UK GOVERNMENT SLASHES £500 MILLION FROM SCOTTISH BUDGET DETAILS.

UK GOVERNMENT SLASHES £500 MILLION FROM SCOTTISH BUDGET DETAILS.

NEW YEAR CUTS THREATEN SCOTTISH SPENDING

WHAT £500 MILLION CUTS MEAN FOR SCOTLAND?

SNP MSP Alex Neil has challenged the Scottish Labour party to set out what
services it would cut from the budget to meet the £500 million spending
cut due to be imposed by the UK Government.

The cut is a result of UK Government plans to find £5 billion of
“efficiency savings” which will be returned to the Treasury instead of
invested in frontline services.

A £500 million budget cut in the final year of this spending round is
equal to the following expenditure from the Scottish Government’s budget
for 2010-11 (as in Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007) and will mean any
increase in spending the following year will include the £500 million cut.

The following budget lines are equal to the £500 million cut.

1. The entire affordable housing investment programme -£472m
2. Half of the universities budget - £1bn
3. The entire prison budget - £480m
4. The student support budget - £523 million
5. Combination of:
Schools budget (£141m)
Climate change budget (£118m)
Alcohol misuse (£47m)
Waiting list budget (£90m)
Abolishing prescription charges (£45m)
Central Heating and Warm deal budgets (£56m)
Total: £497m

SNP MSP Alex Neil said:

“It’s one thing for Labour’s Scottish Secretary or London’s man in
Holyrood to say Scotland must tighten it’s belt to meet the UK
Government’s debts – but what would they cut to meet the cost.

“Despite setting up a three year budget the UK Government’s decision to
take £500 million off the tightest financial settlement ever for a
Scottish Government means spending will have to be reduced somewhere.

“So far Labour has been decidedly quiet on what services would face the
axe to meet Gordon Brown’s debts.

“The Scottish Government put forward responsible plans and won
parliamentary approval to spend Scotland’s budget allocation over three
years.

“For the UK Government to then come in and take £500 million off that
three year deal is a deep disappointment. With another £500 million or
more to go the year after this cut is an irreversible attack on Scotland’s
budget.

“With Labour so eager to accept this budget cut – let Labour come forward
with their plans to axe £500 million from Scotland’s public budget.