OVER the last two months, our society has been tested like never before as a result of Covid-19. What we have witnessed as a result is that when values of compassion, kindness and solidarity have been required, they have been found right across Scotland.

Individuals and communities have come together to provide support and help to their neighbours.

Workers in social care or in supermarkets, delivery drivers or doctors, have put themselves in harm’s way to make sure people are looked after and that we all have the things that we need to get through. The social and economic systems that underpin our society, though, have fared less well under the tests of the last two months.

Many of those working in parts of our economy now deemed essential are those who are paid less than the real living wage, and who are often locked in in-work poverty.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people who have applied for Universal Credit will find a system that too often pulls people into, rather than out of, poverty.

As the pattern of the impact of this crisis becomes clearer, falling heaviest on BAME people, women, young people and disabled people, the call for a rethink on how we shape our society grows louder.

Instead of returning to the economy we had going into the Covid-19 crisis we must build better by creating a wellbeing economy that puts our collective wellbeing first.

The Scottish Government has already started thinking about our future economy, with the establishment of an advisory group on economic recovery.

It is essential for all of us that this group – and the Scottish Government – puts social justice at the heart of its agenda.

The Poverty Alliance and the Wellbeing Economy Alliance have written to the First Minister to set out what should be the key planks of this agenda. They include:

  • Creating a labour market that works for everyone by addressing low-paid and insecure work.
  • Inequality has cast a shadow across the impact of Covid-19 – we need to design a taxation system that does more to address inequality.
  • Social security should have been a liferaft during this crisis. As we begin to renew our economy, let’s ensure that it is underpinned by a decent social safety net.

Unprecedented investment from the UK and Scottish governments has been required to prevent economic disaster following the necessary actions taken to reduce the spread of Covid 19.

Within those investments and policy shifts lie the foundations of the longer-term changes needed to create a better economy. They point to a different, more interventionist role for the state in relation to the economy.

They suggest that perhaps social security should be about more than mere subsistence, and that we all need an income that allows us to participate in our society.

Most importantly, these actions show that the solutions needed to create an economy that delivers wellbeing are not only needed, but within our grasp.

The “new normal” that we are now hearing of cannot include a return to the kind of economy, society and systems that were locking so many people across our communities into poverty.

We must build better than before, and create the just and fair Scotland we all want to see.