Press Releases

The Scottish Conservatives have today called for the SNP to focus on growing Scotland’s economy, protecting key frontline public services and tackling waste.

The party’s proposals come ahead of Tuesday’s budget, where the SNP government will outline its plans against the backdrop of a reported £1.5 billion black hole in the public finances due to the SNP’s long-term mismanagement of the Scottish economy.

Shadow Finance Secretary, Liz Smith, insists her package of measures will “promote economic growth, support business and local government and tackle waste”, in contrast to the SNP, who are expected to introduce an additional tax band that will hammer many Scottish households and discourage people from coming to live and work here.

She has highlighted the additional £545 million in Barnett Consequentials from the UK Government and identified savings which can be made from scrapping the £2.2 billion National Care Service Bill.

Taken together, these measures would be worth an additional £1 billion next year.

Liz Smith has also called for a clear focus on growth by rejecting any plans for tax rises, passing on the UK Government’s cut in rates relief for shops, pubs and hotels and freezing the poundage for other businesses, as well as speeding up the dualling of the A9. 

In addition, she has demanded that local services be protected through councils being fully compensated for the SNP’s council tax freeze and through the recruitment of 1,000 additional police officers.  

Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Liz Smith MSP said: “The SNP’s gross mismanagement of the nation’s finances means we face a worst-of-all-worlds budget on Tuesday, which will combine tax hikes for hard-working Scots with eye-watering cuts to key public services.

“Already the Nationalists are dusting down their usual ‘it’s Westminster’s fault’ playbook but that won’t wash.

“The SNP Government, which has received the biggest block grant ever, is responsible for the huge black hole in Scotland’s finances, due to its mismanagement of the Scottish economy over many years and its uncosted public sector pay deals and council tax freeze.

“The measures I am proposing will put economic growth as the top priority and provide much better support for local government – two things that the SNP have neglected throughout their time in office, and which are also major contributors to that black hole.

“But our sensible and realistic programme also recognises the importance of protecting vital public services – which have been decimated by SNP cuts – by putting an extra 1,000 police officers on the streets.

“We will back businesses by giving the sector the 75 per cent rates relief enjoyed south of the border, which the SNP have so far, inexplicably, refused to pass on.”

Notes

NCS savings - £126 million (from Bill)

1. The financial memorandum to the National Care Service Bill, states that costs associated with the Bill in 2024/25 are expected to be up to £126 million (National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, Financial Memorandum, p6, link).
2. The Finance and Public Administration Committee say that there may be “significant costs” for setting up a National Care Service that are not accounted for in the Financial Memorandum. “The Financial Memorandum in its present form does not provide an overall estimate of the costs of creating a National Care Service. A large number of decisions are yet to be made, and no estimates of costings have been provided for VAT liability, transfer of assets and staff and the creation of a health and social care record, all of which have the potential to result in significant costs” (Finance and Public Administration Committee Report on the Financial Memorandum for the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, 1 December 2022, link).

Workforce savings - £411 million

1. In our economic paper ‘Grasping the Thistle’, we identified that the fastest increase in the public sector workforce was in the Scottish Government’s own civil service, which has grown by 10,700 from 2016 to 2022. ONS data suggests that the average public sector salary would be £38,430 in 2023 (ONS, Earnings and hours worked, UK region by public and private sector: ASHE Table 25, 1 November 2023, link).
2. Were we to return to 2016 levels then this would result in savings of £411 million.

External Affairs savings - £20.9 million

1. The external affairs budget in 2023/24 is £35.0 million, of which £12.7 million relates to international development and its administration and or humanitarian aid and £1.4 million relates to Brand Scotland, both of which would be preserved. The rest of this budget relates to overseas offices, policy advice and migration strategy.

Planning and environmental appeals savings - £0.6 million

1. The Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) is the decision-making body for planning and environmental appeals and carries out local development plan and other examinations on behalf of ministers. Appeals should be heard by councils, not the government.

1,000 additional police officers costs - £53.1 million

1. The Scottish Police Authority sets a cost of £883.6 million on police officers in 2023/24 for 16,638 FTE officers. Therefore, we can assume from an estimate that increasing officer numbers by 6% would also increase costs by 6% to £53.1 million (Scottish Police Authority Draft Budget 2023-24, 23 March 2023, link).

Cost of rates reduction for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses - £232 million

1. The UK Government extended the 75% relief on business rates in England for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, up to a £110,000 cash cap, into 2024-25. This led to Barnett Consequentials of £232 million in 2022/23 and 2023/24. (Fraser of Allander, 22 November 2023, link).

Cost of business rates poundage freeze – £165.8 million

2. The SFC estimated the cost of the poundage rate freeze in 2024/25 to be £307 million based on an increase in line with inflation from 49.8 to 54.8 - 5 percentage points – in 2023/24. They expect a rise to 52.5 – 2.7 percentage points - in 2024/25 if it follows inflation and a freeze is not again imposed. A freeze would therefore cost £165.8 million based on these figures (SFC, Forecast May 2023 (June revision), p70+103, link).

Local Government support

3. With the council tax freeze, any increase in council spending will have to come from the Scottish Government’s own budget. The Fraser of Allander Institute estimated a figure of £229 million from an 8% increase in council tax. COSLA have asked for an additional £838 million in total (COSLA, Councils Are Key, 6 December 2023, link; FAI Blog, 18 October 2023, link).