CIOB Scottish Election 2026 Manifesto: From Ambition to Delivery
CIOB Scottish Election 2026 Manifesto: From Ambition to Delivery
Introduction
The next Scottish election will be held on 7 May 2026. Ahead of the election, CIOB has produced a manifesto outlining our vision for the built environment and priorities to support the construction industry in Scotland over the next term of government
Scotland approaches this election facing profound and interconnected challenges: a formally declared housing emergency; ambitious climate change targets; and the need to deliver a Just Transition that works for people and communities across the country. Each of these objectives depends, fundamentally, on a well-functioning built environment and a construction sector that is properly supported to deliver.
Scotland does not lack ambition. Across housing, climate change, fuel poverty, and the Just Transition, successive governments have set out bold objectives and rightly recognised the scale of the challenges ahead. The problem for successful governments is not intent. It is delivery.
Download our manifesto here
Our priorities for the next Scottish Government
Our manifesto sets out the priorities CIOB believes the next Scottish Government must adopt to support the nation’s construction and built environment sector to turn ambition into action. It identifies three key policy recommendations across three priority areas where we believe urgent, cross-portfolio action is needed from the next Scottish Government.
Together, they provide a practical route to take the next Scottish Government from ambition to implementation.
CIOB’s manifesto priorities for the next Scottish Government are:
Systems, not siloes: improving Scotland’s built environment
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Too often, policy is developed and implemented in siloes, by portfolio, by programme, or by individual funding stream, without sufficient regard for how decisions in one part of government affect outcomes elsewhere.
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In the built environment, this fragmentation has real-world consequences. Well-intentioned policies fail to land, delivery slows, costs rise, and households are left dealing with the fallout.
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Policies on heat, housing supply, skills, building standards, local government capacity, and funding design all interact, and when they are misaligned, progress stalls.
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If Scotland is to tackle the housing emergency, meet its climate change objectives, and protect the safety and well-being of people in their homes, this approach must change.
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Government must move beyond piecemeal interventions and adopt a whole-system, cross-portfolio approach that reflects the complexity of the built environment and the realities of delivery on the ground.