As a charity representing and advocating for Scotland’s 4,000 architects, the RIAS is calling for a rethink of policies affecting Scotland’s built environment, in order to tackle key issues including the housing emergency, growing fuel poverty, poor productivity and historic failures to prioritise building safety.

Renewal: Building Beyond Crisis sets out seven clear actions to renew Scotland’s buildings and places: 

1. Stabilise capital investment: committing to stable capital funding and ending a boom-and-bust cycle that harms investment, delivery and businesses
2. Overhaul broken public procurement policy: valuing Scottish SMEs, replacing the current race to the bottom with a transparent procurement system that focuses on long-term public value
3. Revitalise Scotland’s diminished planning system: through well-resourced planning departments, greater co-operation with professional bodies and industry, and measures to support local action by communities
4. Ensure Building Regulations support climate policy goals: prioritising the conservation and adaptation of existing buildings, tackling construction emissions and aligning regulations with net zero targets, circular economy principles and local supply chains
5. Remove barriers to community-led regeneration: tackle failures to repair tenements, re-use gap sites and surplus buildings, simplify funding for regeneration and remove perverse disincentives such as VAT on repairs
6. Invest in construction skills to avoid delays and delivery failure: create a funded pathway into built environment professions for all ages, and address skills gaps in retrofit, repair and building safety
7. Stop the endless policy churn and start re-purposing and rebuilding: redirect Government thinking into innovation and investment, and reduce institutional duplication and barriers to delivery

Launching the manifesto, RIAS president Karen Anderson said: “Our manifesto provides the next Scottish Parliament with a clear set of measures that harness our built environment to promote health, protect the planet and sustain a thriving economy. It is a chance for MSPs to break free from a vicious cycle where short-term thinking in public investment has created crises affecting our health, our homes, our public services and our economy. 

“The best projects in Scotland demonstrate clearly that architects have a key role to play in shaping Scotland’s renewal, and we want to work together with MSPs to deliver the buildings and places that communities deserve.”