Budget is downpayment on delivering change


The Edinburgh Integration Joint Board (EIJB), which oversees the provision of health and social services across the city, announced it was considering ending funding for 64 charities and third sector organisations, including mental health services and support groups for older people, to tackle a huge financial shortfall.
The EIJB has been presented with an impossible task – to provide high quality services while having their budgets decimated by the Scottish Government. A range of charities and organisations from wrote to me protesting the decision, arguing that it would have had a devastating impact on the people who depend on their services. They were right.
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Hide AdI was also contacted by many of my constituents who were worried about what consequences the cuts to these services could have had for them. Together with the other MPs for Edinburgh, including Scott Arthur, Tracy Gilbert and Chris Murray, I wrote as the local MP to ask for this funding to be extended until a sustainable long-term solution could be found.
Thankfully, at the eleventh hour, a proposal brought forward by four councillors, including Scottish Labour member for Southside-Newington Tim Pogson, extended the funding for the grants programme until at least the end of the financial year. This gives much-needed time for all parties and partners to work together to find a long-term solution for some of our most cherished local services.
More widely, this comes at a time when Edinburgh City Council and NHS Lothian are facing staggering financial pressures. The real story here is a familiar one: a government that plays fast and loose with the public finances, overseeing over a decade of managed decline, slashing local government budgets and wreaking havoc on frontline services. Due to chronic underfunding by the Scottish Government, local government budgets have been hollowed out, leaving councils facing impossible choices after seeing their budgets cut to the bone.
After last month’s UK Government Budget, the SNP no longer have an excuse and must now deliver after 17 years of abject failure. In the Budget, we delivered an extra £1.5 billion for the Scottish Government this year and additional £3.4bn next year. This is, as I said in my column a few weeks ago, the biggest budget settlement in the history of devolution and a staggering £4.9bn more than before the budget.
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Hide AdIt’s not up to me how this money is spent - that is a cornerstone of devolution and it’s absolutely right that we honour that principle. But while I can’t control how this money is spent, I will say that I want to see it reach the frontline, to bring down waiting lists, boost attainment in schools, support carers and businesses and protect local services.
We promised change at the election, and this is a major downpayment on delivering that change. Time for the SNP to step up or step out of the way.
Ian Murray is Labour MP for Edinburgh South and Secretary of State for Scotland