1. FOREWORD BY NIGEL FARAGE MP

This is an exciting time for Scotland.

You finally have the opportunity to remove this tired and incompetent SNP Government in

Holyrood on 7th May after 20 years of failure.

The established parties have consistently failed to deliver opportunity and prosperity both in

Holyrood for Scotland and in Westminster for the UK.

Scotland now has the unique opportunity to lead the way for change, demonstrating to the

rest of the UK how it’s done, in advance of the Westminster election in 2029 where Reform UK

has been leading in the polls since May 2025.

Malcolm Offord’s new deal for Scotland will be transformative for the country, putting an end

to 20 years of aspiration being relentlessly punished and instead allowing your potential to

be unleashed.

Scotland needs Reform to deal with:

NHS SCOTLAND

Reform UK will fix the NHS and cut waiting lists

THE COST OF LIVING

Reform UK will cut income tax for hard-working Scots and make work pay

ENERGY COSTS

Reform UK will license North Sea oil & gas and reduce your energy bills

COMMUNITY COHESION

Reform UK will prioritise local people in communities and restore law and order

SCOTLAND’S FUTURE

Reform UK will make Scotland the most successful part of the UK

FOR CHANGE, VOTE REFORM

2. INTRODUCTION BY MALCOLM OFFORD

WHY SCOTLAND NEEDS REFORM

For 25 years, Scotland has endured high spending and declining outcomes under successive

governments in Holyrood. Despite record government expenditure, hard-working families face

rising costs, failing public services and stagnant economic growth. Reform UK offers a bold

alternative: a radical overhaul to cut waste, lower taxes, boost private enterprise and restore

our healthcare, education and infrastructure to being the best in the world. Our mission is

simple: to halt the relentless punishment of aspiration and success, instead delivering

opportunity and prosperity for everyone in Scotland.

The election on May 7th is a clear-cut choice between two parties:

another five years of SNP stagnation and decline
or a vote for change with Reform

Reform UK is a true grassroots phenomenon in Scotland, having risen almost out of nowhere

in just the last few years to be consistently second in the polls; this momentum gives Reform

the best chance of turfing out the SNP. The party now has 12,500 members in Scotland made

up of ordinary, decent, hardworking people who are fed up with the way Holyrood has been

run, and who are determined to fight for change.

Their vision, and my vision, is of a Scotland where people who do the right thing get rewarded,

not punished. Of a Scotland where work is respected and well paid; where welfare is a safety

net, not a lifestyle choice; where the NHS delivers the best outcomes in the UK for patients;

where education is worldclass; where housing is affordable for everyone; where our local

communities are cohesive and where our economy thrives, creating wealth for all.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY

We were promised a country like that by the architects of devolution in 1999. But for the last

20 years, the SNP have created a welfare economy which punishes aspiration and success.

They have presided over an NHS that 93% of Scots think needs major reform. They have

traduced our revered education system from outstanding to average. There are chronic

shortages of affordable housing such that councils across the country are declaring housing

emergencies. They have allowed strangers to be prioritised ahead of Scots, welcoming

uncontrolled immigration from the rest of the UK. And they have supported Net Zero resulting

in our energy prices being seven times those of China and four times those of the US, de-

industrialising our country that once hummed to the sound of machinery, the once beating

heart of the Industrial Revolution.

AN EXCITING OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE

But it doesn’t need to be this way!

Scotland has all the natural resources to be the most successful part of the United Kingdom,

starting with our very own silver bullet: our people. 250 years ago, Scots created the modern

world through the industry and imagination of our scientists, inventors, philosophers, writers,

economists and entrepreneurs.

The steam engine, the television, the telephone, the pneumatic tyre, penicillin, the MRI scanner,

tarmac, the radar, the flush toilet and the ATM are just some of the legacies of our creative

and innovative people, at a time when Scotland consistently punched above its weight in the

world.

Today, Scotland still possesses incredible people in business, in science and technology, in

education and in healthcare. We are not maximising that extraordinary talent because the

SNP have punished hard work and aspiration by raising taxes to pay for their own ideological

vanity projects.

Reform will unleash Scotland’s great potential by restoring incentives for hard work,

productivity, entrepreneurship and community building, core values that once made

Scotland great.

A NEW ECONOMY

Scotland is blessed with a number of business sectors where we are genuinely world class

owing to our geography, science and people. These 10 natural clusters of excellence comprise:

Financial Services, Advanced Manufacturing, Energy, Food & Drink, Tourism & Hospitality,

Creative Industries, Life Sciences, Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine.

It’s time now to focus our resources in education, skills and training around these 10 clusters

to get our young people and our adults tooled up for this new, modern economy where they

can earn well above the minimum wage and create prosperity for themselves, their families

and their communities.

