National Strategy for Economic Transformation: annual progress report June 2023

Forward Look

Significant progress has been made in the first year of delivering the economic strategy. As economic conditions change, we have adapted our approach and continue to test whether our actions are having the maximum impact.

High inflation has placed unprecedented pressure on Scotland’s public finances and enormous strain on budgets, leading to difficult fiscal choices including the budget supporting the economic strategy.

Prioritisation is therefore essential. The recently published policy prospectus “A New Leadership – A Fresh Start” reaffirmed our commitment to delivering the economic strategy with a sharp focus on the policies and actions with the greatest potential to grow and change Scotland’s economy, expand the tax base to fund excellent public services and make people’s lives better.

Alongside this our commitment to tackling poverty and protecting people from harm are key to delivering on our equality mission.

The prospectus set out the outcomes to achieve by 2026, which include:

• Support the creation of more high quality jobs, stronger businesses, and vibrant communities by working with businesses and other partners to raise the rate of investment in productive assets.
• Increase the number of people earning at least the real living wage, working in jobs that meet Fair Work principles, and contributing to society through fulfilling and increasingly productive work, narrowing the gender pay gap.
• Help more people, including parents, into work, through employability support, skills support and high quality early learning and school age childcare provision, with fewer people unable to work due to ill health or disability.
• Put Scotland on track to become a leading European start-up nation, in which more businesses are created and grow to scale.
• Support the emergence of internationally competitive clusters of excellence – including in green technologies, health & life sciences, digital and advanced manufacturing – driven by investment and innovation.
• Support the sustained growth of international exports while diversifying into new markets; with more, higher-quality, inward investment, and Scotland’s attractiveness as a location for inward investment improving.
• Seizing major opportunities to attract a pipeline of investment across sectors to secure the economic and community benefits from the just transition to net zero, and ensure we continue to tackle fuel poverty, working with our advisory panel, to progress towards our statutory fuel poverty targets.

The future priorities identified within each of the strategy’s policy programmes will ensure we are on track to achieve these outcomes and the longer-term ambitions of our economic strategy. We will closely monitor the impact these actions are having and continue to report progress as we continue to transform our economy.