Independent Budget Review Group: Tough decisions must start by taking Scottish Water out of public sector

The Independent Budget Review Group - established at the request of the Scottish Conservatives earlier this year - publishes its report on public spending in Scotland tomorrow.

Speaking ahead of the report's publication, Derek Brownlee MSP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance & Sustainable Growth, says:

"This report was only commissioned because the Scottish Conservatives demanded an independent, external review of the budget challenges as part of the Scottish budget negotiations earlier this year. We saw the need to force all the other parties to face up to the reality of the spending cuts required to pay for Labour's debt legacy.

"We want this to trigger a full public debate about the steps which are needed to bring spending down to affordable levels while minimising the impact on public services, and it should be followed by a full Parliamentary debate when the Scottish Parliament returns from recess.

"A sign of whether the SNP Government is serious about facing up to the spending pressures will be whether it finally decides to take Scottish Water out of the public sector. Since the Conservatives first called for this to happen, over £1bn of taxpayers' money has gone to fund the organisation. This year, £140m more is being taken from other projects to fund Scottish Water. The same funding could come from the private sector, with no impact on prices if the current regulatory regime is maintained.

"Taxpayers are paying a high price for the ideological purity of this SNP Government and its Labour/Lib Dem predecessor. This issue is a litmus test, because if the SNP Government will not take easy steps to save money, it will never convince us that it will be able to take any difficult decisions.

"The same challenge applies to Labour - if Iain Gray wants to be taken seriously as a potential First Minister, he needs to show some leadership and take on the dinosaurs in his party who oppose sensible savings such as taking Scottish Water out of the public sector."

1) The Scottish Government website states that:

The Scottish Government has commissioned an independent review of public expenditure in Scotland. The purpose of this review will be to inform public and Parliamentary debate in advance of the next Comprehensive Spending Review, expected in autumn 2010, about the challenges, and choices that will exist in a significantly constrained public spending environment and to ensure priorities can be established.

The Review will consider the implications of forecasts of reductions in public spending in Scotland in the short and medium term for the patterns of public spending that have developed since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/IndependentBudgetReview/About

2) On February 3rd 2010, in the Budget debate, John Swinney said:

"To guarantee that we can have a properly informed debate that addresses the future challenges that we face, we need to put in place a mechanism to enable dispassionate assessment of some of the choices that we must make and the priorities that we must establish. I have listened to the proposal that has been put forward by the Conservative Party, that there should be an independent budget review that is tasked with providing advice-to Government and Parliament, and to inform wider public debate-about the options and choices that we should consider.

"I confirm today that I am establishing such an independent review. I have published its remit and have made copies available to members at the back of the chamber. The review will report by the end of July and its report will be made public. The review will be undertaken by a panel of three senior individuals who bring with them extensive public and private sector experience. It will be for the panel to decide for itself how it takes forward the remit that I have given it and the panel will publish further details about the workings of the review in the weeks to come. Appointments to the panel will be announced next week."

Back to all posts