2026 Elections - What's in it for rural Scotland? Pt. 1
The Scottish election campaign is in full swing and parties are beginning to set out the policy platform on which they hope to lead the country after polling day on 07 May. In this week’s blog, we take a look at what the latest policy proposals from two of the main parties contesting this election would mean for rural Scotland.
Despite only ever having one MSP in its short history thanks to a defection in the 2016 – 2021 Parliament, on current polling Reform UK are favourites to become the second largest Party in Scotland in May. They were the first to launch their manifesto, publishing their priorities for Scotland at their Conference in March. With a major focus on energy and infrastructure, Reform committed to scrapping Scotland’s Net Zero targets and the quangos that have been set up to deliver them. They suggest fast tracking planning for new hydro schemes. The Rural Affairs chapter features proposals ranging from scrapping the Scottish Land Commission to developing a long-term plan for native woodland planting. Supporting country sport and tackling depopulation through planning reform round off a wide ranging but light-on-detail section on protecting rural Scotland.
The Scottish Conservatives became the second party to publish their manifesto this week, setting out a 96 page policy prospectus of costed proposals across every portfolio devolved to Holyrood. Energy continues to be a top theme across all parties’ policy proposals, and the Conservative manifesto is no different. They focus on energy consenting, setting out policies to give communities a greater say in new energy infrastructure projects and reassessing pylon routes. On rural, they have committed to pausing muirburn licencing to help prevent wildfires, fight rural bank closures, introduce a bill to tackle rural crime and ditch policies which discourage reductions in dairy and red meat production. In line with the proposals we set out in our recent work on tackling depopulation, they also propose to introduce repopulation zones to target resources where they are needed.
As manifestos continue to be published, we will be providing analysis of each party’s plans for rural Scotland in this blog series as we near polling day next month. Subject to publication timings, next week we will take a look at the Green Party and Liberal Democrat manifestos.
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