Families suffer as SNP fails to spend £650m Covid cash

THE SNP yesterday admitted £650million from last year’s budget had not been spent – as families struggle with the cost of living crisis.

The cash was not used despite billions of pounds being given by the UK Government to help cope with the Covid pandemic.

Health campaigners yesterday accused the SNP of neglecting the needs of people who had been hit the hardest by the virus.

Opponents said the cash could also have been used to help businesses struggling through the pandemic.

Public Finance Minister Tom Arthur told MSPs that the unspent money, which is 1.4 per cent of the budget, would be held for future use.

It came as Scotland’s spending watchdog said time was running out to find out where SNP ministers had spent billions of pounds that had been allocated to support businesses and the health service during the pandemic.

Auditor General Stephen Boyle told Holyrood’s public audit committee: ‘It is safe to say that not all of the spending that was allocated was spent. That’s not drawing a conclusion that it wasn’t needed – there is a distinction between those two things, some of it will be timing differences and some will be due to demand.

‘Around £2billion at the end of last year were in the reserves of public bodies – Scottish Government, councils and integration authorities.’

Mr Boyd added: ‘As time progresses, it is going to become harder for that transparency about what’s Covid money, what’s not Covid money and to clearly see the impact of that spending.’

It comes after a scathing Audit Scotland report highlighting the lack of ‘clear and transparent decision-making’ over how the Scottish Government spent £15.5billion of coronavirus funding.

Commenting on the underspend, Scottish Tory finance spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘When we have businesses struggling with debt and many families are really struggling with the cost of living right now, it is totally unacceptable that the SNP are not releasing money which they already have to tackle this.’

Jane Ormerod, of the Long Covid Scotland group, told the BBC: ‘The Scottish Government a year ago allocated £10million worth of funding. Health boards are only now starting to see a trickle through of some of that funding.’

Leon Thompson of UK Hospitality Scotland urged the Government to use any underspend to ‘provide a financial lifeline’ to struggling firms.