Live election webinar examines tax and spending plans – catch up now
Published: 21 May 2026
21 May 2026: In collaboration with the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the UofG Centre for Public Policy hosted its second election 2026 webinar on 27 April, looking at what the political parties are proposing on tax, public spending and the wider economy.
21 May 2026: In collaboration with the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the UofG Centre for Public Policy hosted its second election 2026 webinar on 27 April, looking at what the political parties are proposing on tax, public spending and the wider economy.
What is the fiscal outlook facing the next Scottish Government? In collaboration with the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the UofG Centre for Public Policy hosted a live webinar in the run-up to polling day, to examine this with a panel of experts.
Expert panel
Chaired by Professor Graeme Roy (University of Glasgow), the event featured an expert panel:
- David Phillips, Associate Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies
- Stuart Adam, Senior Economist, Institute for Fiscal Studies
- Dr Tanya Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Glasgow
Watch the recording
What happened?
David Phillips opened with a discussion on funding and spending in the context of the Scottish elections and gave an overview on what spending policies elected parties will have to set out, including things like health, education, and local government.
David shared where the Scottish government gets its funding from and how funding has changed over time.
Looking ahead to the election, David talked through what spending parties are proposing within different policy areas, including health and social care, schools, childcare, infrastructure and housing.
Next, Stuart Adam introduced devolved taxes, starting with income tax and how it has changed in past years. The discussion covered how plans on changes to income tax differed and how parties plan to tackle the need for a council tax fundamental reform.
Stuart discussed benefits and the key changes since 2021, concluding with an overview of the different parties’ plans, before moving onto the fiscal reality, concluding that no party has fully confronted the challenge facing the next government.
Dr Tanya Wilson gave an overview of some headline indicators, which included employment and growth and trade, and detailed the strengths and challenges of the Scottish economy in comparison to the UK.
When looking at manifestos, Tanya presented word clouds to display key themes, which were discussed in relation to the economy and spending. Lastly, Tanya looked at the mapping of parties’ models when comparing growth, distribution, market-led and state-led.
Opening the Q&A section of the webinar, Professor Graeme Roy asked the panellists if parties are being honest to voters about the fiscal challenge.
Other question themes covered:
- Capital spending outlook
- Options to raise more revenue for the future government
- How ‘shockproof’ the manifestos are to a changing economic context in Scotland
- How might tax changes effect revenue
- Regional governance and local devolution
Watch the webinar in full on the Centre's YouTube channel
Missed our other election 2026 webinars?
Visit our YouTube page to catch up on all four webinars
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First published: 21 May 2026