Politics: A lacklustre last budget from the Government
The Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt last week presented what will almost certainly be the last budget of the current UK Government before the General Election.
It had been widely trailed that this would be a ‘reset’ moment for the Prime Minister and his government, or more accurately, his party.
As such, despite the fairly extensive detail which had been briefed in advance to the press on his behalf, expectations were high that the Chancellor would still leave himself a couple of rabbits to pull out of his hat on the day.
Instead, what we got was a fairly lacklustre series of announcements which, by Thursday morning, even the Chancellor was freely admitting on the ‘Today’ programme would see the Scottish oil and gas sector on course to be the biggest loser from all of this.
That prompted some uncomfortable shuffling on the government benches by the Minister with responsibility for nuclear power - who happens to also represent a seat in Aberdeenshire - criticising the plan. Which begs the question - if you don't agree with your own party's policy on oil and gas taxation, surely the honourable thing to do would be to resign from your position as an energy minister in the UK Government?
Westminster has once again sold out the North-east of Scotland with the Office for Budget Responsibility confirming they will rake in a further £20.6 billion from Scotland's natural resources by 2029.
The Chancellor has humiliated his Scottish Conservative colleagues and destroyed any last remnants of credibility they had in the North-east.
That follows Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party announcing their plans to increase taxes in the North Sea even further, which could put jobs and investment at risk, all so the anticipated financial proceeds can be used to fund nuclear power plants in England.
In contrast, I want to see all of Scotland's energy wealth spent in Scotland to lower household energy bills and invest in the green energy projects of the future. I want to make Scotland’s energy work for Scotland, not Westminster.
The UK Government - for all that Scotland and to a lesser extent Wales have tax-varying powers through their own Parliaments - still determines to a very large extent the spending envelope that exists and also regulates borrowing controls and capital investment.
The UK Government is purposely cutting the Scottish Government’s capital budget by about ten per cent over the next few years – something which will only serve to slow investment in new infrastructure and frustrate growth. Given the pressures currently on public services, if the choice was between taking a further two pence off National Insurance or maintaining investment in the NHS, most people would choose investing in the NHS to deal with Covid treatment backlogs, to meet the reasonable pay settlements and to replace worn out buildings.
Scotland’s economy is already performing less well than it could be thanks to a combination of Brexit and Westminster's economic mismanagement. There’s also only so many poor or unfair policy choices made in Westminster that Holyrood can seek to mitigate.
Imposing further financial pressures on public services at this time – as this budget does – is not only unconscionable, it’s also the wrong choice to make.