As leader of Reform UK in Scotland, I’m proud to put my name to this ambitious

manifesto, which will build a new economy for the benefit of all, giving Scots a

meaningful chance to lead the world once again!

3. GUIDING PRINCIPLES

SOUND FINANCES

GERS figures confirm that today Scotland collects tax revenues of £87.3bn but spends

£117.5bn. This £30bn deficit (12% of GDP) is funded by the Block Grant from UK Treasury

supported by Sterling and it is four times the deficit allowed by the EU (3% of GDP). Which is

why John Swinney’s plan for leaving the UK to join Europe is pie-in-the-sky.

John Swinney is being disingenuous with the country and disrespectful to his own supporters

by promising to deliver Independence with the reality of this deficit conveniently ignored. If

he really was serious about Independence, he would have spent the last 19 years reducing this

deficit to 3% of GDP in preparation for separation. Instead his Scotland is earning the

equivalent of £750 per week and spending £1,000.

No-one would run their household or business budget on such a basis. Fortunately the UK

Treasury backed by Sterling is content to fund this deficit on a friends and family basis, but

international bond markets would not be so kind to an Independent Scotland. Borrowing costs

would be extortionate without a creditable currency and international investors would demand

swingeing austerity to balance the books.

In Scotland, we are protected from bond markets because we borrow through the UK Treasury

which gives us access to affordable borrowing thanks to the credibility of Sterling built up over

300 years. Surely, it should be a matter of pride and of principle for us all to unite around the

timeless Scottish concept that we don’t spend more than we earn and that we should bring

that deficit down to a more respectable level?

ECONOMIC GROWTH

Being dispassionate, we could either cut our spending or grow our revenue. But we cannot be

dispassionate about cutting spending where that would create hardship in our communities,

especially for those in more disadvantaged circumstances. So, Reform’s policy agenda in

Scotland will focus on growing that £87.3bn of tax revenue. And this is where we will deploy

that silver bullet; we will unleash the potential of Scotland by incentivising our very own hard

working people.

The pendulum of reward at Holyrood has swung too far from work to welfare. Reform UK in

Scotland will build a new economy which rewards work first and creates prosperity for all.

Which is why Reform UK will restore income tax bands in Scotland to align with the three

rUK bands. Thereafter, we will implement a cut of 1p below each band, with a medium

term objective of being 3p below each band in the first five years of a Reform UK

government in Scotland.

This immediate alignment will cost £1.2bn and every 1p cut thereafter will cost £850m each.

Therefore, the immediate cost will be £2bn (only 3% of the overall Holyrood annual budget)

which can be easily afforded by re-allocation of the £1bn currently spent on ideological Net

Zero projects and the bloated £6.5bn spent on 132 unaccountable quangos.

This tax cut will boost economic growth in Scotland and deliver higher tax revenues to the

Exchequer. And because every additional 1% of growth in the Scottish economy delivers £8bn

of cumulative additional tax revenues over 10 years, this will easily repay the £2bn up-front

cost four times over.

THE CONSTITUTION

The single issue of Scottish Independence has dominated Holyrood to the detriment of the

people of Scotland who would prefer their elected politicians to focus on the day job and grow

the economy to give us better outcomes in health, education, housing and policing.

The Scottish people have no appetite for the rancour and division of another referendum

any time soon.

Realistic nationalists agree that now is not the time because Scotland has not been responsibly

prepared for separation by the SNP. Moreover, purist nationalists have rumbled the SNP false

independence narrative within the EU and question why they would ever swap the “yoke” of

London for Brussels. Furthermore, they are appalled at how the SNP have not protected local

communities and women and girls in Scotland in preference to pursuing woke policies on

immigration and gender.

Rational unionists and realistic nationalists can find common ground and unite around

one single ambition: to make Scotland the most successful country in the world.

It will take 10 years (two Holyrood terms) to implement this manifesto to turbocharge the

economy in Scotland, which will unleash the resources required to deliver significant reforms

to our health service, our education, our housing and our infrastructure.

Which is why Reform UK says ENOUGH to the distraction of another referendum!

4. ECONOMIC PLAN FOR SCOTLAND

THE AUSTERITY MYTH

Since devolution in 1999, Scotland has been governed by left leaning political parties (Labour

& SNP). The result is that the percentage of state spending to GDP has increased from 43%

in 2000 to 55% in 2025 (UK 44%). This compares to New Zealand with the same population

where state spending is only 42% and yet GDP per head is higher.

How absurd that the SNP have consistently peddled this myth that Scotland is subjected to

austerity from Westminster when the figures tell a different story. In summary, in 1999 the

state spent £34bn in Scotland; today that figure is £118bn. That equates to a compounding

growth rate of 5% per annum. So, no austerity there!

