New Deal for Business Group: progress report and recommendations

1. Forewords by Co-Chairs

Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, Neil Gray MSP, Co-Chair of the New Deal for Business Group

A strong partnership between government and business is essential if we are to deliver an economy that is fair, green and growing. Our ambition is for Scotland to be the best place to do business. Scotland will only be a successful nation if our businesses are successful and support our contribution to achieving a Wellbeing Economy.

This vision for a Wellbeing Economy where business and trade can thrive while caring for people and planet was set out by the First Minister in his Policy Prospectus just a few months ago and is at the heart of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation. In order to achieve this, all sectors must work together.

The New Deal for Business Group was set up to explore how we can work more closely with Scottish businesses, to better design policy and its implementation.

The group was deliberately intended to be a short-term project, but with longer-term consequences. In the six weeks that we have been working together, members in their sub-groups have drawn on their experience, expertise and knowledge to deliver a set of practical recommendations that have the potential to make a positive difference. Experience tells us that we need to prioritise what we deliver and follow through on that. So we have identified those recommendations where early progress is critical.

Implementing actions arising from these recommendations will require a change in approach to policy development within the Scottish Government, a renewed commitment to partnership working between government and business, and a continued dialogue.

Looking ahead, the report has been submitted to the First Minister for his endorsement and we are working on an implementation plan to maintain the pace of this work.

I firmly believe that if we can get this right we can not only create the conditions to support our businesses to achieve their ambitions, we can also make more effective progress on issues like tackling child poverty and delivering a Just Transition to Net Zero.

We also now have the foundations in place for a more fruitful and meaningful relationship with our business community and I'm looking forward to seeing how much we can achieve through a collective effort to reach our full economic potential.

Dr Poonam Malik, Head of Investments, University of Strathclyde, Co-Chair of the New Deal for Business Group

The New Deal for Business Group has been set up at a time when business is operating in tough times – coming to terms with the impact of Brexit, recovery from the Covid pandemic, rising inflation, the cost of living crisis and the continued conflict in Ukraine. The need to ensure business, industry, academia and government have strong, constructive relationships is a timely and urgent one. As we aim to move out of the challenging economic landscape of the last few years, it is critical that we build forward together and have a trusting, meaningful relationship, focussing on the priorities to meet our common goals.

The aim of the Group is to reset and reframe the relationship between businesses, industry and government while moving forward towards a Wellbeing Economy. We can only achieve that by engaging better, more effectively and efficiently, while firmly keeping focus on our people being at the centre of all of our strategies and plans across private, public, academic and third sectors.

In the six weeks that we have been working together, I have been impressed by members' desire for change and a positive mindset to really make this initiative work. Growing trust, building a stronger partnering relationship to scale our economy and allow our businesses to thrive with purpose via diversity of all kinds and inclusion of our people has been the central focus of conversation. There is a recognition that we need to keep up the momentum, remain motivated, respectful and action focused.

I see government and business as two foundational pillars that ought to work together towards the same goal – to deliver a healthy and happy future for an equitable, diverse and fair society, with a thriving economy that prioritises the wellbeing of people and planet, with responsible profits driven by purpose-led investments. That is why it is important that we are in sync with each other, to be open, with innovative and creative thinking that will iron out the main challenges, understand and overcome existing barriers to high productivity and growth, and set out recommendations with a short, medium and long-term actionable framework to support successful outcomes.

I believe that these key consolidated recommendations as a guiding thesis go a long way to helping us achieve our shared ambitions. They aim to ensure Scottish Business co-designs with government policies that impact on them and nurture the wellbeing of our society and people globally. I know that deepening the relationship with businesses, actively listening in, innovating entrepreneurially and working in meaningful partnership on common goals, will reap rewards for government and communities for improved socio-economic outcomes and for growing a high growth economy for the nation in the longer term.

I look forward to us continuing to work together and focussing on accountability for the recommendations from this Report as we implement actions for positive changes for a happier, healthier and sustainable thriving society.