Tag Archives: scottish budget

Alex Cole-Hamilton

Alex Cole-Hamilton writes: Our decision on the Scottish Budget

By Alex Cole-Hamilton | Wed 29th January 2025 - 7:30 am

Sometimes you have to sit down and talk if you want to get things done.

By any metric the SNP are failing the people of Scotland. An early election had already been ruled out (Labour are abstaining). It’s why all along we’ve been trying to shape the Scottish Budget to unpick some of the damage the SNP have done over the last 18 years.

The result? Our priorities will now be backed by hundreds of millions of pounds of government investment. Thanks to the Scottish Liberal Democrats, the Scottish Budget now includes:

  • Further investment in drugs and neonatal services totalling £2.6m, with a special focus on creating new services to help babies who are born addicted to drugs. As a youth worker, I saw first-hand how substance addiction blighted the lives of newborns and mothers, so I know just how transformational this investment will be.
  • £3.5m so that colleges can deliver the skills our economy and public services need, with new programmes focused on care and offshore wind to create a pipeline of skilled workers.
  • Allocating in the budget £700k worth of support for the young people with complex and additional needs attending Corseford College in Renfrewshire, and at least the same amount again the next year.
  • £5m for hospices.
  • Ahead of the Infrastructure Investment Plan, we’ve persuaded the Scottish Government to look much more closely at replacing the Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick, Kilmaron Special School in Cupar and Newburgh Railway Station in Fife.

    • This is all on top of what Scottish Liberal Democrats secured in the first rounds of talks:

    • The reinstatement of a winter fuel payment for pensioners.>
    • Extra funding for social care.
    • Additional funding for local healthcare to make it easier to see a GP or NHS dentist.
    • Funding for new specialist support across the country for Long Covid, ME, Chronic Fatigue and other similar conditions.
    • The right for family carers to earn more without having support withdrawn.
    • Progress on business rates relief for the hospitality sector.>
    • Funding to build more affordable homes.
    • Ringfenced agriculture funding.
    • More money for local council services.
    • Enhanced support for local authorities operating ferry services.
    • More money for additional support needs to help pupils and their teachers.
    • Replacements for the Edinburgh Eye Pavilion and the Belford Hospital in Fort William.

    It’s a long list that will improve the lot of our constituents, and of people right across Scotland, which is why we will be backing this year’s Scottish Budget.

    We cannot underestimate the importance of getting things done, especially in the current climate. Right now, public services are on their knees, the direct casualties of the SNP’s mismanagement. You can see it in the people ringing their GP surgeries hundreds of times a day to get an appointment, the care homes struggling to find staff and Scottish education slipping down the international rankings. Many businesses are struggling to make ends meet and affordable housebuilding has collapsed.

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    Caron Lindsay

    Lib Dem MSPs to vote for SNP Budget

    By Caron Lindsay | Tue 28th January 2025 - 7:56 pm

    Alex Cole-Hamilton announced today that Lib Dem MSPs would support the SNP’s budget next week.  This does not in any way mean that we’ve suddenly become fans of the SNP Government but it does mean that we’ve managed to get some measures put in the budget to repair the damage they have done to Scottish public services rather than wait for their likely defeat in the elections in 2026.

    Since Labour announced in early January that they would abstain on the Budget, any chance of bringing the Government down and forcing an election disappeared. They got absolutely nothing for getting the SNP out of trouble. We, however, by that point had already got money for things like Winter Fuel Payments next year, Long Covid clinics, social care, replacements for the Belford Hospital in Fort William and the Edinburgh Eye Pavilion. In January, our negotiators did even better securing investment in colleges for training in skills to benefit the renewable energy sector, funding for hospices, and funding for specialist treatment for babies born addicted to drugs.

    Alex Cole-Hamilton explained:

    The final list of what we have achieved is pretty impressive and remarkably similar to the kind of things we’ve been banging on about for years.

