Scottish budget could help Edinburgh soften planned spending cuts

Kate Forbes stepped in at the last minute to deliver the budget instead of Derek Mackay

EDINBURGH’S finance chiefs say the Scottish Government budget looks more generous on council funding than they expected, meaning cuts might be less severe than planned.

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay resigned just hours before he was due to unveil the budget following newspaper revelations he had sent inappropriate messages on social media to a 16-year-old schoolboy.

In one message he told the boy: “I think you are really cute.” And he offered to take him to a rugby game and out to dinner.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs his conduct was “unacceptable” and said he had been suspended from the SNP pending further investigation. Opposition politicians called for Mr Mackay to resign as an MSP as well.

The budget was delivered in the Scottish Parliament by public finance minister Kate Forbes, who announced there would be no increase in income tax rates, though the threshold for the higher rate would be frozen while the lower rate thresholds would rise by inflation.

She also announced extra cash to tackle the climate emergency, as well as £117m for mental health, £180mt o raise attainment in schools and £37m extra for the police budget to maintain numbers, with an additional £6.5m to support community justice to reduce re-offending.

Ms Forbes said there would be an extra £494m in day-to-day revenue spending for local government, which she said was a real-terms increase.

Edinburgh’s finance convener Alasdair Rankin said: “The devil will be in the detail, but on the face of it this is better news than we expected.”

He said the council had been planning on the assumption of a small reduction in revenue spending.

Cllr Rankin pointed out the SNP, which is in a minority at Holytood, had yet to reach agreement with one of the opposition parties to get the budget passed and there could also be revisions required when the UK Government announced its budget on March 11.

But he said: “What we hear in the Scottish Parliament was more encouraging than our own assumptions.

“We have been looking at a three-year balanced budget and that has necessarily involved some painful decisions.

“What we will want to do, if there is scope, is look at some of those more painful decisions to see how far we can better fund them.”

Edinburgh is expected to put the council tax up by 4.79 per cent. Other cuts could include school budgets, mursery teachers and reducing Edinburgh Leisure’s budget.