After two and a half years in office the Chancellor has finally heeded Scotland\u2019s calls to boost capital spending and allocated \u00a3330 million of new spending to Scotland over the next two years.\u00a0 The Chancellor\u2019s recognition that he needs to invest is welcome, but he has only come halfway to a common sense solution.<\/p>\n
The UK Government still lacks a coherent plan to return the economy to growth, and has only come up with half the investment Scotland needs.<\/p>\n
I will confirm shortly how we will allocate this funding for the coming year to secure jobs across the country.\u00a0 The Scottish Government has already invested \u00a3485 million extra in stimulating the economy and we will continue to invest at every chance we get.<\/p>\n
Scotland continues to face a 26 per cent cut to capital budgets over the last three years and the Chancellor\u2019s decision to extend his cuts programme to 2018 show how badly his plan has failed.<\/p>\n
The Scottish Government is already doing everything it can to stimulateScotland\u2019s economy to protect households, business and front line services. Households across Scotland are benefiting from a continued council tax freeze, concessionary travel, free prescriptions and public service workers from a modest pay increase. The NHS is seeing increased levels of funding and schools will benefit fromScotland\u2019s Schools for the Future building programme. Businesses across Scotland are saving up to \u00a32,000 a year through the Small Business Bonus Scheme.<\/p>\n
Where we are supporting households the Treasury\u2019s own figures show that as a result of yesterday\u2019s budget statement households across the UK will be worse off.\u00a0 The average household will lose 1 per cent of their income as a result of this spending squeeze and those on the lowest incomes will be amongst the biggest losers.\u00a0 When prices are rising and times are tough that will only increase the pressure on families and hurt out economy more.<\/p>\n
Yesterday\u2019s budget statement confirmed, loud and clear, that the only certainty now offered by the UK is five more years of public spending cuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After two and a half years in office the Chancellor has finally heeded Scotland\u2019s calls to boost capital spending and allocated \u00a3330 million of new spending to Scotland over the next two years. The Chancellor\u2019s recognition that he needs to invest is welcome, but he has only come halfway to a common sense solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[275,215,155,173,274],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budget","tag-budget-statement","tag-nhs","tag-public-spending","tag-treasury","tag-uk-government"],"yoast_head":"\n