Monday April 27th 2026
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
The Scottish Greens have announced plans to fund local schools and care services through a new ‘banker tax’ following next week’s election.
Applying this tax to £1 million plus business properties like the giant Barclays and JP Morgan campuses in Glasgow and the Standard Life building in Edinburgh.
Similar to SNP’s ‘mansion tax’ plans on homes valued at over £1 million in Scotland, under the Greens bold plans a local surcharge would be added to these mega-sites through the Non-Domestic Rates system.
The tax aims to ensure that the communities where these huge corporations are based get to benefit from the profit they are generating.
In 2025 Barclays reported pre-tax profits of £9.1 billion, an increase of 13% on the previous year.
The charge is part of the Scottish Greens’ plans to ensure that the wealthiest people and businesses pay their fair share to support Scotland’s public services.
Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer explained:
“These banks are raking in huge profits, but the communities surrounding them are suffering because of underfunded public services. It’s time for the biggest businesses to pay their fair share.
“Far too much of our economy has been given over to a banking sector which brings huge risks and has a long history of rewarding reckless behaviour and greed. It wasn’t long ago that tax payers had to stump up tens of billions of pounds to bail out irresponsible banks.
“The Scottish Greens have plans to put more staff into our schools and care services, and this is how we pay for it. While other parties are planning even more devastating cuts to public services, we will make the super-rich and big businesses pay their fair share instead.”
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