What these figures really tell us is that we have failed to grow our economy in line with our

spending. Which is why creating a new, vibrant economy around our ten leading business

sectors is at the very heart of Reform’s plan for prosperity in Scotland.

THREE MEASURES TO TURBO-CHARGE SCOTLAND’S ECONOMY

It’s time now for the government to incentivise our very own creative and hardworking people

to grow this new economy which will create opportunity and prosperity for all.

Workers and owners in Scotland are paying too much tax. Those with the broadest shoulders

are now shrugging their shoulders and saying, “what’s the point?” Of working longer hours,

of expanding the business, of hiring more staff, of launching new products?

First, Reform will immediately scrap Scotland’s six income tax bands and mirror rUK’s three

bands which will be set at 1p below each rUK band. Thereafter, Reform will restore the principle

of a 3p variation in income tax in Scotland below rUK as an objective within the first five year

term.

Second, we will use our first two budgets to abolish the many cliff edges in the tax system

that punish people for working more and creating value for their families and communities.

The carer support payment, for example, is withdrawn entirely when people earn over £10,192

meaning that, by taking a pay rise of £1 above it, they actually end up losing almost £4,000.

Likewise, a Scottish graduate with children and a maintenance loan to repay can expect to

see marginal rates as high as 70-80% on incomes between £60-80,000 and between £100-

£125,000. These are precisely the salaries paid to experienced medical professionals and other

senior public sector officials (e.g. in planning), which leads them to restrict their hours resulting

in staff shortages among frontline services and cratering morale.

We should never put people in the absurd situation where getting a pay rise means you lose

more than you gained. Work should always pay more. So, where devolved powers allow, we

will minimise marginal tax rates with an objective of you keeping at least half of any extra £1

earned.

Third, as economic growth returns to Scotland, on a revenue-neutral basis, we will phase out

Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and reform Non- Domestic Rates (known as business rates)

to make them consistent, fair and proportionate.

LBTT is a tax on aspiration, clogging up the property market and penalising people for moving

to the place that works best for them. It penalises workers for moving to the best job

opportunities; it penalises empty-nesters for downsizing; and it penalises new parents wishing

to accommodate their growing families. LBTT is restraining growth and making housing

unaffordable, and it is higher in Scotland than the equivalent Stamp Duty Land Tax in rUK.

Meanwhile, non-domestic rates leave businesses, both large and small, in constant fear of

revaluation every three years, making them work harder just to stand still. The more successful

they are at raising their revenues, the more they are punished by their rates being revalued,

with all the added uncertainty of how assessors will rate their particular property, bringing

with it the stress and hassle of appeals, often incentivising businesses to stay small,

purposefully curtailing their growth so as to avoid higher bills.

The business rates revaluation scheduled to take effect from April 2026 will immediately be

reversed by Reform. And we will also immediately cancel the planned increase in council tax

(the two additional bands labelled a “mansion tax” but in reality a terrace tax) which will

otherwise hit many hard-working families with mortgages and pensioners enjoying their

forever homes in semidetached and terrace houses in Scotland’s towns and cities.

By reforming and reducing the SNP’s onerous tax regime, Reform will ensure that

aspiration and success are never again punished in Scotland. Every 1% of economic

growth delivers £8bn of cumulative additional tax revenues over 10 years. By reducing

the tax burden on hard-working Scots, they will repay us all by generating higher tax

revenues.

5. LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Reform UK wishes to implement real devolution within Scotland by pushing decision making

down to local authorities in stark contrast to the centralised, command-and-control model of

the SNP. To ensure success, we will review the 32 local authorities for duplication and

efficiency, thereafter, they will raise their own revenue, decide their own spending and keep

their own surpluses. We will also consider the viability of city mayors in reformed councils.

PROPERLY FUNDED LOCAL SERVICES

Both LBTT and business rates will begin to be gradually phased out in a revenue-neutral way

over the course of 10 years, rolling them up into a single, fairer, and more predictable Annual

Property Tax. This will eventually end the constant cycle of continual and unpredictable

business rates revaluations, make it cheaper and easier to purchase property, and boost

economic growth, resulting in increased revenues.

The revenues from this consolidated Annual Property Tax will be entirely handed over to local

authorities, providing them with a more secure, permanent and predictable basis for funding.

Rather than having to go cap-in-hand to central government for bailouts and top-ups, councils

will instead be enabled to support themselves.

At the same time, we will conduct a wide-ranging review of the unfunded statutory obligations

placed on councils by central government, so that they are given greater control over their

own expenditure, returning control to democratically elected councillors.

This will be a new deal for Scottish local government, ending decades of over-centralisation

and unfunded spending obligations imposed by Holyrood. Essential local services like fixing

potholes and ensuring timely bin collections have been sacrificed to pay for obligations that

councils have no say over. Reform UK will ensure that local democracy becomes meaningful

again, with public services responding directly to residents’ demands.

