people.

• Protecting the safety of places of worship, ensuring our new crime and community police officers work with local faith groups in their ward to build relationships, promote security and protect worshippers if necessary.

• Challenging racial and religious prejudice through education, continuing support for organisations such as Holocaust Education Trust and backing campaigns to tackle disinformation and hate online.

Promoting digital inclusion

Digital access and skills are crucial for participation in modern society but the urgency to tackle digital exclusion has been lost. We want Scotland to realise the benefits of new technology and digitisation, so Scottish Labour will provide the leadership needed to tackle digital poverty. We will ensure no one is locked out of digital services by:

• Extending free SIM programmes, joining up public, private and third sector work and providing clearer eligibility criteria to allow for better signposting and wider impact.

• Promoting uptake of broadband social tariffs, working with industry to help everyone who is eligible for support to get online.

• Creating “digital playgrounds” with digital equipment available in public spaces such as schools, libraries and museums where young people can safely engage with technology and innovation.

• Establishing a digital mentors’ network, with trained volunteers stationed in trusted community spaces such as Citizens Advice Centres, supermarkets, and libraries around the country, offering targeted assistance toward people least likely to seek help.

• Expanding device donation schemes, providing refurbished government laptops and phones to those that need them, and exploring options to partner with the private sector through free SIM schemes.

• Identifying digital champions in every local authority to coordinate digital inclusion policy and connectivity across local government and deliver training for frontline workers on how to recognise signs of digital exclusion and signpost people to support