Billions of pounds in wind farm profits are being paid out to corporate shareholders over five years as public funding for Scotland’s buses and free travel has soared by 72% since before the pandemic — prompting demands to ministers for energy and transport to be brought into public ownership.
An analysis of 105 Scottish onshore wind farms found they generated £2.83billion in post-tax profits over five years, with almost 90% paid out in dividends to corporate shareholders. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government’s annual budget for bus services and concessionary travel has risen from £273 million in 2019/20 to £468m in 2025/26 — an increase of £195m.
The Scottish Trades Union Congress, environmental campaigners and a think tank are now demanding a major expansion of public ownership of renewable energy and bus services, arguing that public money should build services and infrastructure that benefit communities rather than prop up privately controlled systems while profits flow to shareholders.
Roz Foyer, general secretary of the STUC, said: “It’s the scandal of our age that instead of helping local governments to build these models across Scotland, we see the billion pound rip off of workers as public money props up private ownership of buses and energy with wealth extracted out of our abandoned communities.”
Caroline Rance, head of campaigns for Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “Put simply, this shows that we can do it better if we own it. Public ownership is already delivering for workers, communities and the climate but it needs to be scaled up if we are to meet the challenges facing Scotland.”
The analysis is at the heart of an investigation by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), a think tank specialising in local economies and community wealth building, commissioned for the Just Transition Partnership, a coalition of trade unions, environmental groups and other organisations campaigning for a fair shift to a low-carbon economy.
The report argues that public investment in energy, transport and home improvements should build lasting public assets and services rather than leave control and financial returns predominantly in private hands.
The Scottish Government’s budget for concessionary fares and bus services has risen since 2019/20, from £272.9million to £468.2million in 2025/26. The latest figure is a budget, rather than final spending.
Official records show that in 2024/25, bus operators received £499m in public funding, including £392million for concessionary travel and £107m in other government support. This accounted for around 56% of their total £890m revenue.
Despite the increased public support, annual bus journeys fell from 366m in 2019/20 to 334m in 2024/25, leaving passenger numbers around nine per cent below pre-pandemic levels.
The figures come as free bus travel has expanded. The national scheme for older and disabled people has operated since 2006, while free travel for people aged five to 21 began in January 2022. By 2025, more than 2.4m people had a concessionary travel card, and more than half of all bus journeys in 2024/25 were made under the national scheme.
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The groups argue that public funding is not matched by sufficient public control over the services it supports. It says bus deregulation was intended to deliver lower fares, better services and less reliance on subsidy, but that networks have contracted and passenger numbers remain below their pre-pandemic level.
They say public bodies should have a stronger role in deciding which routes are provided and how money is used.
Scottish Renewables, the trade body representing Scotland’s renewable energy industry, said public and community ownership can play a role, but private investment will remain essential and any proposals must be commercially viable, manage long-term risks and deliver value for consumers.
It comes after The Herald revealed how a landmark offshore wind programme hailed by Scotland's former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as a "truly historic" opportunity is set to leave Scotland with around £7.4bn less than it would have received if it had maintained its original share of supply chain spending.
The gap has emerged from a analysis of the latest ScotWind data published by government regulators which show the proportion of committed supply chain spending expected to take place in Scotland has fallen from 38% when the programme was launched four years ago to around 30% today.
Public spend watchdogs Audit Scotland have called for a rethink on how supply chain commitments are treated raising criticism about the way the original ScotWind options were awarded.
Officials found that supply chain commitments "were not considered" in the final decisions about which companies should receive lease options.
Across around 20 ScotWind projects, developers have now committed £95.673bn in total supply chain spending, with just £28.954bn of that committed to Scotland.
Ms Foyer said: “The evidence is clear: public ownership works. Whether it is Lothian Buses, council-run bus routes in the Borders and Highlands, or Aberdeen's municipal heat network, public enterprise is the best path to reduced emissions, good jobs, and community wealth.”
The wind farm findings are drawn from published company accounts for 105 Scottish onshore wind farms over the five financial years from 2019/20 to 2023/24.
It found £2.83bn in post-tax profits, of which almost 90% was paid as dividends to corporate shareholders. The farms represented around half of Scotland’s installed onshore wind capacity.
CLES extrapolated the findings to estimate that the wider Scottish onshore wind sector generated £5.6bn in post-tax profits and paid £4.1bn in dividends over five years.
Those are estimates for the wider sector, not totals calculated from the published accounts of every wind farm. The analysis says the issue is not the development of renewable energy itself, but who owns the infrastructure and benefits from the returns.