6. HEALTH, SOCIAL CARE & WELFARE

Under Reform UK, the NHS in Scotland will remain free at the point of need and will be

fully funded by general taxation.

However, it does need reform; a recent poll has revealed that 93% of Scots think that NHS

Scotland needs significant change and reform.

Health outcomes in Scotland are deteriorating relative to other countries with similar

healthcare budgets, but this is not because of a shortage of money. We spend £20bn annually

on health in Scotland, a figure that has increased by 6% per annum over the last 25 years.

Yet the Auditor General for Scotland warns that despite more funding and more staff, the

NHS in Scotland has become “financially unsustainable.”

The sad reality is that Scotland’s health service is not working under the SNP. Patients struggle

to see their GP, hospitals are full and delayed discharges have not been tackled, which means

patients are stuck on wards even when they are well enough to go home. The knock-on effect

is that ambulances can’t drop off patients, which means dangerously long waits for

ambulances. The whole system is a needless mess.

We can sort this by allowing our brilliant medics and nurses to be more productive by fixing

delayed discharges, by removing inept and bureaucratic management, by improving staff

retention and morale, and by creating new pathways of care. Health systems around the world

are adapting to elderly populations and a new suite of health conditions. With a stable

population and world-class medics, Scotland is in a unique position to lead the world again in

modern healthcare.

Our economic plan, even before any further specific reforms, will do much to improve the

health service. Scotland already has the most generous pay deal in the UK for most medical

professionals, with a new pay deal also required for GPs. We are paying NHS staff more only

to end up taxing it back again, with high marginal tax rates and cliff edges resulting in many

of our most experienced nurses, midwives, and doctors being incentivised to cut back their

hours, leaving wards perennially understaffed and GP surgeries perpetually underserved,

worsening morale for those at work.

This will end once they no longer face marginal rates of over 50%. The income tax cuts planned

for our first budget mean that a resident doctor with 5 years of experience will immediately

take home an additional £2,200 a year by paying less in income tax, while a consultant with

one year’s experience will take home an additional £5,200 a year, with still further effective

take-home pay-rises in the years to come, all done without the need for any further

renegotiation of pay deals to raise their gross salaries.

We will immediately establish an independent, expert Scottish Healthcare Reform Commission

to undertake an ambitious review of healthcare delivery with action plans on:

• A workforce plan to train more doctors and nurses in Scotland

• Creative delayed discharge solutions to increase hospital efficiency

• Long term funding and optimisation of the integration of adult social care

• A shift to a prevention strategy in persistent health inequalities

• Expansion of frontline services in the community and in GP surgeries

• Embracing tech including AI and the NHS England App

SOCIAL CARE

Our economic plan will immediately improve things for carers who support their loved ones.

By removing the stark cliff edge they face for the removal of the carer support payment and

tapering its removal instead, they will always have the option of taking a pay rise to earn

more money to support their household’s needs. And our new deal for local government will

also give councils greater flexibility and control over their social care services, while

simultaneously providing a secure basis of long-term funding.

WELFARE

Reform will overhaul the SNP’s new social security to ensure that work always pays more than

welfare, and to ensure rigorous face-to-face assessment of claimants to prevent over-payment

and false applications. This new bureaucracy is costing £0.5bn to administer £6bn of benefits,

projected to increase to £10bn. This is unsustainable and distorting the balance of incentive

between welfare and work.

The population of Scotland stands at 5.5m, of whom 3.6m are of working age. Of that cohort,

2.6m are active in work and 1m are economically inactive. Exempting students, adult carers,

early retirees and the long-term disabled leaves half-a-million Scots of working age locked

out of opportunity and prosperity. This is an incredible waste of talent and a national shame

that we must rectify as a matter of urgency.

Our economic plan, particularly the cap on marginal tax rates of over 50%, will go a long way

to make sure that work always pays, as will the new job opportunities created by a growing

economy. Savings made in welfare will be applied in the first instance to adult-back-to-work

and apprenticeship programmes in our 10 leading business sectors.

Work is a key component of the Scottish DNA. And the best form of welfare will always

be a good job.

7. ENERGY

Under Reform UK, the NHS in Scotland will remain free at the point of need and will be

fully funded by general taxation.

In Scotland, we are blessed with natural energy assets both below the sea (North Sea oil &

gas) and above ground (on-shore and off-shore wind). But over the last 25 years, successive

governments in both Westminster and Holyrood have badly mis-managed the UK’s energy

system such that today our cost of energy is seven times that of China and four times that of

the US, despite the UK being responsible for just 0.8% of global carbon emissions. No wonder

Scotland is de-industrialising.

