It’s easy to say you are going to do something positive. Whether it’s a goal to lose a few pounds, donate more to charity or quitting smoking, it’s the actual ‘doing’ that’s the hardest part.
These bold declarations of ambitious grandeur don’t only apply to individuals however, as we’ve come to learn over the lifespan of this column as businesses and even governments are eager to broadly decree their goals.
So, as someone who understands that actions scream louder than words, it’s very interesting to see the suggestion of a ‘minimum income guarantee’ plan from the Scottish Government this past week, which aims to ensure that everyone in Scotland has access to ‘a minimum acceptable standard of living’.
Now, in an ideal world, this would seem like a no brainer for anyone – enough wages for everyone to guarantee that each individual has enough money to be able to pay for housing, food and living essentials.
The clear and unfortunate ironic downside of any plan to blanket challenge poverty across an entire nation is that it’s going to cost a pretty penny to maintain, which may even the playing field – for better and worse.
The plan for this ‘minimum income guarantee’ will take a truckload of planning so Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison co-chaired a new steering group meeting last week, as well as starting a month-long consultation period – gathering views on how this strategy could be designed and delivered in Scotland.
Unsurprisingly a large percentage of those commenting on the plan were rather mixed, with several dubbing the plans ‘completely unaffordable’ and ‘recklessly ambitious’.
It’s easy for the government to proclaim about how ‘innovative, bold and radical’ this plan may be, but could it really be the best way to a self-declared fairer and more equal Scotland? It’s hard to say at the minute simply due to how much of a gesture the idea currently is, but there’s a number of facts already out there which may provide theoretical answers.
The idea appears to have stemmed initially from a previous term of Universal Basic Income (UBI), but differs from the latter as it targets those on lower incomes, as opposed to a more universal approach.
It would be paid out via a variety of ways including through tax reliefs, social security benefits and covering costs for services like childcare and public transport.
As for the ‘how much’, exact details are relatively scarce, but according to a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research in Scotland (IPPR), payments for a single person stands at an estimated £792 per month, with couples receiving joint funds and additional payments per child.
Director of the IPPR, Russell Gunson believes that this amount would set ‘an income floor in Scotland beneath which no one would fall.’
While, I admire the ‘leave no man or woman behind’ approach, in a Hollywood war movie sort of sense, the opposite could potentially be argued as it could never truly succeed due to the colossal costs that would impact the nation, both as individuals and businesses.
It goes without saying that this safety net to tackle poverty is going to be expensive, with an ‘eye-watering’ estimated £7 billion running cost per year required to keep things up and running. And, this money would need to obviously come from somewhere – lest we reference the infamous ‘magic money tree’.
Even with their annual budgets, MSPs would need to find a way to scrape the billions required, and that’s only if they don’t decide to borrow by making cuts in other vital sectors to pay the toll.
And that’s where I start to stir from slumber with this dream, as it’s only going to be through taxes that this project can really take off. Whether it’s via income tax or through increased taxes on some of Scotland’s biggest industries, even such a positive idea is a daunting prospect to discuss – especially at the tail end of a pandemic, where businesses are only just now reporting a slow recovery.
With the aim to benefit around 2.5m people in Scotland when launched in 2030, the scheme would undoubtably be a fantastic pipe dream. The problem though is that clutching at ambitious ideas can sometimes be an expensive gamble with zero guarantees.
Stranraer jobs boost for rural economy
Scotland’s rural communities often feel the pinch. Higher levels of unemployment and a decline in population, as young people leave home to find work, have often been a major problem for more remote areas of the country.
Now, more than ever with the ongoing global pandemic, already fragile local economies are teetering on the edge.
With this in mind, it was great to read that a leading Scottish customer service provider has announced the opening of a new Stranraer base as part of a £1m investment. What’s more it will see 100 jobs created in the local area over the next three months.
Ascensos, which is headquartered in Motherwell and currently employs 3,000 colleagues across its network of offices in the Isle of Wight, Glasgow, Bucharest and Istanbul, is launching a Stranraer hub as part of Ascensos Local – a new community-focused arm of the business.
Stranraer is the first of what is expected to be six local hubs, which will bring high quality digital jobs to rural communities, with staff working mainly from home. With more businesses embracing remote working, there is a real opportunity for small towns and rural communities to flourish.
It’s great to see this forward thinking investment within a smaller town such as Stranraer, especially during times like these where the Scottish economy, not just in rural locations, but our big cities, could take years to recover due to the impact of Coronavirus.
It will be interesting to see just how successful Ascensos Local’s Stranraer hub becomes. It may pave the way for further enterprises to tap into local markets, ensuring rural communities can adapt to an ever-changing world and bring with it prosperity for years to come.
It Made Me Laugh
The Scottish diet often gets a bad rep and we are sometimes, unfairly, the butt of many a joke regarding pizza crunches and deep fried Mars bars from our neighbours across the border.
However it looks like Scotland’s wildlife are increasingly following our lead with a stereotypical bad diet.
There has been numerous stories over the past year of animals stealing food from shops and last week was no different when shoppers were stunned to witness a seagull fleeing an Iceland with a full bag of frozen chips.
The tasty incident has since gone viral after it was caught on camera at the supermarket in Dumfries town centre, showing the gull drag the bag of chips along the High Street.
Who knew that recent food shortages, due to a lack of HGV drivers, were affecting seagulls too!
It Made Me Weep
I was saddened to see that Scotland has suffered an increased wave of alcohol deaths over the past year.
With charity Drinkaware previously releasing figures in 2020 showing lockdown has resulted in an “alarming” increase in drinking, a report published last week highlighted alcohol deaths in Scotland have hit their highest level in 13 years.
National Records of Scotland figures revealed that alcohol-specific deaths increased by 17 per cent to 1,190 – up from 1,020 in 2019.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the report also underlined the disproportionate toll of alcohol within the most-deprived communities in Scotland.
With many suffering uncertainty around job security, loneliness and numerous lockdowns throughout the past 18 months, it seems that the hidden long term effects of the global pandemic are beginning to rear its head.
