A better deal for taxpayers

We will reduce the cost of government and bring down your bills by:  

Implementing an immediate tax cut worth up to £444 – by cutting income tax to 19% for all taxable income up to £43,662. This would reduce your bills by up to £444 a year and would represent a tax cut for every single taxpayer who earns more than £15,397 a year.

Making work pay, by exploring the introduction of a new tax-free allowance– to disproportionately benefit those on the lowest incomes and encourage people into work, we would look at introducing a new tax-free allowance in Scotland when budgets allow.

Tackling rising numbers of public-sector fat cats – by halting any new six-figure salaries funded by the Scottish Government, requiring Scottish Ministers to review and approve any pay rises or new positions with salaries of more than £100,000 per year.

Cutting the size of the SNP civil service back to 2016 levels – through an initial hiring freeze and transferring individuals in superfluous roles to positions that have a direct role in delivering frontline public services.

Proposing a Bill to end SNP cronyism –by limiting the number of ministers and special advisors they are allowed to appoint at the taxpayer’s expense.

Implementing a ‘frontline first’ guarantee – so that taxpayer money goes towards services for the public, rather than being misused for political purposes by the SNP Government.

Reversing the SNP’s cut to public sector working hours – giving taxpayers more bang for their buck by restoring the full working week, which was reduced to 35 hours by the SNP Government in 2024.

Reintroducing the ministerial pay freeze – SNP ministers handed themselves a £20K pay rise earlier this year. Scottish Conservative ministers would reject this pay rise, providing an immediate boost to the public purse.

Restricting the powers of ministers to spend public money without democratic oversight – by lowering the amount of money ministers are allowed to spend without parliamentary or statutory authority.

Boosting transparency on public spending – by producing a government spending dashboard that is freely available to public and which displays all spending over £5,000 – so that taxpayers can see how their money has been spent.

You can view the full policy here.