Bizarrely, we now import 70% of our gas from Norway from the same basin where we are de-

commissioning our own fields; even the Norwegian energy minister thinks this is daft.

Meanwhile, not a single blade turning on a Scottish wind turbine is made in Scotland. There is

no “just” transition in Aberdeen or Grangemouth while well paid jobs are haemorrhaging

overseas. All because politicians prioritised the ideology of Net Zero over the economic

necessity of the Scottish people to have affordable energy for our families and businesses.

When a Reform UK government is elected to Westminster at the next UK general election, it

will immediately use its reserved powers to ensure that North Sea oil and gas once again gives

us both energy security and job security for that highly skilled workforce right here in Scotland.

In the meantime, there is much that can be done by Reform in Holyrood to undo some of the

damage.

To halt the de-industrialisation of Scotland, Reform will:

Scrap all SNP Net Zero related targets, subsidies and quangos

End the SNP’s ideological ban on new nuclear facilities in Scotland

Prepare to rehabilitate North Sea gas as our primary energy system

Revise and simplify the planning system to fast-track permissions for hydro, micro-hydro, geothermal, open-cast coal mining, and electrical network infrastructure, especially on brownfield or industrial sites, while retaining protections for Scotland’s invaluable natural beauty, and taking into account local communities

Use the planning system to fast-track the building and expansion of industry on existing industrial sites, so that we can bring factories and high-paying manufacturing jobs back to Scotland

Create a Scottish Energy Workforce Plan linked to colleges and apprenticeships, ensuring young Scots can train for high-value careers in the energy sector

Require every related policy decision to include an Energy Price Impact Statement so that there is transparency for the public about the effect on their energy bills

Reform UK will deliver an energy system that is secure, affordable and reliable.

8. EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION & TRAINING

Scottish education was once the gold standard of the world, but in the last 20 years has

plummeted from being outstanding to just average. This has contributed towards the greatest

period of uncertainty for Scotland’s young people,who have been left unguided and

unsupported by the institutions intended to launch them into successful careers.

Reform’s ambition is to re-invigorate our state funded schools to ensure that young Scots are

given early and clear pathways into productive jobs in the new economy based around our 10

natural centres of excellence. Rather than sending half of school-leavers to universities, instead

we will direct them into trades via technical colleges with multi-year funding thereby building

meaningful career pathways that will be relatively AI-proof and create the most value for

themselves, their families and their communities.

SCHOOLS

Our state schools are in crisis; out of just over 700,000 children of school age, 223,000 don’t

attend school regularly. Parents are disillusioned with the Curriculum for Excellence and, in

special needs provision, the SNP policy of inclusion has been exposed as an illusion. Head

teachers are discouraged to exclude disruptive pupils and they are not in control of their school

budgets or their teacher recruitment choices. Staff morale is at an all-time low and the

attainment gap between rich and poor kids is widening.

Reform’s economic plan will do a great deal to raise the value of teaching, attracting people

into the profession and aiding retainment. Following our first budget, for example, a teacher

with five years’ experience on the main grade scale will immediately take home over £2,000

more a year without any change to their gross salary, and with even higher savings for

chartered and head teachers.

Reform will abolish Education Scotland and return responsibility for Scottish education to the

Scottish Government answerable to Holyrood and not sheltered by yet another quango. As a

priority, special needs provision will be reformed as the current system is not working.

Reform will provide advanced support to head teachers in maintaining discipline in the

classroom by using exclusion as an essential tool. Neither pupils nor teachers are helped by

having to endure bad behaviour and misbehaving pupils must be taught there are

consequences for disruptive activity.

Reform will:

Reboot the Curriculum for Excellence by giving it a knowledge-based curriculum at its core
Restore rigorous examination as the primary method of assessment combined with standardised testing
Re-introduce the Scottish survey of literacy and numeracy, and re-join all international education surveys
Give discretion back to Head Teachers over their school budgets and staff recruitment
Ban mobile phones in class-rooms
Allow all Secondary Schools to apply for the self-governance model used by Jordanhill College School

FURTHER EDUCATION & TRAINING

Scotland is blessed with a number of business sectors where we are genuinely world class

owing to our geography, science and people. These 10 natural clusters of excellence comprise:

Financial Services, Advanced Manufacturing, Energy, Food & Drink, Tourism & Hospitality,

Creative Industries, Life Sciences, Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine.

It’s time now to focus our resources in education, skills and training around these 10 clusters

to get our young people and our adults tooled up for this new, modern economy where they

can earn well above the minimum wage and create prosperity for themselves, their families

and their communities.

