Greens want ‘real action’ on publicly owned buses to back any budget deal

Green MSPs will need to secure “real action” on moves to bring buses back into public ownership in any deal on the Scottish budget, according to a motion passed by the party’s conference.

Scottish Green Party members voted for a motion which bars the party’s seven MSPs from backing the 2026-27 budget unless there is “solid movement to bring buses back into public ownership across Scotland”.

It comes ahead of talks at Holyrood over the budget for next year, with the minority SNP Government needing to secure the backing of at least one other party in Parliament to get its tax and spending plans approved.

The motion stresses Greens believe public transport should be “run for the common good, not for private profit”, with services “provided free at the point of use”.

To achieve this, it says services should be run by “community and regional transport agencies and authorities not private companies”.

It commits MSPs to only backing the budget if a funding model is established to enable regional transport authorities to undertake a transition to publicly controlled bus services.

The motion was brought to conference by Dan Hutchison, a Green councillor for the Govan ward in Glasgow.

He said afterwards: “Green MSPs have been instructed by the party that another budget without real action on Scotland’s largest emissions contributors is not permitted.”

The motion was inspired by the Get Glasgow Moving campaign, which aims to bring about a “world-class, fully integrated and accessible, publicly owned and accountable, public transport network”.

A spokesperson for Get Glasgow Moving said: “We welcome this motion from the Scottish Greens as a step towards delivering better buses and we hope other political parties will also get on board.”