Prosper Forum: First Minister's speech - 4 June 2026

Thank you very much, Graeme.  And good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

It is an enormous pleasure to be with you this morning and to open Prosper’s 56th Annual Forum.  

For many decades, as Graeme has said, the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, to give Prosper its original Sunday title, has played a central role in Scotland’s story.

And when I have addressed this forum in the past I have always made reference to admiration I have felt for the work of Prosper and the annual forum and the way in which the convening power of Prosper and the Scottish Council for Development and Industry has helped Scotland to navigate really turbulent times in the past. And that requirement and that call and that necessity is very much with us today.

This organisation has helped shape the thinking and the approach of many governments across the years and that is testimony not only to all those involved but also, and perhaps more importantly, to the way in which you do business and exercise your functions.

That way of working is evidenced in this room here today. In this room there are leaders and thinkers, people steeped in collaboration and problem solving, men and women who love this corner of the world that we call home and who are ambitious and hopeful for its future.

Whether your roots are in business, in government – in national or local, in academia, communities or the third sector, Prosper creates space where connection leads to collaboration.

Where collaboration leads to a sense of common purpose and where – if we harness it as I hope we can and believe that we must – that common purpose has the power to transform our nation and its prospects for good.

And, Graeme mentioned in his introductory comments the role of government. I am clear about the role of government.

The role of government is to set the policy direction for the country. To be able to command the confidence of Parliament around that policy agenda.

But the approach I want to take to this term of government, that I have the privilege to lead the Scottish Government in the aftermath of the election, is to focus government on creating, on working hard, to establish a sense of common purpose within Scotland.

And I can find no forum better to start that conversation about the creation of that common purpose than the Prosper Forum here today, recognising the depth of the commitment of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry and Prosper to that sense of creating common purpose and a common agenda within Scotland.

So my invitation to you, to the many organisations that you represent, is to work collaboratively with government to enable us to achieve more for Scotland.

And my pledge to you is that what I am saying to you today is what I am saying to government because government has to signal and act in a fashion that enables and encourages that spirit of collaboration and common purpose within Scotland.

And I want that to be the hallmark of the Government that I lead over this parliamentary term.

Today, I want to set out to you as loudly and as clearly as I possibly can, my commitment to work with you, to do as Graeme said in his opening remarks, to increase levels of economic growth in Scotland.

I have spent much of the past few months in towns and communities across Scotland. Knocking doors, visiting businesses, witnessing - in a way that only election campaigns allow - the real-life challenges that our citizens face.

Life for many in our country is precarious.

After almost two years of low growth, standards of living have stagnated.

Prices keep rising, and for far too many wages have not kept pace with these increases.

Hope is, therefore, in short supply.

A very few are doing very well, but for most, no matter how hard they work, life is not giving them a break.

That’s not right, that’s not acceptable in a nation with all of Scotland’s advantages and capabilities.

Each and every person in this room today can surely agree that, as a nation, we are not making the most of the many blessings that we enjoy.

That’s why a stronger economy is a fundamental requirement, a necessity if we are to deal with the big, generational challenges that we face.

It is only with a stronger economy, higher wages, more jobs and opportunities that we will fully ease the mounting cost-of-living pressures that people face.

It is only with a stronger economy and a broader, deeper, healthier tax base, that we will deliver the sort of modern, responsive, accessible, citizen-centred public services that the public  rightly expect and are clamouring for.

A wealthier Scotland enables also a fairer Scotland and an acceleration of our efforts to eradicate child poverty.

A wealthier Scotland means more resilience, more capacity to act, in the face of the multiple and growing threats from a fast-changing climate.

And a wealthier Scotland will enjoy also greater protection, greater security in this ever more uncertain world. Of that, I have no doubt.

So if it was not clear already, let me say it one more time. Reaching, striving for a stronger Scottish economy is, therefore, non-negotiable and every person in this room has a part to play with the Government in trying to enable those conditions to be created.

But it will be achieved if we are bold.

It will be achieved, but only if it is a motivating, driving sense of common purpose within our country.

A total belief that Scotland, and Scotland’s people, have what it takes to prosper in this new days. That our best years of our country lie ahead of us if we establish that sense of common purpose.

Achieved because we share a clear commitment to work together to make that all happen.

Before I speak about some of the particular policy choices, and policy challenges, I want to address three bigger picture changes that are necessary if we are to get Scotland’s economy moving up the gears.

The first is regionalisation. Scotland needs to empower stronger, more strategic regions, regions with the ability to make the most of the economic advantages and opportunities that they enjoy.

Glasgow and Edinburgh in particular, with their distinct strengths and characters, can be powerhouses for economic growth in Scotland, with the benefits felt nationwide, at all levels of the economy.

I want to see the energy and talent of these cities, all of our cities, unleashed. Because each corner of our country has a depth of potential that is currently untapped.

What it takes to maximise the economic potential of our islands, of the Highlands or the Borders, of Glasgow, Dundee, Perth or Aberdeen is partly national, but predominantly local, because the key to unlock success in each of these distinct cities and regions lies in the knowledge held locally, in the web of relationships that is unique to each place and in the ambition that people have to make the place they love, the place where they live, the best that it possibly can be.

Scotland as a whole will only truly flourish when all parts of Scotland are themselves flourishing. So we will empower our cities and regions to make that happen.

You have my commitment that the Scottish Government will work closely with Prosper and other partners to explore the most effective way of making this happen. Given the range and depth of your collective expertise and experience, you will have a central part to play in developing these proposals.

The second is reconnecting with the European Union.