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    The Voice

    Why would you cut energy efficiency funding in a climate emergency – Alex Cole-Hamilton

    By The Voice | Wed 20th December 2023 - 9:07 am

    Yesterday’s Scottish Budget hit the headlines because of the introduction of a new top tax rate for higher earners, and a rise in tax for the richest. But there were some real devils in the detail.

    The BBC’s report states that:

    Plans to accelerate clean heating systems will receive £358m of funding.

    This might be fine, but the figure last year was £367.5 million.

    They have also cut the funding for fuel poverty and housing quality from £21.8 million to £1.7 million.

    And that is before you even start to mention the effective cut to Council budgets because of the Council Tax freeze. A report last week suggested that a quarter of Scottish Councils fear bankruptcy.

    Alex said in response to Finance Secretary Shona Robison’s statement:

    The SNP has spent years ignoring expert warnings about the lack of a long-term economic strategy and the impact of its failure to grow the economy. Scotland needs predictability and a long-term plan for tax and the wider economy, not erratic changes that will undermine confidence.

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    The Voice

    Rennie warns of budget cuts to councils and health boards

    By The Voice | Wed 31st January 2018 - 8:55 am

    Speaking ahead of the Scottish Parliament debate on the Budget, Willie Rennie set out the Liberal Democrat priorities of investment in education and mental health. The SNP Finance Minister has not made good on a promise to provide funding for inter-island ferries in the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland.

    The Budget needs to do more to meet the long term needs of the economy.

    It should invest in people through education and mental health. We have a fully costed plan to make that happen.

    We have yet to hear how the SNP are going to change the Budget to make sure

    …

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    Caron Lindsay

    Rennie: Scottish Budget a “missed opportunity”

    By Caron Lindsay | Thu 14th December 2017 - 9:57 pm

    Today was an historic day. Twenty years and three months ago, the Scottish people voted to have a Scottish Parliament with tax raising powers.

    In his annual Budget, Scottish Finance Minister Derek Mackay increased the basic rate of income tax to 21p for those earning above £24,000. He also decreased it to 19p for the lowest earners up to £13,850. He put up the higher rate to 41p and the top rate to 46p.

    It’s all pretty modest and it represents the sort of moves we were calling for in the Scottish elections last year and since. We wanted to see the money brought in put into education to make what Willie Rennie calls a “transformative”investment.

    So we’re not going to complain about the idea of tax rises in principle. However, Derek Mackay is getting a world of pain from the Tories because the SNP said in their manifesto that they wouldn’t raise the basic rate of income tax. They were pretty scathing about our plans during the campaign and there are a whole load of words they said that are coming back to haunt them now.

    They could have saved themselves that grief by ceding the principle last year.

    Anyway, that is their problem to deal with. The Budget is a pretty modest affair. It’s certainly not the sort of budget to deal with a struggling health service, unfit for purpose education system and a housing crisis that keeps getting worse.

    Willie Rennie had this to say:

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    Caron Lindsay

    Willie Rennie’s masterclass in what to do when you say something you shouldn’t

    By Caron Lindsay | Sun 29th January 2017 - 1:50 pm

    Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie was interviewed today on Sunday Politics Scotland. Like Tim Farron earlier, he made some excellent points on the issues of the day.

    This week, it looks as though the SNP could fail to get their budget through. The SNP does not have a majority at Holyrood. The Greens are pushing them for a 60% tax rate, which finance minister Derek Mackay has ruled out. Willie has been talking to Derek Mackay for weeks now and has made clear that unless he is prepared to put in significant investment in mental health and education, then the Liberal Democrats won’t support it.

    Willie made that point very clearly in the interview, coming across very reasonably. You can watch the whole thing here towards the end of the programme.

    It was when he was asked about the possibility of an election, that he made a wee slip of the tongue, though. We know that he loves campaigning. Remember the fun he had in last year’s election.. Unfortunately, rather than saying “I love campaigning”, he said “I love myself.” Believe me, those of us who work closely with him will make sure he never hears the end of that one.

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