{"id":3454,"date":"2019-03-13T14:22:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T14:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/scotlands-economy\/?p=3454"},"modified":"2019-03-13T14:22:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T14:22:25","slug":"response-to-uk-government-spring-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/scotlands-economy\/2019\/03\/13\/response-to-uk-government-spring-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Response to UK Government Spring Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;letter-spacing: 0.1pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">Public Finance Minister Kate Forbes has responded to the UK Government\u2019s Spring Statement today, saying:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;letter-spacing: 0.1pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">\u201cAmid the continuing uncertainty around the UK\u2019s EU exit, the Spring Statement failed to provide businesses with any reassurances about their future and offered no clarity on future funding for Scotland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;letter-spacing: 0.1pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">\u201cYears of austerity and continued uncertainty at the hands of the UK Government is impacting on business investment in Scotland right now and causing unnecessary harm to some of the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;letter-spacing: 0.1pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">\u201cToday was the Chancellor\u2019s opportunity to change this and he chose not to, despite recognising the damaging consequences of the UK\u2019s EU exit and the fact he had additional resources to invest now. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;letter-spacing: 0.1pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">\u201cThe plans he set out today will be a drop in the ocean compared to the harm that EU exit will cause, with business investment already falling and growth expected to slow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">\u201cAll forms of EU exit will harm Scotland\u2019s economy, with a fall in income per head of around \u00a31,600 compared with EU membership. Leaving the EU without a deal could lead to a potential shrinking of Scotland\u2019s economy by up to 7%, a drop in exports by up to 20% and reduced business investment by \u00a31 billion in 2019. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">\u201cWhile it is welcome that the Chancellor recognises the strategic importance of Edinburgh University and the need to invest in the Borderlands deal, there is much more that could have been delivered today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;letter-spacing: 0.1pt;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">\u201cIt is disappointing that the Chancellor failed to guarantee that all future EU funding to Scotland \u2013 worth<\/span><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\"> over \u00a35 billion in this current EU budget round \u2013 will be replaced in full.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">\u201cThe best decision the UK Government could take for Scotland\u2019s economy and our public finances would be to rule out \u2018no deal\u2019, to extend article 50 and to let the people vote against this deeply damaging EU exit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">Background<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"margin: 0px;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">The Scottish Government has confirmed that it will invest up to \u00a385 million in the Borderlands region &#8211; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.scot\/news\/gbp-85-million-for-borderlands\/\">https:\/\/www.gov.scot\/news\/gbp-85-million-for-borderlands\/<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\" style=\"margin: 0px;color: black;font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public Finance Minister Kate Forbes has responded to the UK Government\u2019s Spring Statement today, saying: \u201cAmid the continuing uncertainty around the UK\u2019s EU exit, the Spring Statement failed to provide businesses with any reassurances about their future and offered no clarity on future funding for Scotland. \u201cYears of austerity and continued uncertainty at the hands&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":491,"featured_media":2760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[364,171],"tags":[350,30,369],"class_list":["post-3454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brexit","category-budget","tag-brexit","tag-economy-2","tag-spring-statement"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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