Scottish Green election manifesto: Key points

The Scottish Green manifesto for the 2016 Scottish Parliament election includes pledges for the creation of over 200,000 new jobs and a 4,000 increase in teacher numbers.

The 200,000 jobs are to be created in sustainable industries such as renewable energy, building retrofitting and oil and gas decommissioning by 2035 to replace 156,000 current jobs in fossil fuel extraction.

The promise of 4,000 more teachers over the course of the next parliament is aimed at reducing teacher workload.

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Other key Green manifesto pledges include a ‘living wage plus’ of £9 an hour for social care staff, a 50 per cent increase in the Carer's Allowance, a ‘Scottish Guarantee’ of work, training or education for every school leaver, an outright ban on fracking and a food, farming and health act that would enshrine the right to food in Scots law.

The party is also proposing a citizen-led written constitution, more devolution of power to a local level, more local control of policing priorities, a repeal of the 1959 Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act to allow local authorities to acquire land cheaply for housing at existing use value and the establishment of a housing investment bank to fund social housing.

Support for college students would be brought in line with university students and a new hardship created to prevent students having to drop out for financial reasons during the summer months.

Active travel would be a higher priority under the Greens, with 10 per cent of the total transport budget, around £220m a year, assigned to improving routes for walking and cycling.

The manifesto includes a number of measures set out to address inequalities for people with disabilities, for LGBTI+ people, to bring about racial and gender equality and to tackle hate crime.

The Greens’ taxation plans include replacing council tax with a residential property tax at one per cent of the property’s value with a £10,000 tax-free allowance, replacing the 20 per cent basic rate of income tax with two bands, 18 per cent for the first £7,500 of income above the personal allowance and 22 per cent for income above £19,000, and taxing income above £43,000 at 43 per cent and above £150,000 at 60 per cent.

The party estimates its taxation plans would raise £679m in the first year, enough to fund all their manifesto commitments, with revenue increasing over the course of parliament as the residential property tax would be phased in gradually over five years.