Cuts, Cuts and Increases?

Today in Parliament saw the Scottish Government outline the budget for the 2010-2011 financial year. Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney, stood to address the chamber at 2.55pm but many already knew the budget would contain large cutbacks after Mr Swinney has repeatedly said that the settlement from Westminster would mean a £500 million budget cut for Scotland.

Pre- Budget

Before the budget had even been announced the opposition parties were making their concerns heard during First Ministers Questions.

The Conservatives leader Annabel Goldie claimed that “Time and again, Alex Salmond has spurned Conservative proposals to free up public money for the most pressing public need - well he can no longer dodge and weave”. She was referring to her claims that keeping Scottish Water under state control will cost £200m a year and that scrapping the graduate endowment fee is now costing £40 million a year whilst bringing in universally free prescriptions will cost £40m a year.

The Scottish Labour party pre-budget attacks claimed that the SNP had got their sums wrong and that the amount of cash in the pot had actually risen by £600 million this year. Leader Iain Gray said during First Ministers Questions "Isn't it time Alex Salmond took responsibility for his own decisions and drops the dodgy accounting for his own purposes."

The Liberal Democrats focussed on the concerns of Scottish councils over the prospect of council tax being frozen for a third year. Leader Tavish Scot said, "Today's budget should give them the money to allow them to make the choice for councils to decide whether to freeze the council tax or protect the services they were elected to deliver".

First Minister Alex Salmond came out fighting saying the council tax freeze had been a "substantial success" and insisted: "For the first time since devolution, the real budget for the Scottish Parliament and government will decline in real terms next year."
 

Budget Highs and Lows

In what is likely to be the most difficult budget to pass through the Scottish Parliament the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney, announced a raft of cuts and changes in priorities.

Mr Swinney announced that the Glasgow Airport Rail Link would no longer go ahead. The Conservative Finance Spokesperson, Derek Brownlee MSP, said that the loss of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link was down to the UK Labour Government and the damage they have done to the public purse. Labour’s Andy Kerr claimed it was a prime example of the SNP Government neglecting Glasgow.

Mr Swinney also announced that the Scottish Government’s internal budget would be cut by £14 million.

In better news Mr Swinney announced that there would be no cuts to the Health budget despite Westminster cutting £129 million from the core Healthcare budget.

Mr Swinney announced that he would be continuing to freeze council tax for another year, a core SNP election pledge. In bad news for local authorities the Cabinet Secretary added that they would be forced to take a pro rata share of the cuts and efficiency savings that were needed.

In terms of frontline services the Cabinet Secretary announced that they were looking to increase the number of police officers and pledged to honour new agreements on police and fire brigade pensions.

The budget also focused on plans for the future and continuing to support small business. It was announced that renewables would continue to be funded and that industries of the future needed to be concentrated upon.

In transport the blow of the cancellation of the GARL project was softened by the announcement that there would be £843 million spent this year on improving the rail network. In addition Mr Swinney announced that the Government would fund the Glasgow Fastlink project which will provide transport for the new Southern General Hospital and the Commonwealth Games site.

From a Westminster point of view the budget was a double edged sword. In his speech to parliament Mr Swinney called on Mr Brown to bring forward more capital funding to continue to help the country out of recession. But in a response to Labour Shadow Minister for Finance, Andy Kerr, Mr Swinney said that Mr Brown’s idea of increasing spending on the brink of exiting a recession was the right action to take.

Calls were also made by Mr Swinney and many SNP backbenchers for the Scottish Parliament to receive borrowing powers to allow for an increase in capital spending.

More detail on the Budget proposals will follow and no doubt there will be heated debate right up until the Budget has to be agreed by Parliament in spring 2010.
 

In this issue

• Cuts, Cuts and Increases?
• Pre- Budget
• Budget Highs and Lows

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