This cash is just the tonic (but the SNP must spend it wisely)
RISHI Sunak yesterday set out a clear and unambiguous plan to save and create jobs this summer and autumn across the UK. Today, across Scotland, the message to Nicola Sturgeon is – over to you.
Of course, much of what the Chancellor set out will apply in Scotland as much as anywhere else. That includes the Jobs Retention Bonus – where firms will be paid to bring back staff who have been furloughed – and the vitally important VAT cut on food, accommodation and attractions.
The imaginative ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ discount – offering £10 off per meal on days in August – is also available north of the Border.
Scottish pubs, restaurants, hotels and B&Bs will all have toasted the Chancellor last night as a result, as would those families who enjoy a meal out and can now do so in August for a little bit less.
But much of the Chancellor’s plans do not extend to Scotland. The housing market will miss out on the stamp duty cut of house sales of less than £500,000, because this tax is devolved.
Equally, the plan to provide 30,000 traineeships for young people to get into work is marked England-only, as is the plan to give vouchers to homeowners to make energy-efficient improvements such as new boilers.
SNP ministers will instead receive an £800million cheque to spend how they wish (taking the total handed to them due to Covid-19 to £4.6billion).
What is now critical is that, rather than sit on this cash and dither, the Scottish Government spends that windfall wisely and promptly with the same purpose in mind that Mr Sunak set out yesterday – to protect jobs, especially for the youngest and poorest in our society. The pandemic of the spring cannot be followed by a jobs cull this autumn. We need practical action now to help.
The portents for that speedy and practical response do not look promising. Devolution to Scotland was intended to allow ministers in Scotland to design policies tailored to specific Scottish circumstances.
All the while, it has guaranteed that Scotland still benefits from the extra financial security of the United Kingdom – as the Covid19 crisis has only underlined.
Yet, under the SNP, devolution has been less about finding Scottish solutions than stoking nationalist grievances. And the UK money that could have been used to revitalise the nation has often been wasted – as islanders in the West waiting for a new ferry service will know.
During the pandemic, that modus operandi has been prevalent too often. The SNP Government’s focus has veered off delivering for Scotland onto division with England – witness the suggestion English tourists coming to Scotland might be asked to quarantine if they visit.
The growing chorus of Scots – from airport chiefs, to hoteliers to pub owners – seeking positive messages about Scotland, not endless politicking, continue to be sidelined.
Sadly, that trend only continued yesterday. Just look at the response from the SNP’s Finance Secretary Kate Forbes. Back in April, she had to be forced to pass on the same support to businesses as was being given to firms south of the Border.
Despite billions of pounds extra support from Westminster, she has since repeated the SNP mantra that Scotland’s response to Covid can only succeed if, you guessed it, the Scottish Government gets ‘more powers’ – the SNP’s answer to anything.
THE package of support revealed yesterday is £300million more than the extra borrowing powers she has demanded over recent weeks. Yet rather than welcome it, Miss Forbes complained about his ‘disappointing’ plan.
This is despite the fact that a VAT cut for hospitality and tourism, as announced by the Chancellor, was one of the very things she demanded only last week.
We got a grudging welcome for that but, that aside, nothing must be allowed to intrude in the SNP version of events. No thought must be given to how the SNP, in an independent Scotland, would have funded the extraordinary economic stimulus measures announced since the pandemic broke out. All that matters is that the same grievances and complaints are peddled.
If only Scotland had a more constructive Government. One that would not feel compelled to copy and paste whatever Westminster was doing. What it would do is stand up for Scotland properly by taking decisions based on practical benefit, not political division.
Take Stamp Duty – or the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, as the SNP renamed it. There is a clear rationale for ‘un-sticking’ the housing market.
This is not just about families who want to move and need a gentle nudge from the taxman to do so: it’s about saving an industry, from removal men and estate agents who need new business to the plumbers, electricians and builders who benefit from an active housing market. Hence the reason why Mr Sunak acted.
We do not need SNP ministers to follow Mr Sunak’s plans to the letter – that is the point of devolution. But surely they can see the same problems that affect home owners and tradespeople in Carlisle apply in Gretna too?
IT seems not. ‘There are no plans to reduce LBTT’, a Scottish Government spokesman declared on Tuesday evening. Who knows how many housing sale chains will be cut as a result – but at least the SNP doesn’t lose face by having to follow in Westminster’s shoes.
The tragedy is that – with the powers it has – the Scottish Government could be doing so much more. It is entirely up to the SNP, for example, to set out ways to train and retrain young people and those out of work here.
Developing skills for people who lose their job this autumn will be central to the way all countries emerge from this crisis as old jobs die off and new careers open up.
An ambitious Scottish Government would not have complained when £800million landed on its desk – it would have made clear much of that money was going to pay for a retraining programme, as proposed numerous times by the Scottish Conservatives over the past few years, which ensures decent apprenticeships and training posts are available to all.
We need government to work with employers to get these opportunities up and running before it’s too late. But such a positive plan remains absent.
The title of Mr Sunak’s speech was ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’. The pity with this SNP Government is that every speech begins ‘gripes, gripes, gripes’. This has to stop.
We need desperately to put politics to one side over these coming months. Jobs and livelihoods depend on our governments working side by side to ensure the best of the Union and devolution are brought to bear in rescuing a generation from despair.
The offer to work together for the good of all of us is there. Yesterday Mr Sunak extended that hand once more. The question is whether Nicola Sturgeon is big enough to take it? I hope she finds a way, before more workers lose their jobs.