DREW HENDRY: Budget is another raw deal by Tories for the Highlands
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What does the Chancellor’s budget mean for us here in the Highlands?
Responding to Jeremy Hunt’s statement, I asked him where the measures were to help with the cost of living, energy costs, mortgage, rent and food bills. Of course, there were none.
We had suggested a range of measures including a £400 energy rebate to be paid for by a wealth tax but there had been no action.
We asked for help for our tourism and hospitality industry with a five per cent VAT cut, for help for struggling High Streets, for a fair deal for the whisky industry and for serious funding to support councils and the NHS.
The only concession was some funding to ‘digitise’ services across the NHS which, as history has shown, means money is going to private IT firms.
Where was the funding to compensate Postmasters or those suffering from the contaminated blood scandal
Nowhere to be seen.
Instead, whisky will still be taxed at 75 per cent, and the’ Windfall Tax’ on our North Sea energy and renewables has been extended.
The IFS said this about the Tories and Labour: “Government and opposition are joining in a conspiracy of silence in not acknowledging the scale of the choices and trade-offs that will face us after the election. They, and we, could be in for a rude awakening”.
Analysis highlights that changes to National Insurance (NI) will mainly benefit the wealthier households, with the top 20 per cent gaining significantly more from the 2p NI cut than those at the bottom.
For example, people in London will see £181 more in benefits from the NI cut than those in Scotland. This imbalance in benefits is so stark that it could push 127,000 people into relative poverty.
Meanwhile, those already struggling or in poverty, as well as pensioners, will not see any benefits.
There is a grim outlook for public services such as the NHS and council budgets across the UK.
A Northern England MP complained that, even before this budget, councils across the North East of England had faced cuts of 30 per cent. Five English councils have already declared effective bankruptcy, and more are teetering on the edge.
With real day-to-day spending per person projected to decline by 13 per cent between 2024-25 and 2028-29, amounting to £19 billion in cuts, public services could face challenging times ahead. This level of reduction mirrors the austerity measures experienced from 2010 to 2015 and takes them to new depths.
The UK budget has consequences for us here. These bitter cuts to public spending mean we have less, an awful lot less to spend here in Scotland.
On the NHS, on council budgets on new infrastructure. The Scottish budget was already reeling from a ten per cent cut in capital funding for the new buildings.
Using the limited Scottish tax powers, the Scottish Government has raised an extra £1.5 billion whilst ensuring taxes for the majority are lower than the rest of the UK; they have also provided full funding to local authorities to freeze your council tax which is already far lower than in England.
They have also paid to mitigate the bedroom tax, which many living here would otherwise have to pay and more.
Far from offering solutions, this UK budget simply further piles the pressure on the funding for the services you need.
