‘We face a very difficult financial position over the new few years’
Prioritising public spending is essential to grow a stronger economy as Scotland recovers from the pandemic and faces up to the cost of living crisis, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has said.
Speaking ahead of the publication of the Resource Spending Review, Ms Forbes said more focused government and public sector funds would achieve ambitions to tackle child poverty, reach net zero and deliver sustainable services for the future.
The Spending Review will give broad parameters for spending for the next four years and set out a series of government reforms.
Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said: “These are challenging times, and we need to be canny with our spending, but I’m confident that if we work together we can get through this cost of living crisis and still achieve our ambitions.
“That means tackling child poverty, driving our economic recovery from COVID and achieving net zero, while building a stronger public sector that is sustainable for the future.
“We face a very difficult financial position over the next few years with funding increases below inflation levels and the challenge of recovering from the pandemic without the financial tools available to every other government in the world. That means while the spending review is not a budget, it will include difficult decisions, to ensure we can really focus on supporting households and services at this time.
“The Resource Spending Review will detail the funding available over the coming years to achieve these goals, and it will be published alongside the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) which gives economic context to the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead.”
Ms Forbes will outline the Resource Spending Review to Parliament when it is published tomorrow (May 31).
The Scottish Government says it is doing ‘everything within its powers and fixed budgets to ensure people, communities and businesses are supported as far as possible’, including investing almost £770 million this year in cost of living support and doubling the Scottish Child Payment to £20 per week.
Earlier this year it increased eight Scottish benefits by 6%, the rate of inflation at the time, and introduced a range of benefits not available elsewhere in the UK.
Expanding free school meals and providing £150 council tax payments to low income families are included in further actions to put money back into people’s pockets at a time when they need it most.
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