By Ben Wray

Who would have thought the nuances of the land reform agenda would serve as the major source of friction between members and the leadership at SNP conference 2015? A grassroots rebellion forced the party hierarchy to take its motion on land reform home and think again. The Scottish Government's watered-down land reform bill, which includes allowing offshore tax havens to remain intact, was rejected by members.

“When you have radical land reform, then we'll sign up to it”, Nicky Lowden McCrimmon, the member who led the opposition to the motion, stated in front of thousands at the conference in Aberdeen.

The rebellion speaks to a qualitative change in Scottish politics. A large section of the Scottish citizenry are engaged in thinking about and discussing ideas in a way that was not possible before the huge upsurge in political interest through the referendum. A majority of SNP members confident enough in the complexities of land reform to challenge and defeat their own land reform minister, who proposed the original motion, is testament to that.

And in that context lies a great challenge for all political parties in the 2016 Scottish elections, but most definitively for the SNP: can you come up with a manifesto that matches the ambition and desire for change the people of Scotland expect? Across a whole variety of policy areas, can you provide answers that are compelling and innovative?

The SNP is in the strongest position of any party since devolution to deliver a manifesto free of the compromise and consensus-building required in a tight electoral contest. Everyone knows the party is nailed on for another majority government, so the First Minister doesn't need to worry about triangulating Kezia Dugdale or appeasing small-c conservative sections of Scottish society. She has the opportunity to be truly radical; to advocate the policies that she wants to see for Scotland.

What would a radical, transformational agenda for 2016-21 look like? The Common Weal's new Book of Ideas, outlining 101 ideas for the next Scottish Government, provides a comprehensive set of proposals for parties to consider on everything from tax to transport; food to football.

It looks at the powers the Scottish Parliament is likely to receive in the Scotland Bill and how the Government could tackle the opportunities (and traps) presented by it.

With the severe fiscal tightening of the Scottish Government's budget, and with limited ability to borrow to invest, the book proposes a creative approach towards getting the big things done, such as building a new generation of low-cost; zero-carbon social housing; and maximising our green energy potential while reducing heating bills.

The Government should use its capital borrowing budget to create a major national investment bank that can lend at rates far in excess of what it has the ability to do directly. It should then support the creation of national mutuals or trusts that are ostensibly in the private sector so they can borrow from the national investment bank and have self-contained business models that don't endanger public finances. But they would have a shareholder structure that would mean they pay a dividend to each Scottish citizen and re-invest the rest of the profits back into the homes or the energy generation it was created for.

In the case of a national housebuilding company, the business model would be obvious: borrow against future rents, say over a 30-year period. The national housebuilding company would have a strategy of building to meet demand and, with more than 150,000 on the council house waiting list, this is likely to be substantial. While the First Minister's announcement at the SNP conference of a plan to build 50,000 homes – 35,000 social housing and 15,000 private housing – was a step forward, it is unlikely to solve the housing crisis. Audit Scotland has said 500,000 new homes will be needed over the next 25 years just to keep up.

Housebuilding has to be combined with creating homes that people want to live in, in communities that are pleasant and not alienating, with access to local services and facilities. A whole plan is needed to create real quality of life; building the homes is just the start. The Common Weal book discusses all this and much more, and we think it amounts to a set of ideas that matches the new engagement and idealism of the Scottish citizenry.

Ben Wray is head of policy and research at Common Weal.