Reform will re-allocate funding from the bloated welfare budget to create a

joined up Scottish Skills Strategy which will:

Reboot the Apprenticeship Levy funding model and guarantee every penny is invested into apprenticeships linked to colleges
Establish a First Job Passport to ensure every young person moves seamlessly from school into further education or apprenticeship or vocational training or employment
Establish a Youth Entrepreneur Scheme with enhanced business education courses paired with private sector work experience and mentorship schemes with local businesses
Establish an Adult Re-Skilling Taskforce focussed on life-long learning and especially helping out-of-work adults into meaningful jobs in our 10 clusters of excellence
Examine a new pathway for S3/S4 students into alternative, technical education based on the successful Newlands Junior College
Undertake a comprehensive review of our University funding to ensure degrees are meaningful, value-for-money and grounded in genuine academic merit rather than EDI or sustainability metrics

9. HOUSING & COMMUNITIES

Scotland has the highest level of homelessness since records began, with 40,000 adults and

10,000 children living in temporary accommodation. Shelter believes this can be fixed by

building 15,000 affordable homes per annum over the next five years. Reform agrees this

75,000 target is eminently achievable, accounting for only 3% of Scotland’s 2.5m households,

and we will ensure that local authorities, through the planning system, are empowered to

achieve it.

PUTTING LOCALS FIRST

But in our most deprived communities, the limited new supply of affordable housing is being

given to strangers in priority to locals.

In Scotland before 2022, a homeless person could not apply to a council for housing unless

they could demonstrate they had a “local connection” to the area. But since this was abolished

by the SNP, council services across Scotland have come under enormous strain, as they are

now legally obliged to find temporary accommodation for all applicants presenting as

homeless, having to pay for them to have rooms in B&Bs, hotels or in private rental

accommodation while their application is processed, and forcing local authorities to continually

raise council taxes to pay for this ballooning cost.

By contrast, English councils are required to house a homeless person only if they “normally

reside” in that council area, which is defined as either six months’ residence in the area during

the past 12 months or three years residence during the previous five years. Whereas some

English councils temporarily suspended the requirement for a local connection during the covid

pandemic, they have all since restored it, which is why Scotland is currently housing 10% of all

asylum seekers in the UK.

In particular, Glasgow has experienced an explosion in homelessness applications from outside

of Scotland. In 2022, only 35 applicants presented to the council without a local connection

whereas, of the 4,449 applications made to Glasgow with no local connection since 2023, 76%

were from outside Scotland. The result is that Glasgow has become the asylum capital of the

UK, housing 6% of the UK total. But the same problem is repeating across Scotland with many

local authorities declaring a housing emergency by being forced to prioritise social housing

for asylum seekers over local families already on the waiting list.

Enough is enough. This is not fair. Our working class communities are at breaking point.

Reform UK will restore the requirement for a local connection in Scotland to apply for

housing and end Glasgow’s status as a dispersal city. Reform will restore community

cohesion by putting locals first.

VIBRANT COMMUNITIES

Reform UK’s ambition is to restore civic pride in our towns and cities by creating vibrant

community hubs for Scots to live in harmony and cohesion. The new deal for local authorities

will allow affordable housing to be built on town centre brown-field sites for local working

families, with compulsory purchase powers granted over vacant and non-maintained

properties.

An innovative, long term funding model with UK pension funds will be developed by Reform

UK to build a sustained supply of social housing owned by the local authorities. A small site

policy in local development plans will encourage local SME builders back into the market and

we will introduce a progressive Rent-To-Buy model targeted at young people, first-time buyers

and working families.

We will build on the concept of Local Place Plans to allow local people more say in the design

and form of their communities, even down to street level, through a review of current planning

laws. We will cease any new building regulation and stop local planners getting in the way of

sensible local development. These policies will ensure that our town and city centres come alive

again, buzzing with families, pensioners, workers and visitors combined.

PRIVATE RENTED SECTOR

The SNP have saddled the private rental sector with regulation after regulation, driving down

supply and driving up rents. The shortage has been stark for smaller properties essential for

young people, with the proportion of 25-34 year-olds forced to live with their parents having

increased by almost 40% since the SNP came to power.

The SNP’s regulations have especially discouraged long-term lets, creating a perverse incentive

for landlords to pivot to providing only short-term lets, and for property developers to

concentrate on building only hotels and student flats. As a result, Scotland’s towns and cities

are turning into staging posts for a succession of transient visitors rather than cohesive

neighbourhoods for people to put down roots.

Reform UK will repeal the SNP’s regulations for all new tenancies, while keeping the terms of

existing tenancies unchanged, making homes both plentiful and more affordable for the Scots

who need them most.

10. POLICING & JUSTICE

Scotland’s police are struggling on the ground thanks to a decade of cuts and centralisation,

leading to a lack of local presence. Officer numbers have fallen, response times have

lengthened, officers are frequently overloaded, and public confidence has been eroded.

