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Parties say Budget amendments not enough |
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Friday, 01 February 2008 |
New amendments to the Government’s Budget aimed at bringing Conservative and Green politicians on side have been given a broad welcome, but with indications that not enough has yet been done to secure the Bill’s progress through the Parliament.
A concession on police numbers, clearly aimed at the Tories who have
been campaigning on this issue, was welcomed conditionally by the party.
Finance spokesman Derek Brownlee said: “We are glad that the Government
has addressed the issue of police numbers - a significant victory for
the Scottish Conservatives. However, before we can conclude our overall
assessment of the Budget, we need to know what action the Government
proposes to deal with our concerns on business rates and drugs policy.
“It is possible that these concerns may be addressed by measures which do not require a formal amendment to the Budget Bill.
“Our decision on the Budget will be taken once we know the Government's
position on drugs policy and business rates, and not before. The ball
remains in the Government's court.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish Greens – whose two votes look critical to the
passage of the Budget Bill – welcomed SNP proposals that would provide
a £4.3m increase in funding for innovative community proposals to
tackle climate change.
However, they said that Ministers had not yet gone far enough to secure
even an abstention from the party's MSPs, stating that the imbalance
between public transport and roads spending is "unacceptable".
Green MSP Patrick Harvie said: "We are pleased to see that Ministers
are continuing to make improvements to their budget. The amendments
lodged today certainly represent a significant step in the right
direction, and vindicate our decision last week to abstain and so allow
the Scottish Government more time to make changes.
"This is still not a green budget. While it certainly has seen
improvements, it still fails public transport users, and we can't
accept that. To avoid his budget falling next week, John Swinney is
still likely to have to look in his hat for at least one more rabbit.
"The importance of this process cannot be underestimated. It will
determine how more than £30bn of taxpayers' money will be spent. Over
the next six days we will therefore be considering the latest proposals
and holding further discussions with Ministers to see if there are any
further improvements they can bring forward."
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