Scotland generates large amounts of renewable electricity, yet households continue to face high energy costs and some areas hosting wind farms experience high levels of fuel poverty.
The authors argue that expanding public ownership could give communities a greater share of the value created locally.
Ms Rance said: “If we build public institutions that are designed for people instead of skimming off profits, or solely focused on their share price, we can ensure that good jobs are created, workers are treated fairly, that services are accountable to the people that use them and that profits flow back into our communities instead of private pockets.”
The analysis calls for governments and councils to expand public ownership where it can improve accountability and retain more economic value locally. Its recommendations include a new Public Ownership and Delivery Unit to help public bodies develop services in energy, buses, heat networks and home improvements, and a dedicated programme to support council-run buses.
It points to Lothian Buses, owned by four Scottish councils, as an example of public ownership operating at scale. The company has around 2,500 staff and annual revenues of more than £175m. According to CLES, its public structure allows profits from busier routes to support less commercially attractive services and wider transport investment.
In the Highlands, council-run bus services are saving more than £1.7m a year against previous tender prices, according to CLES. In the Scottish Borders, passenger numbers increased from around 2,000 to nearly 12,000 a month within a year of services being brought in-house.
The authors acknowledge that public ownership requires investment, skilled staff and organisations able to run services effectively and they call on the Scottish Government to provide funding and practical help for councils wishing to operate buses directly.
They say the UK Government should give Great British Energy — the publicly owned clean-energy company headquartered in Aberdeen — a stronger role in owning energy projects, and change rules that can make it harder for publicly owned bus operators to expand.
They also call for home energy upgrades, such as better insulation and cleaner heating, to become a permanent public programme rather than a series of short-term projects.
Scotland already has schemes including Warmer Homes Scotland, which funds heating and insulation improvements for eligible households struggling with fuel poverty, and Home Energy Scotland grants and loans to help homeowners improve energy efficiency.
But the report argues that such support needs to be backed by long-term public funding, trained workers and a permanent system for delivering home upgrades across Scotland, rather than relying on short-term programmes.
Evelyn Henderson-Child, CLES senior researcher, said: “The question of ownership is central to the delivery of a just transition. Public ownership gives government and communities the capacity to decide what infrastructure is for, where its value goes and how its benefits are shared.”
A spokesman for Scottish Renewables said: “Scotland’s renewable energy industry attracts significant inward investment, supporting jobs, supply chains and funding for local communities while reducing exposure to volatile global fossil fuel prices. We want to build on that significant contribution so more households and businesses benefit from Scotland’s renewable energy potential.
“Public and community ownership can play a part, and there are positive examples to draw on. However, owning energy assets requires substantial capital and the capacity to manage commercial risks over decades. Private investment will remain essential to the energy transition, so proposals must work for developers and communities, keeping projects viable and delivering value for consumers.
“Industry is ready to work with government, communities and bodies such as GB Energy on practical proposals that build on the many ways renewable energy delivers lasting prosperity, from jobs and supply chain opportunities to community funding and greater energy security. Support through programmes such as CARES can also help communities assess which opportunities best suit their ambitions and resources.”
A Confederation of Passenger Transport spokesman said: “CPT shares the ambition for investment in buses to sustainably deliver reliable services, affordable fares and better connections for communities. Those outcomes should be the test of any proposal for changing how services are owned or run.
“The increase in the Concessionary Travel budget must be understood in the context of Scotland’s decision to extend free bus travel to under-22s in 2022. CPT supports that investment in access to education, employment and opportunities but it had a clear impact on the cost of the scheme.
“Public ownership or franchising would not remove the cost of providing concessionary journeys.
“There are practical improvements we can make now. Giving buses greater priority on congested roads can shorten journey times, improve reliability and reduce operating costs, creating scope to reinvest in services and fares. These benefits matter under every ownership and regulatory model.
“CPT will engage constructively in the debate about reform. Alongside that debate, government and councils must maintain a clear focus on improvements that passengers and communities can benefit from now.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Scotland's renewable energy resources should deliver benefits for the communities that host them.
"The Scottish Government is expanding opportunities for communities to share in the value of the energy transition, including through a new pilot with Forestry and Land Scotland to help unlock renewable energy development on public land.
“We are also committed to working with partners to continue to grow the community energy sector. This is why we have increased funding for our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) to £15 million this year, in line with our Programme for Government.”
“Separately, the Scottish Government is committed to bringing the bus network back into public control through franchising and regulation by the end of this parliament.”
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