Hansard

The UK Government, of which Willie Rennie’s party seems to be a proud member, slashed this Government’s capital budget by 26 per cent. If Willie Rennie cannot understand the implications of that, I suggest that he go back to the drawing board and do a bit more research.

Despite those savage cuts to our capital budgets by Westminster, we are maximising our capital spending to support infrastructure investment and jobs. Over the three-year period from this year to 2014-15, we will support investment of more than £10 billion through our capital budget, the NPD pipeline and rail investment through the regulatory asset base, and by switching more than £700 million from resource to capital. The £3.1 billion of capital investment in this year is estimated to support 40,000 jobs across the economy. That figure will rise to £3.4 billion next year, when several projects are expected to be completed and become operational, including the Aberdeen community health and care village, Lasswade and Eastwood high schools and Glasgow School of Art estate development.

We expect significant progress to be made on the NPD programme in 2013-14, with major projects such as the Dumfries and Galloway royal infirmary entering procurement, and others such as Inverness College and City of Glasgow College moving into construction. Taking forward a substantial programme of NPD investment—which I remind the chamber is worth £2.5 billion—is part of this Government’s approach to mitigating the impact of the cuts to our capital budget.

I will respond to some of the points in the Conservative motion. As we have made abundantly clear, there has been a reprofiling of investment compared with the 2012-13 forecast. How do the Tories know that? Because of the transparency with which this Government has made the information available. The high-level estimate of the profile of capital investment was provided to the Finance Committee in January 2011 and a similar profile included in a graph in the draft budget for 2012-13, based on early estimates prepared by the Scottish Futures Trust.

There is a range of reasons for the changes in timing. Gavin Brown might find it inconvenient, but the fact is that 50 complex projects are being taken forward by 30 procuring authorities. Significant work has been undertaken with these many authorities to develop each project and the updated profile of capital investment reflects the more detailed level of scrutiny and planning.

In his opening remarks, Gavin Brown seemed to suggest that we should somehow ignore business case planning and procurement processes. Perhaps it is that kind of irresponsibility that has characterised decisions made at Westminster by those on the Opposition benches here. The fact is that, as Infrastructure UK’s 2010 cost review pointed out, time taken now to prepare projects thoroughly will deliver better value for money overall, through a fuller consideration of opportunities for joined-up asset planning; better building efficiency leading to cost savings; clearly specified projects allowing faster procurement than has previously been the case; and appropriate blending of funding to de-risk projects and make them more deliverable. As I have indicated—and am happy to indicate again today—progress is speeding up significantly as a result of that careful preparatory work.

Here is another fact that the Tories do not like to hear: the estimated total value of NPD projects that have already entered procurement or have entered development through hub is around £1.6 billion. The first NPD health project is already in construction and will be completed in 2013. Inverness, Glasgow and Kilmarnock colleges, along with the M8, M73, and M74 motorway improvements and a range of smaller community health and schools projects, will move into construction over the course of this year. The reality is that the Government is making significant progress, despite the cuts that have been made by the Tories and which were first planned by the previous Labour Government. Of course, if we had the full powers of independence and full borrowing powers, we could do even more.

I move amendment S4M-05653.2, to leave out from “notes” to end and insert:

“notes that the UK Government has cut the Scottish Government’s capital budget by 26% in real terms over the UK spending review period and that the previous UK administration was planning an even tougher cash-terms cut of 43% in UK public sector net investment; welcomes the progress made since publication of the Infrastructure Investment Plan in December 2011, with nine major projects now operational and publication of an updated, transparent, pipeline of future Scottish Government investments to assist the construction industry with its forward planning; recognises that, despite the reduction in capital departmental expenditure limits (DEL) from the UK Government, the Scottish Government is on track to invest £3.1 billion this year, using innovative means to supplement capital budgets, including through the Non-Profit Distributing (NPD) programme and switching resource to capital; believes that time invested now in preparing NPD and hub projects for the market leads to improved value for money, and welcomes the progress on Inverness, Glasgow and Kilmarnock colleges and the M8, M73, and M74 motorway improvements, all of which start construction in 2013-14, along with a range of smaller community health and schools projects.”

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