How politically motivated waffle and SNP inertia blight efforts to boost Scotland's economy

The decision, and the closure of the Dumbarton studio where filming takes place, has been the subject of much debate at the Scottish Parliament, most recently at Thursday’s External Affairs and Culture Committee’s meeting about the future of Scottish broadcasting.

It’s a fair question with broader implications; what happens to any sector, not just creative industries, when public subsidy is withdrawn? And what role should government play in sustaining commercial employment opportunities essential for any economic growth strategy?

READ MORE: River City is so important to Scotland that BBC simply cannot scrap it

Difficult times for creatives

Film and television production centres have a troubled track record, with more plans around Edinburgh at which you can shake a clapperboard coming to nothing until FirstStage Studios opened in Leith six years ago with £1 million investment from Screen Scotland.

Pioneer Film Studios in Stepps came in 2022 and went in 2024, but Wardpark Studios, home of Outlander, is still going strong in Cumbernauld, supporting around 100 permanent jobs and 160 more when production is in full swing.

Like many sectors, these are difficult times for the creative industries, and figures from the chief economic adviser released last month showed a 13 per cent decline in the workforce, with 78,000 by the end of 2024, three per cent of the total Scottish workforce. But it was just 4.6 per cent of the total working in the UK creative sector, which helps explain the political concern about the loss of an anchor like River City.

With the scale of the Edinburgh Festivals, particularly the Fringe and television festivals which are effectively the trade fair for British entertainment, Scottish creative industries should be punching above their weight, but the answer isn’t just throwing more public money at any organisation or individual labelling themselves as artists, as the Creative Scotland agency has found to its cost.

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The biggest gripe in Edinburgh at festival time, for example, is the spiralling costs of production and accommodation which Edinburgh Council policies exacerbate because of a misplaced alarm about “over-tourism” and the crackdown on short-term lets. It is an example of a deliberately negative intervention in a valuable sector.

But creatives are just one small, admittedly high-profile example of the struggle to produce sustainable growth across the economy, even in those sectors with historic strengths, like financial services.

READ MORE: Economists warn SNP 'something will have to give' as capital projects set for axe over £1bn gap

Falling behind in finance

Despite an improved rating, Edinburgh has slipped another three places to 32nd in the latest Global Financial Centres Index, and although Glasgow was only two places behind, it came fourth worst in an assessment of reputational disadvantage. For financial technology, key for the sector’s future in the capital, Edinburgh came 47th and Glasgow didn’t even feature.

Aberdeen’s leading place in oil and gas is a distant memory, another victim of deliberate political action to smash the sector for ideological reasons. The just transition to renewables has proved little more than a soundbite to mask a staggering act of self-harm.

Push is coming to shove as the outer extremities of the tax burden have been reached, giving the Scottish Government a problem it has failed to solve for well over a decade; how to grow the economy in a meaningful way, rather than the faux growth of expanding public sector expenditure which might help massage employment statistics but does nothing to generate wealth.

Such initiatives as there have been, such as green free ports, usually come saddled with unmeasurable political goals like wellbeing and “good growth”, the kind of thing encouraged by the big four management and accountancy consultancies, which does little to assist the real thing. The Edinburgh Economy Strategy, for example, is subtitled “stronger, greener, fairer” and accompanied by a wish-list of over 40 pages of politically motivated waffle.

Low taxes, light-touch regulations

It’s nothing new, but the answer lies in creating clusters of excellence to encourage investment and collaborative working, and the City Region Deals have recognised the importance of partnerships with universities to underpin research in areas like life sciences and information technology. Together with a simplified, low-tax system, light-touch regulation, meaningful business rates relief, investment without political strings, and an acceleration of major infrastructure projects, there might be a chance to grow.

Ironically, much of this programme was explored in the Wealthy Nation, Healthy Nation prospectus for the Conservatives, edited by former minister Lord Malcolm Offord, who is expected to be anointed as Reform’s Scottish leader next week, just as his ex-boss Kemi Badenoch comes north to rally the troops. It’s understood the somewhat cool reception to his plan was one of the reasons why he jumped ship.

With significant changes in the Scottish Conservatives’ communications team, some of it should make its way into his old party’s Scottish election manifesto, it certainly deserves to, and maybe SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison will have seen the light by the time she presents this year’s Budget on Tuesday. And I might start at loose-head prop against Italy next month.

Some reductions in income tax, or at least the raising of thresholds, are expected to preserve the SNP’s claim that more people pay less income tax in Scotland than England, but as for growth the brakes are reportedly set to be applied to infrastructure investment.

First Minister John Swinney’s opening campaign speech on Monday was a clear signal that the priority between now and May 7 is for boats to be unrocked, horses to be unscared and furrows to be ploughed straight so there are no slip-ups on the path to a fifth consecutive SNP election victory. Maybe if he gave growth a go, independence might come closer.