Unions demand Scottish Government ‘Keep Their Promises’ in Budget
Scotland’s largest trade union body has demanded the Scottish Government ‘keep their promises’ in their upcoming budget as the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) say scrapping the council tax, taxing wealth and investing in local services are “imperative”.
In a lobby of the Scottish Parliament today, STUC delegates and union members across Scotland will make clear to MSPs that promises on free school meals, creative arts funding and investment in public transport must be back on the table following the additional resource allocated to the Scottish Government as a result of the UK Budget.
In a briefing sent to MSPs ahead of the budget, the STUC show satisfaction with Scottish public services has plummeted 25% since 2010 with councils now facing a £780 million shortfall in cash by 2026/27. This has been compounded by Scottish Government policy to hold down council tax bills since 2007/08, leading to a ‘council tax gap’ of more than £800 million with the rest of the UK as well as £3 billion being squandered on the Small Business Bonus Scheme that, according to Scottish Government data, showed ”no empirical evidence that identifies the SBBS as supporting enhanced business outcomes”.
Ahead of the Parliamentary lobby, STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer has called on the Scottish Government to “end the excuses” and uphold the promises they made to workers on investing in public services.
Commenting, Ms Foyer said:
“With almost £5 billion injected into the coffers of the Scottish Government, workers cannot tolerate another tiresome merry-go-round of the Westminster blame game.
“With an ageing population and rising delivery costs, politicians in Scotland need to be honest that to restore our public services we need to raise tax. Thankfully, the Scottish Government have their own revenue raising powers and there is more cash coming down the line which should be directly invested into our public services.
“The ball is in their court. They promised better pay for social care workers. They promised hungry school pupils a free school meal. They promised better public transport and they promised our creative industries sustained investment. To fund this, we should be raising taxes on those with the broadest shoulders, not wasting £3 billion on ineffectual business support
“The Scottish Government have the powers. They have the cash. It’s time to end the excuses and stand by the workers of Scotland who were promised world-class public services. Our lobby of the Parliament today will make clear that workers are tired of the tiresome talking from Ministers. It’s now imperative that we now see action.
END
Full budget briefing available below.
https://www.stuc.org.uk/resources/a-budget-for-communities-stuc-briefing-on-budget-november-2024.pdf
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