Holyrood 2026

Greens in the Scottish Parliament have already made ground-breaking changes on reducing the cost of transport: introducing free bus travel or under 22s and refugees, and ending peak rail fares which was effectively a tax on workers.

Edinburgh benefits from publicly-owned buses, and we want to make this the norm – we will bring more of Scotland’s buses back under public control, and ramp up support for community run
services.

We will slash the cost of public transport in Scotland – expanding free bus travel to everyone resident in Scotland and abolishing first class rail tickets on ScotRail. We will introduce Scotland’s first integrated ticketing system, making it easier to join up journeys across ferries, trains, buses and trams, and we’ll make sure island residents get priority on their lifeline ferry routes.

Greens have been making inroads in the fight against poverty. We scrapped school meal debts and are working to end Council Tax debts that leave families in fear of bailiffs at their door.

In the next parliament, we can save families up to £10,000 with the biggest expansion of funded childcare in a generation, and make sure that Scotland’s social security system protects everyone. We will help families living in fuel poverty by tackling profiteering energy companies, and take steps towards a Universal Basic Income for Scotland

Everyone deserves a place to call home. But millions of people in Scotland are now impacted by the housing emergency, stuck in unsuitable accommodation, unable to afford their own home. Decades of volume house building by private developers has failed to relieve the pressure on our housing system.

Green MSPs have successfully introduced rent controls to Scotland to protect tenants, and in Edinburgh our councillors secured record investment in social housing funded by the Transient Visitor Levy.

With more MSP elected, we can build 15,700 more social homes each year between now and 2031, ensure that new homes are low-carbon and accessible, and introduce more right for tenants.

The richest must pay more to end poverty and for well-funded public services. It is obscene how wide the gap between rich and poor has become over the last 15 years.

But as a result of changes driven by Green MSPs over the last decade, Scotland now has a more progressive tax system, where those who can afford to pay more, and those on lower incomes the least. That’s helped raise £1.8 billion more every year for public services like our NHS, and enabled Edinburgh council to generate much needed income by charging more on second and empty homes.

But our focus must now shift onto taxing wealth rather than work, finally scrapping the unfair Council Tax for good, and taxing things that cause harm to people and planet, for example by introducing a frequent flyer levy for businesses.

Scotland is facing a social care crisis, leaving some of our most vulnerable citizens without the support they need. Unpaid carers, most of whom are women, prop up the economy by providing support to loved ones and have gone without proper recognition for far too long.

Jobs in the care sector should be seen as part of the green transition, and we will raise the wages of social carers as a priority. In Edinburgh we have worked hard to protect and support the third sector who provide a lifeline for communities, and in Parliament we commit to strengthen these organisations with sustainable funding arrangements.

Climate change remains the biggest threat facing us, but other parties continue to bury their heads in the sand and rely on businesses to ‘do the right thing’ or come up with techno-fixes to tackle it. We know this won’t work.

We need bold policies to move Scotland away from fossil fuels, invest in locally-controlled renewable energy, and tackle the profiteering businesses who gain from the climate crisis.

In Edinburgh we have declared a nature emergency – recognising how much biodiversity we have lost, with 1-in-9 species at risk of national extinction. With more Greens in Parliament, we can massively increase funding for nature restoration, strengthen wildlife protection, and plant more trees across the country.

Scottish Greens are the party of equality and rights. We are working towards a nation where people aren’t disadvantaged because of the colour of their skin, where disabled people can access education, work and leisure with no barriers, and where everyone is welcome.

We will defend human rights against the threat of fascism, work to ensure women and trans people can access the healthcare they need, and call for more powers to support asylum seekers through every step of their journey.

Scottish Greens are the only party in Scotland giving clear, unequivocal support for the Palestinian people in a time when they are being dehumanised by the Israeli state aided by the US and allies, including the UK Government, leading to mass slaughter, starvation and destruction.

We have been campaigning for an end to the genocide in Gaza, and and have secured agreement in the Scottish Parliament that if a company is profiting from apartheid and genocide against Palestinians it should not be allowed to profit here in Scotland.