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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 23 July 2025
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Displaying 2620 contributions

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Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

Douglas Lumsden

So it might not be as bad as local government expects, then.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

Douglas Lumsden

You mentioned tackling child poverty, but what about preventing it? That is difficult when you have cuts to the local government budget, cuts to the universities budget and cuts to the enterprise budget. Surely those are the areas where we should be investing in order to prevent child poverty, as opposed to trying to tackle it.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

Douglas Lumsden

Okay. Thanks, convener.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

Douglas Lumsden

I guess so, but it still worries me that, for example, money comes out of that £620 million—the ScotWind money, for example—and, magically, other things appear that make that figure still achievable. That has happened once already, to do with Covid recovery money, and now we have it with ScotWind. I will ask the cabinet secretary about that.

My other question is about non-domestic rates. In the table, the tax take from that goes up from £2.7 billion to £3.3 billion next year. Some of that will be because Covid relief funding came through for retail, hospitality and leisure, but it is still a 20 per cent increase. Was there any narrative on why it would increase by so much? It also increases by 9.8 per cent between 2025-26 and 2026-27. Do you have any detail on that?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

Douglas Lumsden

It is not really growth, because we can see that the growth is quite flat. Businesses will pay more because of inflation, which affects the forecast.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

Douglas Lumsden

I go back to the reduction in head count. The figure of 30,000 has been mentioned, but 15,000 of the additional 30,000 pre-Covid level relates to the NHS, and as you have already said, that will probably not be affected very much. That means that the reduction will have to come from other places, one of which could well be local government.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

Douglas Lumsden

Do you envisage some of those agencies potentially going, then?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

Douglas Lumsden

Just people within them going, I guess.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

Douglas Lumsden

This Government always talks about early intervention and prevention, but a lot of the areas that you are cutting are carrying out early intervention. For example, local government can tackle child poverty at source before it becomes a problem. That is why I am slightly confused by some of what you have said today and some of what I see in this report.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Economic and Fiscal Forecasts, Resource Spending Review and Medium-term Financial Strategy

Meeting date: 7 June 2022

Douglas Lumsden

But you are making cuts in areas that could prevent child poverty. That is my point.

Lastly, I want to talk about tax. You said that you have gone by the SFC forecast. In that forecast, the higher-rate threshold would remain frozen as part of the forecast’s baseline. Is that something that you see as frozen? The forecast says:

“an individual higher rate taxpayer pays up to an extra £653 in income tax in 2023-24, rising to £1,317 in 2026-27”.

Do you think that you will stick to that?