Meeting of the Parliament 27 February 2025
The UK Government has provided the Scottish Government with more than £5 billion extra. Only this SNP Government could complain about an extra £5 billion and somehow portray that as being negative. We often hear in this chamber about voting positions: the SNP voted against that £5 billion increase for the budget of this Parliament and Government, but we never hear anything about that.
I welcome the record funding settlement from the UK Government, but it is impossible to fully reverse the impact of years of SNP mismanagement, billions of pounds in cuts and years of stripping back of council finances.
There is an absolute abundance of evidence to show that local services have suffered hugely in those 18 years. The services that are provided now are practically unrecognisable when compared with those that were provided in 2007. Swimming pools and community spaces such as the Beach leisure centre in Aberdeen or Perth leisure pool, which were used by thousands of people a decade ago, are now closed or threatened with closure. More than 20 public libraries are threatened with closure because of significant funding pressures, with the worst-affected areas covering much of rural Scotland.