Scotland faces budget black hole of £300m
SCOTLAND faces a massive black hole in its budget next year because tax income was lower than expected – despite middle earners being forced to pay more than those in other parts of the UK.
Official figures published yesterday showed income tax raised £11.56billion in Scotland in 018/19, which was £6 1million lower than forecast.
Predicted tax revenue is used to work out the block grant handed to Holyrood each year – and if the actual amount raised is lower than expected, it damages future budgets.
An agreement to protect Holyrood from some of the risk means the Treasury will cover £31 million of the shortfall – but the remaining £309million will need to be paid for out of the Scottish Government’s budget for 0 1/ .
It comes despite changes introduced by the SNP which have meant that everyone earning more than £ 7,000 pays more in Scotland than other parts of the UK.
Murdo Fraser, Scottish Conservative finance spokesman, said: ‘These latest figures show that the Scottish Budget for next year starts with a black hole of more than £300million because the SNP spent more money than they had coming in. We will see lower investment in vital public services such as schools and hospitals as a result of this SNP mismanagement. It is time they focused on the priorities of workers, employers and our economy.’
In response to news that the Budget would be scrapped, Miss Forbes tweeted yesterday: ‘[The UK Government] denies the Scottish Government the most basic of financial flexibilities, despite repeated requests, and now will scrap the main and only source of our funding figures to allow us to set next year’s budget.’