A Fresh Start with Independence

What independence could mean for you

Independence could bring transformational change to the lives of the people of Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s proposals for how Scotland could become independent, and what Scotland could do with the powers of independence, are designed to bring about real improvements in the lives of the people who live and work in Scotland.

The improvements include:

• a new model for the Scottish economy could see your living standards begin to rise to match those of other, comparable independent nations in Europe
  • re-joining the European Union (EU) would help Scotland recover from the damage that has been done by Brexit, which has already cost UK households perhaps as much as £7 billion in barriers on food imports, pushing up average household food costs by £250: re-joining the EU would give Scotland access to the world’s largest single market, seven times the size of the UK
  • Scottish control of its own energy could see your energy bills begin to fall
  • evidence suggests that if Scotland’s economic performance matched that of the comparable countries the Scottish Government has looked at, Scottish households would be over £10,000 better off each year
• you would regain freedom of movement in Europe, and so would future generations of people in Scotland
  • you and your family would regain their right to live, work, study and travel across the EU, as well as in Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland
  • Scottish businesses would regain the right to trade freely across the EU
  • Scottish students would once again have a guaranteed right to participate in exchange programmes, like Erasmus+, widening the educational opportunities available to young people in Scotland
• coordinated action, across the range of government responsibilities, to end child poverty would be possible
  • measures such as the Scottish Child Payment and the significant increase in free school meal provision have already seen both absolute and relative child poverty rates fall in Scotland
  • the Scottish Child Payment alone is estimated to keep 40,000 children out of relative poverty in 2025-26
  • these are the choices that the people of Scotland, and their government, have made with limited powers over welfare and the economy: much more would be possible with the full powers of a nation state
• coordinated action, across the range of government responsibilities, to boost our NHS and wider health and social care
  • for better outcomes, the levers that need to be deployed cover matters within the Scottish Parliament’s powers and other actions that would come within the Scottish Parliament’s powers with independence
  • we could use the full range of social security powers and drugs policy, and reform immigration policy to ensure that our health and social care systems have the staff they need to protect our wellbeing
• your communities would be strengthened, through an immigration policy that was designed with Scotland’s needs and its geography in mind
  • depopulation, particularly in rural and remote communities, could be addressed, and the vitality and resilience of our communities guaranteed in the long term
• and your votes would mean more
  • voters in Scotland would gain the ability to choose the government at every single election, including the ability to remove a government that they believed was not working in Scotland’s interests
  • Scotland’s future would be in the hands of the people of Scotland