Scottish Budget risks making poverty in Scotland worse, ministers warned
The decisions outlined in last month’s draft Scottish Budget risk making poverty in Scotland worse, according to a social change organisation.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation(jrf),aleadinganti-poverty charity, said the tax and spending plans were “very disappointing”. The body said cuts toaffordablehousingwere“brutal”andshouldbereversed,with good quality housing needed to tackle poverty.
In the draft Scottish Budget published by Deputy First Minister and Finance Secretary Shona Robison in December, the affordable housing supply budget was cut by almost £200 million – more than a quarter in real terms. Yesterday, Holyrood’s finance committee scrutinised the budget.
Chris Birt, associate director for Scotland at the JRF, said therewas“welcomeprotection” forschemessuchasthescottish Child Payment but he added: “I don’t see anything else in the Budget which will significantly reduce poverty and I think there’sasignificantrisk,withthe huge cuts to funding for affordable housing in particular, that this Budget could lead to a rise in poverty as well.”
He continued: “I am concerned by this Budget and I think the Scottish Government could certainly have done more around poverty.”
Mr Birt was asked about his written submission to the committee, which said it was “bafflingthattheaffordablehousing supply programme should be the victim of such a brutal cut”.
The submission added: “To slice a quarter from the budget, in the face of both the immediate and longer-term issues facing the housing sector in Scotland, is surely something that will have to be reversed during the Parliament’s scrutiny of the Budget.ifthisisahardchoiceas partofthebudget,itisthewrong choice.”
Mr Birt was pressed on what alternative choices he thought could have been made to either raise money or cut elsewhere. He said: “Council tax is a very obviousone.we’vetalkedabout counciltaxreformforyearsand everybody has dodged it. Let’s stop dodging it.”
However, Mr Birt praised the government’s approach to social security for disabled people, in response to a questionfrommspjohn Mason who noted the overall social security budget has goneupfromabout£5 billion to £6bn.
Mr Birt, who has called for the Scottish Child Payment to be increased further, said it was necessary to break with the “dehumanising” welfare system for disabled people in the rest of the UK. Looking at a separate element of the Budget, Professor David Bell,oftheuniversityofstirling,toldthe committee: “Ostensibly it doesn’t look like the Budget particularly favours economic growth.” He was asked about therevenuefromthescotwind offshore leasing round, with
MSP Michelle Thomson saying some of it had been applied to resource spending.
Dr Bell likened the Scotwind money to a sovereign wealth fund and said it should have been used for the benefit of future generations. He said: “To be equitable, you should spread it not just on the generation that has been lucky enough to have the revenue gathered. As with oil, there seems within the Britishislestobeawillingnessnotto thinkinthosemorelonger-term perspectives.”