Advisory Group on Economic Recovery: weekly update - weeks 1 to 3

Items and actions

Weekly update

The Advisory Group on Economic Recovery (AGER) was established in April 2020 and has met twice weekly from the 27 April onwards. Moving forward AGER will publish the weekly key points raised from the two meetings of the group.

Please find below the key points from week 1 to 3

Week 1 – 27 April – 1 May

This week discussions focussed on how best to structure the Advisory Group to ensure that it can delivers recommendations to Scottish Ministers in accordance with its remit by the end of June. In particular, Members focused on:

• The need to identify a backdrop against which to frame recommendations to take account of key Scottish Government policy priorities particularly in relation to the green agenda and wellbeing economy.
• Identifying channels for engagement to ensure that the Advisory Group’s recommendations are informed by broad range of views including those of key stakeholder groups such as the business community.
• Consider how the Advisory Group aligns its deliberations with other economic recovery work initiated by the Scottish Government.

Week 2 – 4 May – 8 May

This week the Advisory Group received presentations focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on the Scottish Government’s budget and priorities.

The Advisory group received presentations on;

• The impact of COVID-19 on the Scottish Government’s tax raising and spending powers. They learned that Coronavirus is likely to lead to significant reductions in the Scottish Government’s fiscal capacity in the next 2 – 3 years.
• The Wellbeing Economy Government Group and the actions being progressed by other governments within this group to support their countries’ economies to recover from COVID-19.
• The Advisory Group also had further discussions regarding how it ensures widespread and robust engagement. It was agreed that the enterprise agencies would facilitate engagement with the business community through interactions with business leaders, business associations.
• It was agreed that Open Call for Views would also be launched to enable individuals and organisations across Scotland to share their

Week 3 – 11 May – 15 May

This week the Advisory Group received presentations which set out the impact of Covid-19 on key policy areas:

• The Scottish Government’s Director on Energy and Climate Change highlighted that reaching net zero emissions by 2045 remains a key priority and outlined some of the impacts and opportunities arising from COVID-19. She also set out the green recovery work initiated by the Scottish Government so that it aligns with the work of the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery.
• Advisory Group Members also heard about the Scottish Government’s Renewal Programme which is considering the impact of COVID-19 on outcomes as set out in the National Performance Framework and what opportunities might arise from COVID-19 to progress work on delivering these outcomes. 
• The Advisory Group were also provided with analysis of the impacts of the pandemic on different sectors, regions and groups.
• The “four capitals” approach was discussed as a potential framework which would allow the Group to take a broad view by considering the assets within the Scottish economy. The four capitals , are physical and financial, natural, human and social