FINANCE secretary Kate Forbes has pledged the Scottish Budget this week will provide “certainty and stability” for families and be a “stepping stone towards a fairer, greener, more prosperous” nation.
Speaking ahead of unveiling her tax and spending plans, she also said that the Covid pandemic must not be allowed to define Scotland’s future.
Forbes will reveal her draft Budget for 2022-23 in a statement to Holyrood on Thursday.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already confirmed this will include cash to double the Scottish Child Payment, which helps youngsters in poorer families, from £10 a week to £20 a week from April – a move welcomed by anti-poverty campaigners.
Sturgeon also warned that funding this commitment will mean hard choices elsewhere in the Budget.
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The co-operation agreement struck between the SNP and Greens following the Holyrood election means that, unlike in previous years, the Scottish Government will not need to seek support from other parties to get it passed.
Forbes also said that the Budget this year would be “set against a challenging fiscal backdrop as a result of the UK Government’s decision to reduce Scotland’s day-to-day spending by removing ongoing Covid funding, despite the continuing impacts of the pandemic”.
In his Budget statement in October, Chancellor Rishi Sunak claimed the Scottish Government was in line to receive £41 billion a year from Westminster – which he described as “record funding”.
But Scottish ministers have disputed this, saying that when additional spending over the past two years to help cope with Covid is included, the amount they will have at their disposal will fall in 2022-23.
Forbes said: “This is a critical time for Scotland – we are still in the grip of the pandemic and families and businesses across the country are bearing the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis.
“However, in these times of crisis, we need to go beyond the norm.
“While the pandemic may have defined our lives in recent times, the Scottish Government is determined it does not define our future.
“The 2022-2023 Scottish Budget that I will present on Thursday is another stepping stone towards a fairer, greener, more prosperous future.
“This Budget will provide certainty and stability for families whilst working to reduce inequalities.”
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Forbes said the process for this had already begun with the announcement of the doubling of the Scottish Child Payment, which will reach more than 105,000 children under the age of six in four months’ time.
When it is extended to all under-16s at the end of next year, more than 400,000 children and their families will be eligible, she added.
Forbes also pledged the Scottish Government would “invest in infrastructure that allows us to drive down emissions and create the green jobs of the future that come with the transition to a greener Scotland”.
She added: “The Budget I will present on Thursday will enable the Scottish Government to make good on our promise to build a fairer, greener Scotland.
“That is our social, economic and environmental imperative.”
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