SCOTLAND’S Finance Secretary has hit out at the Chancellor for cutting Scotland’s capital budget.
The UK Treasury said the measures in the Spending Review would generate an additional £2.4 billion for Scotland in Barnett consequentials, with £1.3bn of that exclusively for Covid spending.
Kate Forbes said that while the Chancellor had funded a £27bn increase in UK capital expenditure, Treasury documents show a cut to the Scottish Government’s capital budget “by 5% in cash terms”.
Sunak insisted his Spending Review would “help people in every corner of Scotland”.
He said: “It will provide billions of pounds to fight coronavirus, deliver the peoples’ priorities and drive the UK’s recovery.
READ MORE: George Kerevan: What we learned from Rishi Sunak's Spending Review
“The Treasury is, has been and will always be the Treasury for the whole of the United Kingdom. And this is a Spending Review for the whole of the United Kingdom.”
Responding, Forbes said: “Despite the Chancellor announcing a £27bn increase in UK capital expenditure, the Scottish Government’s capital budget is being cut by about 5%. Scotland needs an infrastructure-led economic recovery to deliver new jobs and speed up the transition to net zero. That won’t be possible with a budget cut.
“I am also alarmed at the failure to replace EU funding in full. A promise that the new Shared Prosperity Fund will be fully funded at an unspecified future date will be of scant comfort to Scottish communities that have benefited so much from EU support.
“Although the spending review provides some important information that will help us in setting our own budget, it raises almost as many questions as it answers. It is not a budget, and without clarity on income tax and non-domestic rates we will be taking a step in the dark, with huge financial implications for Scotland. The UK Government has created this uncertainty so they must bear the risk, not the Scottish Government.”
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