This blog was submitted by Graeme McCormick to the BINS team. To submit a blog of your own or get in touch with the team, please email team@cbin.scot.
Is it possible that within a few months every adult and child resident in Scotland will received £240 a week as basic income either under the existing Devolved Settlement or Independence?
Well, everything is possible, but is it possible to do so without increasing the national debt or raising taxation to such an extent that more than the pips squeak for Scotland’s quite small cohort of super rich?
The answer is a resounding YES!
Over the last ten years I have developed a scheme to raise all public funds from the taxation of land and property known in Scots Law as Heritable Property. Unlike many land taxes operating elsewhere which are calculated according to valuations, AGFR simply sets a rate per square metre on all land and floors in Scotland per different land types. It raises so much more in public funds that it can replace all existing taxation, and most of the infrastructure is already in place to introduce it. All that is required is political will and the legislation.
Here’s how it works.
Under section 80I of the Scotland Act 1998 (as amended) the Scottish Parliament is empowered without the consent of the UK government to raise taxes on transactions acquiring an interest in heritable property.
I’ve divided Scotland into two Land Types, Urban and Rural. Urban is defined as all land and the floor area of all property and structures ( which are not used for agricultural purposes) within Scottish Water sewerage map boundaries and all non agricultural buildings and structures elsewhere”. The total area is 14 b m2.
Rural is defined as “all land out with Scottish Water sewerage map boundaries and all agricultural land and agricultural property within Scottish Water sewerage map boundaries.” The total area is 71b m2.
All land includes all heritable property whether owned by the private or public sector, occupied or vacant and/or dilapidated and urban and rural.
According to the latest published GERS figures for the year 10 March 2025 the expenditure by the Scottish government, its agencies and local government along the funds which the UK government allocated to Scotland of the cost of providing services under the Powers reserved to Westminster was £117.8b .
We can argue about the efficacy of GERS figures for ever but let’s just take these figures as granted for this purpose. If we increase the devolved expenditure by 10 per cent and add the cost of providing a Universal Basic Income of £12,000 per annum that total annual Scottish public expenditure rises to £191b.
If we divide that budget by the total area of 85b m2 then we get a national rate per square metre. We then adjust that national charge to set rate for each land type based on affordability. Obviously a square metre of marginal land has not the economically productive capacity of one in an urban setting so land type rates are adjusted accordingly.
In an independent Scotland where there were no Reserved Taxes like vat, corporate and behavioural taxes, AGFR would be the only tax. To calculate an owner’s liability they simply measure the total square meterage of the land and floors by the Land Type rate. As the current Urban Rate is £13.50 a typical modern semi detached house with standard garden would measure around 284 m2 so the AGFR charged would be £3834. In a devolved Scotland, taxes which are reserved to the UK government to impose and collect would still be charged in addition to the AGFR which would be reduced to reflect those reserved taxes.
You may ask where all the extra revenue comes from. Quite simply almost all of our rural land is not taxed, but of much more importance is the fact that 60% of all dilapidated and vacant land and property in Urban Scotland is owned by the Public Sector. That includes huge swathes of land, property and buildings which have contributed nothing positive to the wellbeing of their communities for decades which could be brought into economic use to provide the homes, businesses and recreation, etc, if the owners whoever they were had too pay AGFR on their holdings.
There has been some doubt as to whether the devolved parliament has the power to introduce a Universal Basic Income without the UK government’s consent. In terms of the legislation the Scottish Parliament can introduce new benefits without UK government consent provided that it is not a pension, is unconditional and is paid for solely by public funds raised by the Scottish Government.
As the UBI would be unconditional for all Scottish residents, the Scottish Parliament’s remit only extends to within Scotland and the sums required for it are raised solely within Scotland and not from the UK Block Grant or Barnet Consequentials, these legislative conditions have been satisfied.
Despite Scottish Government ministers’ statements to the contrary, they have the power to create new taxes under the Devolved powers. Martin Davidson the Scottish Government’s Head of New and Environmental Taxes has confirmed this to me in an exchange of emails.
Wherever you sit on the constitutional debate in Scotland most are agreed that the financial struggle to survive is getting harder. Even the Haves are aware that their relative wealth when compared with other countries is diminishing. Yet here is a practical proposal to give everyone an immediate lift and take people out of poverty.
To conclude: let the figures in this illustration do the talking:
This table is an illustration of a person on average earnings owning or renting a modern semi detached house on his own under the present tax system , devolution and independence.
Other occupants would all receive a Universal Basic Income of £12,000 each and pay (1) no income tax on earned income under Devolution, or (2) no tax at all under Independence .
Nice one