First Minister John Swinney has outlined the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2026 to 2031 — and it includes “advancing” the debut £1.5 billion Scottish Government bond sale programme “to help attract new investment into Scotland, diversify capital funding sources and support long-term infrastructure investment.”
The Scottish Government also said it will work with the Scottish National Investment Bank to launch a Scottish Innovation Fund with a focus on university spinouts, collaborating with leading universities to leverage private capital and working across the public sector to ensure strong wrap-around support.
Further, the Scottish Government plans to develop a Glasgow-Edinburgh Arc and an East Coast Arc between Aberdeen, Dundee and St Andrews – “and consult on other opportunities to boost productivity and innovation by linking research, universities and businesses.”
Other plans in the programme include: “Increasing private capital investment by accelerating and coordinating strategic projects, engaging with investors, including pension funds, championing Scotland’s strengths on the global stage and fostering a fair, transparent financial system that delivers sustainable economic prosperity for Scotland …
“Promoting strategic alignment across public and private institutions and investment behind a shared mission to support innovation, high-growth businesses, scale-up activity and strategic infrastructure investment.”
Starting now and across 2026-27, the Scottish Government said the programme will:
- Begin operating a new Major Projects Office, to accelerate progress on nationally and strategically significant investment and private capital projects, unblocking barriers to project delivery and unlocking private investment across strategic sectors including housing and energy.
- Strengthen Scotland’s inward investment capability to secure land and grow mobile investment, supporting strategic projects, reinvestment and job creation across Scotland.
- Receive and consider the recommendations of an independent review on the valuation methodology applied to non-domestic property in the hospitality sector.
- Begin consultation on various reforms to simplify our planning and consenting systems to speed up processes, giving greater confidence to those looking to invest while providing local people with confidence and understanding, with implementation from 2027-28.
- Develop legislation to reform and modernise Scotland’s compulsory purchase system, to support more effective delivery of development, regeneration and infrastructure projects.
- Reduce business bureaucracy.
- Promote Scotland as a great place to invest, developing the Invest Scotland portal and working with partners to deliver a programme of investor events and summits, including Scotland’s 2027 Scale-Up Summit.
- Implement the recommendations of the five-year review of the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) and align public finance institutions in Scotland behind a shared mission to support innovation, high-growth businesses, scale-up activity and strategic infrastructure investment.
- Take forward actions to grow trade in relation to priority sectors, markets and businesses, building towards securing over £12 billion of planned export sales over the lifetime of this Parliament.