A new report by Professor Duncan Maclennan, commissioned by the David Hume Institute, examines how Scotland’s places can play a central role in Scotland’s just and sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and sets out the actions for places to ‘build forward better’.
The report – A Scotland of Better Places – is part of the Institute’s Action Project which is investigating the actions needed for Scotland to move faster towards a country that is more prosperous, sustainable, inclusive and fair.
COVID-19 shone a light on the places in which we live, work, study, play and grow. The events of the last year have dramatically changed many people’s relationships with the places in their lives. Our places will play a central role in Scotland’s recovery. They are inter-connected, inter-dependent and impact on every aspect of our lives.
“This is an opportunity to build forward better from COVID-19 and recognise the connections within and between places. There are major long-term chnages required and much agreement about what needs to change and how to change it. Bold policy choices could remake the sub-national governance and government of Scotland to match modern place challenges.”
Propfessor Duncan Maclennan, A Scotland of Better Places, 1 June 2021
A Scotland of Better Places examines the actions needed for places to deliver faster to social, environmental and economic benefits.
The report is based on conversations with 600 people in webinars – supported by Policy Scotland – which revealed a broad range of ideas that individuals, communities and organisations are ready to share and enact with governments.
Professor Maclennan suggests “Using reformed financial and tax structures, listening to communities and individuals, (and especially younger and poorer Scots) in the democratic processes that will make Scotland a more prosperous, sustainable, inclusive and fair country.”
Watch the launch conversation
A Scotland of Better Places was launched via an online conversation with John Swinney MSP, Scottish Government Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery, and Professor Duncan Maclennan. The event was chaired by Susan Murray, Director of the David Hume Institute.
Get the report
Read the report on the David Hume Institute website
In the media
“Build back Better” is the phrase of the year. But better than what? And to what end? It is generally taken to mean better than where we were before Covid by using the recovery to enhance a few systemically broken issues in order to take us to a better place. But what, or where, is that?
In this article for The Scotsman newspaper Brian Evans, Professor of Urbanism+Landscape at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, the Glasgow School of Art and director of the Glasgow Urban Laboratory, reflects on what we want from post-COVID recovery.
After Covid, what will our cities of the future look like ?
Related resources
Key Messages About Public Service Reform in Scotland
What Works Scotland’s lessons for public service reform in Scotland, published at the conclusion of the four-year programme set up in response to the Christie Commission.
This time it has to be different: The policy response to the New Normal economy
Paper by Professor Ronald MacDonald in which he analyses two key economic issues of the COVID-19 pandemic: addressing mass unemployment and reforming banking.
