Spend our £9bn windfall on fixing broken Scotland's problems, Swinney is urged

Daily Mail​

21 hours ago

has been warned he must use a £9 billion boost from the UK Government to fix the problems created by his party.
The First Minister came under intense pressure as the UK Government published details of the windfall from Chancellor Rachel Reeves 's spending review.
The breakdown showed almost £6 billion extra for Holyrood thanks to higher UK spending on health and £2 billion from education.
Opposition parties demanded the SNP spend the cash on the same priorities - not blow more millions on bureaucracy, waste and dead-end preparations for independence.
Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Craig Hoy said: 'Hard-pressed Scots will be furious if the SNP squander the money they now have at their disposal.
'It should be spent on people's real priorities starting with our NHS which is in a state of permanent crisis under the SNP.
'Nationalist ministers have spent 18 years wasting money on their own pet projects and self-indulgent fringe obsessions, rather than what really impacts people's lives.
'Scots can ill-afford for that reckless approach to continue considering they are already paying more and getting less under the SNP.'
The Chancellor's spending review on June 11 set out headline figures for day-to-day budgets until 2028/29 and for capital spending until 2029/30.
Despite the £9.1 billion extra - which the SNP Government can spend as it chooses - on top of a record £50 billion a year grant, finance secretary Shona Robison said Westminster was 'treating Scotland as an afterthought and failing to provide us with the funding we need'.
The 0.8 per cent real terms annual growth in Holyrood's funding meant Scotland had been 'short-changed' by £1.1 billion relative to the rest of the UK, she claimed.
In a robust riposte, the Scotland Office yesterday set out how Treasury spending in devolved areas would give Holyrood the £9.1 billion extra through the Barnett funding formula.
It showed that by 2030, health spending south of the Border will generate £5.8 billion of 'consequential' funding for Scotland, education £2.1 billion, justice £451 million, housing, communities and local government £380 million and transport £807 million.
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said: 'The UK Government has delivered the largest real terms settlement for the Scottish Government since devolution began in 1999, and ensured a definitive end to austerity in Scotland with £9.1billion more until the end of the decade.
'It is for the Scottish Government to determine how it spends this money.
'It is notable, however, that almost £6 billion of additional funding has been generated by health spending, and over £2billion by spending on education. Many Scots will expect to see better outcomes in their schools and hospitals given this record funding.'
Mr Swinney and health secretary Neil Gray have vowed to 'renew' the NHS, but waiting lists, delayed discharges and cancelled operations remain stubbornly high.
Around one in six Scots - more than 860,000 people - are waiting for NHS operations, appointments and tests, including more 100,000 waiting more than a year.
Figures released last week showed one in 12 operations were cancelled in May last year.
The SNP promised to eradicate delayed discharge in 2015, but an average 1,852 hospital beds a day were occupied by people who didn't need them in May, down just 12 on April.
A lack of home and community care remains a key factor in patients being stuck on wards.
Almost a third of people wait more than the four-hour target to be seen in A&E each week.
In education, the attainment gap between well-off and poorer pupils, which the SNP promised to close, continues to widen.
The proportion of pupils in the poorest areas getting Higher passes last year was 17.2 percentage points lower than in the most affluent - and even worse for Maths and English, where the gaps were 20.6 and 20.8 points respectively.
Scottish Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine said: 'Even with a record funding settlement for the Scottish Government to spend, taxpayers will be feeling apprehensive.
'The SNP love to waste taxpayers' money on poorly managed projects like their wildly over budget ferries or their bungled centralisation of social care and then insist they need to pick people's pockets for more.
'With record funding for health, my constituents will expect to finally see some progress on long waits for care. Health and care are the top priority..'
Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie added: 'John Swinney is presiding over an out of control billion-pound prison project, spending hundreds of millions on a never-ending ferry fiasco and we've got more quangos than MSPs.
'After nearly two decades of the SNP wasting the public's money, Scotland has record NHS waiting lists, 10,000 children with nowhere to call home, a drug deaths crisis, overcrowded prisons and falling education standards.
'They have the money, they have the powers - if they had a plan to fix any of the mess they've created we'd have surely seen it by now.'
Finance Secretary Shona Robison said: 'The UK Spending Review document sets out in black and white that our funding for day-to-day spending is set to grow by only 0.8 per cent over the next three years, compared with 1.2 per cent average growth for UK Government departments. This will short-change us by £1.1 billion pounds.
'What's more, we face an estimated £400 million shortfall from the UK Government's failure to fully fund their employer National Insurance increase.'