Chancellor 'has failed Scotland' - The Press Association

(UKPA) – 4 hours ago 

Finance Secretary John Swinney is to highlight the UK Chancellor's "failure to deliver for Scotland" in the UK Budget by not supporting his call for control of "the full range of economic levers".

Mr Swinney will lead a debate in Holyrood calling on Parliament to express its disappointment that the Budget "is a missed opportunity to promote growth and deliver greater fairness".

Mr Swinney will highlight Treasury analysis which he believes "shows that those on the lowest incomes have been hit disproportionately hard by the deficit-reduction plans and that over 300,000 pensioners in Scotland will be adversely affected by the decision to abolish age-related income tax allowances in order to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy".

He will welcome "the UK Government's response to the Scottish Government's calls for a package of measures to support the oil and gas sector, the provision of enhanced capital allowances for three of Scotland's enterprise zones, funding for Edinburgh to become a super-connected city and the introduction of tax relief for the video games industry".

However, he will call on Parliament to disagree with the Chancellor's decision "not to provide funding for £300 million-worth of shovel-ready capital projects which could be taken forward immediately to support jobs".

Mr Swinney's motion states: "The Chancellor's failure to deliver for Scotland demonstrates the importance of the Scottish Parliament having the full range of economic levers to deliver jobs, growth and fairness for the people of Scotland."

However, speaking before the debate, Conservative finance spokesman Gavin Brown insisted the Budget "focuses firmly on sustainable economic growth and helping low and middle income families."

He said: "The record raising of the income tax threshold will help millions of people across the UK and lift many out of income tax altogether. The reduction in corporation tax will encourage companies to invest and sends out a signal to the world that we are open for business.

"A number of other measures help Scotland specifically, such as capital allowances for enterprise zones, tax relief for the video games industry and incentives for the oil and gas industry.

"The budget achieves all of this while also reducing the deficit and restoring our economic credibility across the world."

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