The Scottish Parliament has passed the budget for 2023 and 2024 by 68 votes to 57. In the vote, the SNP and Green parties were in favour of the budget, while the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats were opposed to its passage. This year’s budget promises further tax rises across Scotland’s population, with extensive cuts to public services meaning that less is being gained from these higher taxes.
When the budget was announced in December, it quickly came under fire for confirming large cuts to public services, many of which had been systematically gutted for the better half of the last decade. Councils, in particular, warned the Scottish Government that they were at breaking point and that with funding for many public services already heavily cut, the councils would have no choice but to discontinue them completely. While the February revisions to the budget mean that local councils will receive a 3% real-terms increase in public spending, this will do little to offset the decade of spending cuts that have gutted local councils, forcing them to raise council taxes just to maintain basic services. An initial pledge to allocate £20 million for independence in October 2023 was also removed after widespread criticism that the funding could be better used to finance public services instead of an unnecessary referendum which was later found to be unlawful by the UK Supreme Court.
The changes to the budget came under intense scrutiny by the three opposition parties, who criticised how the money would be spent, and why it wasn’t present when the budget was announced in December. The Scottish Conservatives questioned how the Scottish Government could find an extra £150 million between December and February, despite claiming previously that there was no room for manoeuvring on the announced funding for the budget. Deputy First Minister John Swinney struggled to answer the question.
Shadow finance secretary Liz Smith said of the budget:
“Scots are cumulatively paying more than £1 billion extra a year in tax, yet because of slower growth this is raising just £325 million extra for public services.”
“Instead of seeing any extra benefits for stumping up more cash to the taxman, all Scots see is public service cuts – in health, in education, in transport, housing, the creative arts and, of course, in local government”.
Smith also warned that the last decade of the SNP Government had left the Scottish economy in a precarious position, with the trend of high taxes and poor public service results set to be exacerbated by the passage of this year’s budget.
Overall, this year’s Scottish budget will mean middle-class Scots will be paying considerably more in taxes for less in public services. This, Liz Smith argued, would discourage young professionals from living and working in Scotland, depriving the country of a demographic vital for producing the economic growth needed to sustain and improve public services. Therefore, by crafting a budget that raises taxes and cuts spending, the Scottish Government will be increasing the length and severity of the cost of living crisis.