Reform UK backs the police to the hilt. We will bring an end to the SNP’s political agendas and

ideology, so that officers can get back to the job with the right funding, equipment and

infrastructure, confident that Holyrood values their work.

Our economic plan would immediately give police officers more pay in their pocket. Without

even accounting for overtime, a Police Constable with five years of service would gain an extra

£695 a year in take-home pay, while a newly-promoted Sergeant would take home an

additional £2,111 a year.

Without the ability to strike, officers’ pay has often been the first to be sacrificed by the SNP,

lagging far behind that of other public servants while also having to endure some of the

hardest work. Policing is a high-skilled job and we need to ensure that pay reflects that so

that we always get and retain the best. So, we would immediately look into increasing police

pay across the board.

We will reduce the police workload so that they can concentrate on solving the crimes that

matter to people. We will abolish the SNP’s intrusive, ideologically motivated Hate Crime and

Public Order (Scotland) Act, restoring freedom of speech and allowing police to focus on real

crime.

We will abolish the Scottish Sentencing Council, restoring direct democratic oversight of

sentencing by ministers.

We will introduce high prison sentences for repeat offenders. Sentencing is often framed as a

balance between retribution and rehabilitation, but the core priority must always be public

safety. The vast majority of crime is committed by just a handful of prolific repeat offenders:

it is high time that they are taken off our streets, and the police will prioritise the shop-lifting

epidemic.

We will increase prison capacity, to end the SNP’s reckless and dangerous policy of early

release. This will unclog the justice system as a whole, allowing us to also reduce backlogs in

the court system so that justice is always quick.

We will ensure the independence of the grooming gangs inquiry in Scotland.

11. TRANSPORT & INFRASTRUCTURE

Good transport links are vital in urban and rural Scotland but under the SNP our infrastructure has been neglected. The number of recorded roadworks in Scotland is today 28% higher than it was before the Covid pandemic. A 10 year plan will allow for the use of private and public finance in partnership, and the deployment of a new British sovereign wealth fund, in order to build the infrastructure essential for our new economy.

Reform will:

End the SNP war on the motor car, fix pot-holes, and abolish ULEZ
Embark on a 10-year plan to upgrade our major trunk roads
Embark on a 10-year rolling ferry renewal programme to reduce the age of ferries and improve reliability across the network
Scrap the Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) and introduce dynamic pricing for large tourist vehicles on ferries to subsidise essential travel for islanders
Embark on a 10-year modernisation programme of our railways for both passenger travel and freight
Embark on a 10-year plan to modernise our harbours
Ease congestion and improve efficiency of roadworks by adopting Lane Rental Schemes to charge utility companies and contractors for road space during busy times, encouraging works to be completed quickly
Support and invest in bus corridors in our major cities
Support the Clyde Metro and Glasgow Airport link

12. FARMING, FISHING & RURAL SCOTLAND

FARMING

The quality of Scotland’s larder has a worldwide reputation and accounts for 20% of the UK’s

food & drink exports. But the farming sector is under pressure like never before and is not

supported by the metropolitan SNP.

To protect Farming, Reform will:

Reform the Farm Payments System and the Less Favoured Areas to support the active farmer
Include the whole farm area on IACS maps to count towards space for nature currently taken from productive land
Provide grant funding for farmed land Improvement fertility, drainage and fencing
Encourage maintenance and creation of hedging and tree lines through the restart of the fence and hedge grant scheme
Incentivise young people into the industry
Support abattoirs with apprenticeships to grow that workforce
Maintain import standards and block illegal meats coming in
Maintain Scotland’s premium reputation through Quality Meats Scotland and Scottish Quality Crops but ensure it is quality and welfare based, not ideological
Replace carbon audits with practical, outcome based measurement
Scrap the Scottish Land Commission, keep tenant farmer commissioner

FISHING

Scotland’s fishing industry is vital to our food security but our fishermen have been let down

by successive UK governments. First, through the UK-EU reset, giving away 12 years of access

to waters for nothing in return. Second, through the allocation of the £360 million Fishing and

Coastal Growth Fund ‘consolation prize’ leaving Scotland with less than 8% of the Fund despite

accounting for 60% of the catch.

To protect Fishing, Reform will:

Develop the next generation of fishermen through apprenticeships
Stop any future offshore wind farms which harm our fishing grounds and migratory birds
Roll back on state electronic snooping on board Scottish trawlers
Reduce bureaucracy which is strangling the sector
Support the Scottish Fishing Safety Group
Optimise fishing opportunities for Scotland’s fleet through annual negotiations and international agreements

RURAL SCOTLAND

Scotland is famed for its great natural beauty. Our natural environment attracts tourists from

across the world and gives Scots a great place to live and work. The metropolitan SNP has

lost the trust of rural Scotland through policy decisions that have harmed great swatches of

the countryside.

