Brownlee: Scotland will be the loser from SNP’s short-term budget

Today the Finance Secretary delivered his first statement on the Scottish Government’s Budget for 2011/12.

Derek Brownlee MSP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance & Sustainable Growth, said:

“The SNP’s plans depend on increasing the efficiency target by half to 3%. We won’t know until next autumn whether this target has been met or not. Bizarrely, the SNP claim to have saved £1.5bn last year, and depend on saving much more next year, but say that this year making a £332m saving is impossible.

“John Swinney talks about Public Sector Reform but it seems to have all been deferred until after the election. If this is a short term budget to get the SNP through the election then Scotland will be the loser.

“There are some things we welcome in this budget – Conservative policies on extending the Council Tax Freeze, preserving police numbers and protecting jobs through pay restraint are sensible. However, unless the SNP’s final budget focuses on supporting economic growth and marks the beginning of a longer term programme of public sector reform, it will fail the tests we have set for our support.”

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