Billion Pound black hole in SNP plans
Follow Tory Hoose on Twitter. Read more from this authorFurther analysis of the SNP draft budget has revealed a near billion pound mystery at the heart of John Swinney’s plans to boost capital spending.
In his speech to Parliament, the Finance Secretary claimed that “We have decided, over the period until 2014-15 to switch from resource expenditure to our capital programme a total of over three quarters of a Billion pounds.”
However, according to the Scottish Government’s own figures, capital expenditure actually decreases over that period when the draft Budget is compared to the indicative spending totals the Scottish Government published in early 2011.
In fact, projected capital expenditure doesn’t rise by over £750 million but actually falls by over £185 million over the period, giving a £935,000,000 black hole at the heart of the plans. This data is found by comparing the SNP’s own projections in January of this year with the plans unveiled on Wednesday.
Gavin Brown MSP Scottish Conservative finance spokesman says:
“Another day and more revelations which show the SNP draft budget is unravelling.
“First we saw a cash grab on business of £850,000,000 and now this new mystery over capital expenditure. Put together they raise serious questions about the economic credibility of the SNP.
“The SNP must answer the following questions urgently
- Are they actually shifting over £750m into capital spending or is this just spin?
- Where is the evidence in the budget to show the move of £750m into capital spend?
- Why do their own figures suggest a £185m decrease in capital spend since their January figures?
- If money is being shifted, which revenue budgets have been cut to achieve this?”
“We said on Wednesday that the SNP was playing a game of smoke and mirrors. Well the fog is lifting and the picture from the figures is very different from the SNP narrative we were fed on Wednesday.”
Data verified by Scottish Parliament research centre:
| £m | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 |
| DEL Capital |
| Illustrative Budget (Jan 2011) | 2,606.6 | 2,536.0 | 2,299.0 | 2,380.0 |
| Spending Review | 2,606.7 | 2,471.4 | 2,238.4 | 2,319.6 |
| Difference | 0.1 | -64.6 | -60.6 | -60.4 |
The SNP are almost as competent on the economy as Labour. We should be very afraid with this bunch of clowns holding the purse strings!