Political Update - 27 September
With Labour’s first UK Budget for 15 years now only one month away, the Scottish Parliament devoted some time this week to debating what Scotland’s priorities within this Budget should be. This was not the first time such a debate has been held in Holyrood, but despite the clear importance of the Budget to the availability of public finances for Scotland, MSPs were right to point out that the Scottish Parliament has no control over what the Budget will look like. We do know that the block grant that is sent to Scotland by the UK Government will - by legal requirement - be no smaller than it was last year, which led many MSPs outside of government benches to discuss what Scotland’s own spending priorities should be rather than discussing the UK budget itself.
North East MSP Douglas Lumsden took time to raise an important matter during the debate from the advance briefing we sent to all MSPs, highlighting the recent raid on the Scottish rural affairs budget, with £32 million cut from the Forestry Grant Scheme and £5 million cut from the Nature Restoration Fund, and £33 million of ringfenced agricultural support funding re-allocated to other portfolios. Mr Lumsden argued that the rural sector is key to our economy and also to our drive towards net zero, yet often seemed to make an easy target for cuts.
With the Scottish Budget to follow in December, we are clear that the needs of people living and working in rural Scotland must be prioritised in order to help drive down depopulation and drive forward our net zero ambitions. It was helpful to hear some more detail about the Scottish Government’s rural spending plans in recent Rural Affairs Committee sessions. This has provided MSPs on the committee with an opportunity to raise these matters with the Cabinet Secretary, and we are keen to feed into this conversation as often as we can.
Looking ahead to next week, committee work is continuing on two key bills on housing and climate change, whilst Scottish Labour will lead a debate on tackling the housing emergency on Wednesday.
Russell Findlay’s election as the new Leader of the Scottish Conservatives will see him participate in First Minister’s questions as leader of Scotland’s main opposition party for the first time on Thursday. We were grateful for Mr Findlay’s engagement with SLE throughout his campaign and we look forward to working with him, as we do with all other party leaders, to stand up for the interests of rural businesses and communities.
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