Scottish Government announces £500 million in cuts to services

Key Points

The Scottish Government has announced £500m in cuts
Scotland’s finance secretary hinted at cuts to infrastructure projects were to come
£188m will come from savings across all Government portfolios
£125m will be achieved through spending controls and re-purposing cash from other projects
£160m will be saved by following the UK Government’s decision to end the universal winter fuel payment
Up to £460m in revenue from ScotWind leasing will be used to further plug the £1bn funding gap

The Scottish Government has announced £500m in cuts to services as it tries to fill a budget black hole.

Outlining the levels of savings, Scotland’s finance secretary said £188m will be found across Government, including by cutting active travel funding, £65m by re-purposing cash from other projects and around £60m through already announced spending controls.

Up to £460m from the ScotWind leasing round will also be used, Shona Robison said, in the hopes it won’t all required to be spent.

But she also warned of further cuts to come with the Scottish Budget expected to be laid out on December 4.

“If the Scottish Government does not act, spending will continue to outstrip available funding,” she said.

“This is not sustainable and tough decisions will be required.

“Annual savings alone will not address this. All members of parliament must face up to this challenge in the demands they make during the budget process.”

Robison sought to blame Westminster for a “whole new era of austerity”.

The UK Government’s remedy for the country’s financial issues is “sadly looking like an extension of the folly of austerity”, Shona Robison said.

But Scotland’s independent financial watchdog, the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) said the Scottish Government was to blame for “much of the pressure” on the nation’s finances.

This included public sector pay deals in Scotland that were more generous than other parts of the UK, alongside spending on social security and former first minister Humza Yousaf’s council tax freeze.

The Scottish Government faces to provide further funding so that councils can increase a pay deal to avert strike action by waste and recycling workers in 13 local authorities.

A number of cost-cutting measures have already been announced, with the Government redirecting money from a nature fund and a free iPad scheme to go towards local authority pay awards.

Savings have also been found in returning peak fares to ScotRail services and slashing a scheme that gave free bus travel to asylum seekers.

It comes as UK chancellor Rachel Reeves took questions in Westminster regarding cuts to UK Government budgets in the face of a £22bn blackhole.

“When I became chancellor I took an immediate audit of the spending situation to understand the scale of that challenge, and I made difficult decisions to put the public finances on a sustainable footing,” she said.

“They were tough decisions, but they were the right decisions.”