RICS welcomes John Swinney, next First Minister of Scotland

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors welcomes John Swinney MSP as the next leader of the Scottish National Party and subsequently the next First Minister of Scotland following an uncontested leadership bid.

We look forward to continuing our work alongside Scottish Government on tackling the biggest challenges facing the built environment, including large-scale retrofitting of Scotland’s housing stock, providing solutions and tools to decarbonise the public sector estate, and working to develop a comprehensive building safety strategy.

This announcement comes after a particularly turbulent period for the Scottish National Party, with three leaders in the last two years. Swinney replaces Humza Yousaf MSP, who was First Minister from March 2023 to May 2024, but who’s position became untenable after he ended the Bute House Agreement with the Scottish Green Party, a power sharing arrangement which saw two Green MSPs given Ministerial roles.

John Swinney is viewed as a safe pair of hands, with a wealth of experience at Ministerial level, having led the SNP between 2000 and 2004. He has been involved with the party since 1979 and held the role of Deputy First Minister as the last position he held while in Government.

In his first few acts, he declared he does not intend to reinstate the power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens and would aim to lead a "moderate centre-left" minority government. He has also appointed his new ministerial team, including Kate Forbes MSP, as Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic.

Commenting on the result, Justin Young, Chief Executive Officer of RICS, said:

"RICS extends its congratulations to John Swinney MSP on his election as First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party. We warmly welcome him to his new role and look forward to collaborating with him, his ministerial team, and their departments on critical issues, including housing provision, building safety, infrastructure investment and reaching Net Zero by 2045.

It's vital that the new First Minister focuses on improving the availability of quality, affordable housing, easing the burden on social housing services, aiding renters facing steep rent hikes, and making it easier for first-time buyers to own homes.

We call on the new First Minister to ensure that Scotland remains a leader in decarbonisation in the built environment, continuing the work of the Heat in Buildings Strategy.

We, alongside other industry colleagues, are fully supportive of the need to transition to a low carbon economy and have led this in the built environment with the development of the Whole life carbon assessment (WLCA) and the recently launched Residential retrofit standard. However, we require clarity and confidence from Government that it is committed to this journey as well.”