Draft Infrastructure Strategy 2027-2037

Overview

The Scottish Government wants Scotland's infrastructure to be planned and delivered in a way that supports net zero and environmental sustainability, inclusive economic growth and resilient and sustainable places. Our ambition is to create a system that makes best use of existing assets, embraces innovation, and ensures investment decisions deliver long-term public value. 

Why this matters

Infrastructure underpins the services and systems we all rely on, transport, health, housing, energy and digital connectivity. It shapes our economy, our communities, our environment and our quality of life. The draft Infrastructure Strategy 2027-2037 sets out a 10-year framework, informed by Scotland's first ever 30-year national Needs Assessment, to guide decisions on what we build, maintain, and adapt.

However, delivering infrastructure is not without challenges. Rising construction costs, fiscal constraints, ageing assets, and the need to adapt to climate change all place pressure on budgets and delivery. At the same time Scotland must respond to demographic shifts and ensure infrastructure supports thriving communities across urban, rural, and island areas.

To meet these challenges, the strategy focuses on three key enablers that can help turn strategic ambition into practical outcomes, ensuring investment choices deliver long-term public value:

  • Public Assets: Making the best use of Scotland's infrastructure estate, aligning assets with modern service delivery models, and embedding robust asset strategies to optimise what we have
  • Place-Making: Ensuring infrastructure decisions reflect local priorities and spatial planning, creating thriving communities and supporting regional equity.
  • Private Investment: Unlocking private capital to complement public funding, accelerate delivery, and support sectors such as housing, renewables, and digital connectivity.

We recommend that you read through or refer to the consultation paper when responding as it contains full background information for this consultation.

For ease of reference the chapters within this consultation correspond with (and are numbered the same as) the relevant chapter's within the consultation paper.

Consultation Questions Preview

The consultation questions are included here for your reference. Please click 'Begin consultation' at the bottom of this page to proceed.

Role of the Infrastructure Strategy

  1. Do you agree with the scope and role of the Infrastructure Strategy?
  2. Do you think the proposed framework, linking the 30-year Needs Assessment, 10-year Infrastructure Strategy, Spending Reviews and annual Budgets will support improved strategic planning and delivery? Are there any further improvements you want to suggest?

Infrastructure Governance Principles

  1. Do any elements of the infrastructure lifecycle need to be strengthened to promote more effective infrastructure planning and delivery?
  2. In what areas could changes to governance or planning processes across the public sector improve the impact of the investment hierarchy?

Infrastructure Themes and Enablers

  1. Do you agree that enabling net zero and environmental sustainability, driving economic growth, and building resilient places continue to be the right outcomes to guide infrastructure investment over the next decade?
  2. Are the three proposed enablers, public assets, place-making and private investment, sufficient to deliver the Strategy’s outcomes? Are there other enablers we should consider instead/additionally?
  3. What mechanisms or approaches should the Infrastructure Strategy adopt to ensure that critical cross-cutting priorities, such as housing delivery, regional economic development, and natural infrastructure are systematically embedded in investment planning and decision making?
  4. Are there any findings from the Scottish Future's Trust Needs Assessment (perhaps from drivers of change, cross-cutting themes or enablers) that we should more fully integrate into this 10-year Infrastructure Strategy?

Place Based Approach

  1. Do you support the proposal that infrastructure investment is more directly driven by the priorities of places across Scotland?
  2. Are the proposed principles, national spatial priorities and place partnerships, the right ones to guide a place-based approach? Are there other principles we should consider?
  3. Do you agree with the Scottish Government’s proposal to empower communities to play a more active role in infrastructure decision making? What mechanisms would best support meaningful community involvement and help to maximise local social benefits?
  4. Do you believe the current landscape of local and regional partnerships (e.g. Community Planning Partnerships, Regional Economic Partnerships, HubCos, Regional Adaptation Partnerships) provides an effective framework for delivering place-based infrastructure investment? Please explain your answer, including any suggestions for improvement of existing structures.

Enabling Private Infrastructure

  1. Are there additional sectors or opportunities that should be considered for strategic investment to support economic growth and maximise opportunities for longer-term growth?
  2. To make the most of the strategic opportunities in renewables, housing, and natural capital, what will the economy need from our infrastructure to grow and thrive up to 2037?

Useful information about responding to this consultation

As you complete your response, each page will provide the option to 'Save and come back later' at the bottom. This means you can save your progress and return to the consultation at any time before it closes. If you don't use this feature and leave the consultation midway through, your response will be lost.

Once you have submitted your response, you can enter your email address to get a pdf copy of your answers sent to you.

On the 'About You' page at the end of this consultation, organisations will have the opportunity to tell us more about their work and/or how their response was informed.

After the consultation has closed there will be a few months delay before any responses are published. This is because we must check any responses to be published abide by our Terms of Use.

All relevant submitted responses will be analysed. This may be carried out by third party organisations who Scottish Government, its executive agencies or non-ministerial offices, contract to do this work. Such data sharing will be governed by appropriate contractual arrangements to keep your data secure.

An analysis report will usually be published some months after the consultation has closed. This report will summarise the findings based on all responses submitted. It will be published on the Scottish Government website and you may be notified about it if you choose to share your email address with us.

You can also join our consultation mailing list where we regularly list newly published analysis reports (as well as new consultations).

Why your views matter

This consultation seeks your views on the scope. priorities, and governance principles of the draft Infrastructure Strategy. Your feedback will help shape the final version, which will be published late 2026, and guide future spending reviews and investment decisions. Your feedback matters. It will help us refine priorities, strengthen governance, and ensure investment decisions reflect the needs of people and places across Scotland for the next decade. 

Give us your views

Begin consultation

Closes 5 May 2026

Opened 13 Jan 2026

Contact

InfrastructureandInvestmentDivisionIID-Org-SG@gov.scot

Interests

  • Building and Planning
  • Business, Industry and Innovation
  • Economy
  • Energy
  • Environment and Climate Change
  • Housing and Regeneration
  • Main hub
  • Transport