​Paying the price for SNP incompetence - Ian Murray

Politics may be about to take a short break for Christmas, but the traditional end-of-year budget from the SNP has left Scotland without any glad tidings of comfort or joy.

First Minister Humza Yousaf alongside Deputy First Minister Shona Robison

After failing to keep pace with economic growth across the rest of the UK, the people of Scotland must now pay the price for this nationalist incompetence.

Come 2024, hundreds of thousands of Scots will pay more – and get less in return.

Had the SNP kept our economy at the same pace as the north west of England – which is hardly a huge challenge given the upheaval caused by the Tories – it would today be £8.5 billion larger.

Instead, after years of failure, Deputy First Minister Shona Robison has announced tax rises, business packages less generous than elsewhere in the UK, public sector job cuts and public service spending cuts.

While Humza Yousaf does deserve some sympathy – he didn’t know the full extent of the carnage within the SNP he was inheriting when taking over the party – he has proved himself not up to the job of First Minister.

He hurriedly announced a council tax freeze simply because he had nothing else to say at his party’s annual conference and didn’t do the sums until afterwards.

Then he sheepishly told us that the black hole in Scotland’s finances is the biggest it has ever been.

Making wild promises and failing to deliver has become the hallmark of the embattled Yousaf administration.

Sometimes senior SNP figures only need a few days to perform one of their spectacular reverse ferrets.

Last Thursday, in Holyrood, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar asked Deputy First Minister Shona Robison about the country’s housing crisis.

“How many more families need to be made homeless before the SNP government takes responsibility for the crisis that it has created?” he asked.

“We will continue to invest in housing and in tackling homelessness,” Robison replied.

Fast forward to Tuesday, and the government announced its budget. Lo and behold, spending on housing will fall by more than £200 million next year. That’s a staggering 28 per cent drop, and when you look at the detail of the cuts it is even more alarming.

Funding for housing support and homelessness? Down. Money to tackle fuel poverty and housing quality? Cut by 92 per cent.

What about the budget for Scotland’s affordable housing programme? Slashed by another 30 per cent.

Edinburgh has a housing crisis and this will make it much worse. The response from charities and the third sector was swift and damning.

Aditi Jehangir, secretary of Living Rent, said: “The Scottish Government’s decision to cut 200 million from the housing budget is appalling.”

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations said the budget was “an absolute hammer blow for tackling homelessness and poverty across Scotland”.

When January comes and the final budget negotiations get underway, you will hear SNP politicians shouting “what would you cut instead?”

What they know, but refuse to admit, is that this situation has arisen because of their own government’s utter failure to grow Scotland’s economy. 16 years of failure and waste.

It does not need to be like this. Scotland needs change, and in 2024 we can start that process by bringing back economic credibility with a Labour government.