Brexit was and is in my view a mistake of generational proportions. An act of economic harm that Scotland rejected, but for which Scotland nevertheless is paying a high price.

The impact of Brexit is felt in the balance sheet of every business. It is there in the fiscal pressures facing government and in the day-to-day business difficulties that are faced by people across Scotlandas they struggle to make ends meet.

It is a mistake the effects of which we must mitigate, but more than that, a mistake that I believe we must reverse.

In Scotland, because we can choose to chart our own course, a different course from the rest of the UK, it is a mistake that we can also choose to remedy.

For the sake of our security and prosperity, rejoining the EU should be, indeed must be, a national mission for Scotland. Anything less leaves us weaker and, in an increasingly uncertain world, dangerously exposed.

The third is realising the full benefit for Scotland’s economy of Scotland’s energy wealth.

Scotland is an energy exporter. We produce more oil, gas and electricity than we use and in a world of energy scarcity that should be the source of real economic advantage for our country.

An energy policy that works for Scotland would see energy abundance translated into lower energy costs for businesses and households alike.

Lower energy costs have the potential to create for Scottish business the same sort of transformational competitive advantage as lower corporation tax has delivered for Ireland. It is an opportunity we must grasp with both hands.

This is a prize we have spent decades working towards. Choices made here in Scotland have enabled the expansion of low-cost renewable energy generation. But the full benefit is not yet being fully felt.

With the right mix of storage and transmission we can become a location of investment in the high-energy industries of the future, bringing new investment and new jobs into Scotland.

And with energy policy for Scotland decided in Scotland, with Scotland’s interests at its core, we can deliver the just transition that was promised to oil and gas workers in the north-east.

Right now, UK choices are accelerating the demise of oil and gas and hampering the development of renewables. What could and should have been a managed transition is becoming increasingly a tragedy for Aberdeen and the north-east.

None of this, to me, is acceptable. None of it is good enough. And if we are serious about Scotland’s economic and social wellbeing we have to change that course.

Now these of course are constitutional arguments, yes. But they are economic arguments. And whether it is Europe or energy, they are issues that we can no longer afford to duck or ignore as a country.

These questions of resources, relationships and decision-making are fundamental in many ways, but they are, of course, only part of the equation.

Setting the frame and the canvas upon which we paint is important, but we must reflect also on the detail of the picture that we are painting ourselves.

A starting point to that must be reform of ou public service reform. Over these coming years I want you to see a clear and tangible improvement to the way in which government works in Scotland.

At the moment, systems and structures are far too complex. There is unnecessary overlap. Often what appeared to be good reasons a rule is put in place, on top of another, and then another, and we find ourselves with a labyrinth of regulation that has become costly and cumbersome to navigate. Good intentions can have unintended consequences.

Regulation is important, indeed vital, but it must be regulation that both enables and protects, that creates pathways to investment - not unnecessary obstacles.

Alongside this, a culture of ‘no, because’ must become a culture of ‘yes, if’. And that requires leadership, not only from me, and believe you me that leadership is going to be there from me, but also from all those with responsibility in the public sector.

So public service reform is about culture change and leadership, but it is also about changing the focus of how public services are delivered. Instead of starting from the needs of the system, we must more clearly and fully start from the needs of the citizen, of the business, of the community.

The planning system offers a good example of what is possible.

One of the clearest messages I have heard, that the Government has heard, is that our planning system needs to work better to enable growth.

That means increased capacity and resources like the National Planning Hub to support and enable faster-decision making at a local level.

And it also means streamlining the planning process, removing unnecessary obstacles and processes in our consenting systems as we work to make Scotland’s investment ecosystem more attractive.

I want the business community and other partners to be co-creators in this process. That includes detailed consultation and engagement during this first 100 days of this new government. We need to hear about the problems, and also the innovative ideas to make things work better, whether that is technology or best practice elsewhere.

I also want our taxation system to work in a way that reflects better the realities of a world where footfall is being replaced by the click of a mouse and shopfronts by delivery drivers.

There is a conversation to be had about business rates and the incentives it creates and perhaps more importantly the disincentives that it currently creates. Again, I have heard the issues raised by many, in particular in the hospitality sector, and you can be assured that these are issues under active and urgent consideration within government.

We need businesses to contribute their fair share to the national pot because they benefit from the investment we make collectively in education, health, transport or justice. But in doing so, we cannot create burdens that are too heavy for small but growing businesses to bear.

We have a shared interest in getting this right. There will be complexity and competing interests, but there is also I believe a shared ambition and that’s what gives me hope about the opportunity before us.

One of the great strengths of Prosper is that it allows people to bring expertise to a place of collective endeavour. The whole produces something that is greater than any one part, and which is not skewed by any one voice or one set of interests.

That is a model for Scotland and something that I believe we can achieve. That is the environment I want my government to create in the years to come.

Economic growth and prosperity through common purpose. Being ourselves but not arguing for our self-interest because we recognise the power and value of the whole.

It is unarguable that the ambitions we all have for this remarkable country will only be realised if we build them together.

And that ambition is a stronger economy, yes, but it is also those other important things that a stronger economy makes possible.

It is active and vibrant communities, with thriving businesses on their high streets, and good jobs and affordable homes for their residents.

It is public services that provide the help and the support that people need, where and when they need them.

It is a country with clean, secure energy and beautiful, protected landscapes.

And it’s a country where every generation has the opportunity to grow up and reach their full potential.

So my invitation today is to  work together to make those ambitions happen. 

Because working together is the only way that those ambitions will be realised.

I look forward to working across Scotland to create the common purpose that with you can deliver a successful Scotland.

Thank you very much.