To protect Rural Scotland, Reform will:

Stop poorly managed forestry and rewilding schemes and develop a longterm plan for planting extensive native woodlands across Scotland
Stop massive solar and battery farms
Stop plans to phase out use of oil boilers in rural households
Support rural communities by maintaining traditional country sports
Support outdoor recreation especially walking, climbing, snow sports touring, cycling, paddling and horse-riding with accessible paths
Tackle rural depopulation by supporting self-build and small-scale developments through a revised planning system
Invest in rural infrastructure including broadband expansion

13. REFORM OF HOLYROOD

The Scotland Act 1998 gave extensive powers to Holyrood to allow it to control most of the

levers required to improve daily life in Scotland. Yet Holyrood has not fully implemented these

powers because it has been dominated by divisive SNP politics which continually seek

grievance with Westminster instead of focusing on the day job of improving the lives of people

in Scotland. This SNP obsession with breaking up the UK has not allowed Scotland to prosper

inside the UK. Reform UK believes Scotland’s prosperity lies in maximising the benefits of

devolution, making better use of existing powers and working closely with the UK to get the

best deal for Scotland.

In Government, Reform UK will:

Repeal SNP bad laws including Hate Crime and Land Reform
Maximise the benefits of devolution by working within the Scotland Act 1998 and in partnership with the UK Government
Implement a formal 10 yearly review of Schedule Five powers undertaken by a joint Holyrood/Westminster committee
Form a department of government efficiency to cut waste and duplication and the endless funding of lobbyist charities by taxpayers
Shut down the Quangos and return their powers to democratically elected ministers supported by the civil service
Reboot the civil service by ending automatic WFH, reviewing employment numbers and polices, and recruiting departments heads from the private sector
End lengthy public inquiries which transfer taxpayers’ money to lawyers
Create a fast-track planning regime around our 10 business clusters

In Parliament, Reform UK will:

Focus parliamentary time on Devolved rather than Reserved Matters
Strengthen the legitimacy and effectiveness of Committees by ensuring that Conveners are elected by parliament not appointed by parties
Reduce committee sizes to seven maximum
Allow the Chamber to be more interactive and less performative by permitting interventions and ad hoc questions
Impose compulsory physical attendance and voting
Propose a reduction of MSPs by aligning constituency boundaries between Holyrood and Westminster thereby going from 73 to 57 seats
Enact a Recall Bill

14. A NEW DEAL FOR SCOTLAND

Scotland has been broken by the SNP, but our wonderful country can be fixed. In 1933-39,

President Franklin D. Roosevelt promoted bold legislation to implement his New Deal for the

USA with a series of reforms designed to reset America following the great depression. It’s

time now for us to borrow from his “three Rs” and, following 25 years of mediocrity at

Holyrood, Reform UK’s mission is to reset Scotland for the next 25 years of prosperity.

REFORM AND RESET OUR ECONOMY

It’s time now to turbo-charge our economy to grow by at least 2.5% per annum over the next

10 years. To achieve this, the two immediate priorities are (i) reward hard-working Scots with

an immediate tax break which will incentive them to be more productive and (ii) get our energy

costs down to allow us to be industrially competitive again. By structuring our education and

training resources around our 10 leading business sectors, we can immediately tool up our

youngsters for this new economy and re-skill our adults who have fallen out of the pathway

to work. Every person who can work should work, it’s part of the Scottish DNA, and well paid

jobs will create wealth for all.

REFORM AND REVITALISE OUR COMMUNITIES

It’s time now to prioritise local Scots in their own communities and restore the “local

connection” in our public services. Of course, this includes the diversity which has developed

naturally through controlled immigration in Scotland over the last 75 years, but which has

been badly disrupted by the sheer speed and scale of the Boriswave of the last 5 years. Being

Scottish is a state of mind and a set of values which is generous, kind, amusing, hard-working,

law-abiding and fair-minded. Every stranger admitted to our country who adopts these values

will be welcomed; but those who enter illegally and break our laws will be required to leave.

Good health, education, housing and justice must always be available to local people and, so

long as everyone embraces our common Scottish values, this will build strong and cohesive

communities.

REFORM AND RESTORE OUR PRIDE

Scotland is ready to lead the way and become the most successful part of the UK. To unleash

our amazingly creative and innovative people to provide modern solutions to modern problems

and set an example to the world just as our ancestors did in The Scottish Enlightenment 250

years ago. Scotland has all the natural resources and the people to implement a New Deal

which creates opportunity and prosperity and pride for all Scots, regardless of colour or creed.

This is Reform UK’s ambition for Scotland in the next 10 years.