A JOB guarantee scheme for an independent Scotland could the first meaningful step towards increasing local democracy, a new study has suggested.

It is one of the progressive forms of economic thought to tackle the social blights of unemployment, poor employment and underemployment, said the policy group Modern Money Scotland. This was formed just after the pandemic started, to counter the mainstream media’s “narrative of post-Covid austerity”, which it said was “unnecessary and deadly”.

The paper was written by journalist and Public Policy student Cameron Archibald, and Kairin van Sweeden, a coordinator for the SNP Common Weal group and convener of Yes Edinburgh North and Leith, who also sits on the SNP policy development committee.

In the first of two reports, the authors focus on the concept, history, economics and their vision of a Job Guarantee Programme (JGP), while a second will examine the execution of their plan.

Under the JGP, the authors say the Scottish Government should become an employer of last resort, guaranteeing employment to anyone who seeks it as we emerge from the pandemic with anticipated record levels of unemployment.

However they say an independent Scotland would need its own central bank and currency to provide the capacity for the Scottish Government to fund the measure.

It could then enable the further decentralising of powers to local communities with the JGP – implemented as part of a wider social security system – as a central plank.

“At Modern Money Scotland, we suggest control of this programme be handed over to community councils via money direct from central government,” said Sweeden. “This could be a first and meaningful step to increasing local democracy.

“The onset of Covid-19, has amply demonstrated that the UK Government in no way relies on taxpayers’ money to fund their spending.

“This is possible because the UK government is the monopoly issuer of our currency, the pound, which is an unpegged, fiat currency.”

The idea itself is not new, but it is gaining more traction – the TUC has proposed one model and Plaid Cymru has another in its plans for the Welsh economy up to 2030.

The Scottish Cabinet also discussed it at a meeting in Stirling two years ago.

When asked about it, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, responded: “We’re currently working our way through our Programme for Government, which we’ll set out September, where climate change is and issues like that are absolutely at the heart of what we’re doing. Things like this (the Job Guarantee) will be fleshed out a little bit more at that point. But ‘yes’ is the short answer.”

Among the academics who have welcomed the idea is Dr Dirk Ehnts, research assistant at the Chair of European Economics, at Germany’s Technical University of Chemnitz, who said: “The right to a job is an essential right.

“Scotland’s Job Guarantee Programme shows how an independent Scotland can eradicate involuntary unemployment, empower citizens on a local level and re-orient the economy away from profits and towards the public purpose.”