Covid support for business at risk in UK funding row
●Shops and hospitality trade face end of full rates relief without commitment from Chancellor, warns SNP Minister
Scotland’s finance secretary has warned that Covid-related support for retail, hospitality and leisure may be scaled back in next week’s budget over a “gap” in fiscal information from Westminster.
Kate Forbes says her planning for the budget has been made “significantly more difficult” as a result of having to set out spending plans more than a month before Chancellor Rishi Sunak sets the UK Budget, including the block grant from Westminster to Holyrood.
Writing in The Scotsman today, Ms Forbes warns: “Without confirmation of the UK Government’s plans for 2021/22, and with severely limiting restrictions on borrowing, I
simply do not have the resources to continue this scale of relief in my forthcoming budget.”
Ms forbes insisted that her budget, which is to bejanuary 28, would drive economic recovery while forging a “fairer, greener and more globally competitive Scotland”.
Mr sunak took the last year of de laying his uk budget until March, meaning it was set after the devolved administrations for the first time. It meant Holyrood was left in the dark about its share of Treasury spending before the Scottish budget was set.
Ms Forbes warns the pandemic has made the situation even more acute. "Unfortunately, our budget planning is made significantly more difficult by the fiscal arrangements the devolved nations currently operate within,” she writes. "Postponement of the UK Budget until March means I have only half the that would normally be available.”