THE Chancellor’s Budget announcement “rings hollow for families” who are facing challenges including rising fuel prices, Universal Credit cuts and an increase in inflation, according to Scotland’s Finance Secretary.

Kate Forbes was speaking to the BBC’s Politics Scotland following Rishi Sunak’s Budget announcement in the House of Commons earlier today.

Sunak said this Budget – his second since he took on the role as Chancellor in 2019 – begins “the work of preparing for a new economy post-Covid” and said that this economy will be “fit for a new age of optimism”.

However, the Scottish Finance Secretary highlighted that people are facing issues as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and those created by the UK’s exit from the European Union.

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Forbes was speaking to Politics Scotland host Andrew Kerr as the Budget debate was still taking place and told the programme that she was “getting behind the rhetoric” to understand what the implications are for her Scottish Budget later this year.

Detailing her initial impressions of the announcements, Forbes said: “I think there are some challenges that have been identified through the Budget, we hardly heard a mention of climate change or the fact COP26 is happening next week.”

Within the announcement, Sunak said that the UK will be cutting tax on domestic flights ahead of the COP26 climate summit taking place in Glasgow from next week.

The summit will see world leaders and national officials descend on Scotland to attempt to limit the effects global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels with a large focus globally being a move towards more sustainable transport including trains, buses and active travel.

Forbes continued: “We’re also cognisant of the fact that ultimately we still have significant challenges when it comes to mitigating Covid, when it comes to mobilising our health service and we’re not seeing the level of funding that we really need to be able to deal with those challenges.”

The Finance Secretary will set out the Scottish Budget on December 9 as it is necessary for devolved governments in the UK to detail their spending plans after the UK Budget due to money being allocated through the Barnett formula.

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Saying that the Scottish Government will “look behind the figures today”, Forbes added: “I assure you we’ll use every penny at our disposal to support economic recovery and to remobilise our health service. We know families, households are facing one of the most challenging winters on record.

“I think the Chancellor talked about this being an ‘era of optimism’. I think that rings quite hollow for families who’ve seen Universal Credit cut, no increase when it comes to day-to-day wages, the fact that fuel prices are going up, inflation is going up, there are a lot of challenges that families in Scotland are facing and we’re determined to use every penny at our disposal to ensure the Budget on December 9 delivers for them.”

Host Kerr said that Scotland was receiving the “largest block grant settlement” with Sunak saying that Scotland will receive around £46 billion a year from Westminster.

Sunak said this is an “indisputable fiscal benefit of being in the Union”, with Kerr telling Forbes: “You can’t argue with that.”

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“Well I can because the Chancellor also talked about the fact that he was taking levels of spending back up to 2010 levels,” Forbes responded. “In other words we’ve had a decade with no growth. We’re going back to 2010. That’s what we’re seeing.

“If you compare the level of spend on every year of the spending review for day-to-day matters, which is what matters to the people of Scotland, it will be less than we’ve seen this year.”

Following the interview, Forbes welcomed the fact that the UK has now "adopted some of the SNP's policies" on non-domestic rates.

She tweeted: "The Chancellor has adopted some of the SNP's policies on Non Domestic Rates - more regular revaluation & more reliefs. He talks about 50% relief, we had 100% relief this full year. We already offer reliefs for improvements but include new builds too, and our poundage is lower."