The Report from the independent Advisory Group established by the Scottish Government to advise on Scotland’s economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has been issued, but despite sector advocacy fails to make explicit the ‘shovel ready’ repair & maintenance agenda, reports BEFS.
BEFS writes:
The independent Advisory Group for Economic Recovery (AGER) has published recommendations Towards a Robust, Resilient Wellbeing Economy for Scotland identifying interventions to support Scotland’s economic recovery and facilitate the transition towards a greener, fairer and more inclusive economy with wellbeing at its heart. The ‘shovel ready’ repair & maintenance agenda, as advocated in several submissions to the AGER, is not explicitly identified and BEFS has followed this up with a letter to Ministers. BEFS has also highlighted the pressing need for Ministers to lobby the Chancellor on reducing VAT on building maintenance as they are on VAT on Tourism. The Scottish Government will publish its response to the AGER recommendations in early July.
The Advisory Group writes:
This report details the findings of the independent Advisory Group on Economic Recovery which was established by the Scottish Government in April 2020 to provide expert advice on supporting the different regions and sectors of Scotland’s economy to recover from the impacts of Covid-19. Published on 22 June the report contains a series of recommendations directed at both the Scottish Government and other actors in Scotland’s economy identifying interventions to support Scotland’s economic recovery and facilitate the transition towards a greener, fairer and more inclusive economy with wellbeing at its heart.
The recommendations were informed by widespread engagement with the business community, trade unions, the third sector and wider civil society amongst others. A selection of these submissions can be found at the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery’s webpage. All of the submissions where permission has been granted for these to be published will follow in July.
See BEFS consultation responses
See the report: Towards a robust, resilient wellbeing economy for Scotland
See more background
