Scottish budget will be ‘difficult balancing act’
Nicola Sturgeon has said Scotland’s budget for next year will be a “difficult balancing act”.
Responding to the Chancellor’s autumn statement made on Thursday, the First Minister said, “despite repeated requests”, there would be no support for the Scottish Government to deal with inflationarypressuresinthisyear’s budget.
Instead, some £1.5 billion in Barnett consequentials will made available to the devolvedadministrationover the next two years, described bychancellorjeremyhuntas “extra help”.
The First Minister said: “Over the coming days, officials will scrutinise the numbers to understand precisely what the Chancellor’s statement means for next year’s Scottish budget, which will be presented to Parliament on December 15.
“It clearly will be a difficult balancing act, but we will do all we can within our limited resources to mitigate the impact of the cost-of-living
crisis on Scotland’s families and businesses and continue building a fairer, greener and more prosperous Scotland.”
Thestatementlaidoutplans for billions of pounds of tax hikes and spending cuts to respondtofinancialpressures caused, in part, by Liz Truss’s mini-budget.
The Chancellor said: “We’re all having to cope with inflation, and what we’ve announced yesterday is extra help for the Scottish Government to deal with those pressures,justaswe’veannounced extra help for the NHS in England and for schools in England.”