Hansard

It is obvious that the art of co-operation learned by the Liberal Democrats in supporting and working with us at Westminster has rubbed off at Holyrood, and I welcome that. The budget is a compromise, and it is the better for it. It is obvious that it is not a Labour budget, because it balances and does not add another £200 billion to our national debt.

The Government proclaims—as its predecessor did—that growing the Scottish economy is its top priority, but we did not think that that aim shone through the original draft budget. The Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee, the Finance Committee and many outside observers shared that sentiment. Changing the budget to promote jobs and growth was therefore vital. When I asked a panel of economists at the Finance Committee—some of whom have already been referred to—how the budget could be improved to promote economic growth and jobs, they were as clear as any group of economists could ever be expected to be. They said that investment in housing would have a quick and significant impact. Today, we have achieved significant additional investment in housing to provide additional jobs and help more Scottish families to get on the housing ladder.

The Conservatives have always believed that job creation does not come only from large firms; small businesses, including sole traders, have a part to play. Moving from being a sole trader to being an employer can be a big step, but, cumulatively, such moves across the Scottish economy can have a big economic impact. We all know that there is a well-established need to increase exports to grow the Scottish economy, so the support for exporters, start-ups and small firms in today’s announcement is good news for Scottish jobs. Together, those measures make a meaningful difference to what was in the draft budget.

Mr Kerr was keen to remind members about what has happened in this session. Over the session, the Conservatives have secured significant achievements: 1,000 additional police officers; a £60 million town centre regeneration fund; the reduction and abolition of business rates for tens of thousands of small businesses; transparency in Government spending—Scotland is the first part of the United Kingdom to have that; the Beveridge report, which changed the terms of the debate on public spending options in Scotland; and the council tax freeze. This year, in building on the draft budget, which protected NHS spending and froze public sector pay above £21,000 to protect jobs—both items were delivered by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats at Westminster—we now have action in two crucial areas in the budget in which we sought improvement: protecting and creating jobs and beginning moves to reform public services.

The new measures for small business job creation will help small businesses throughout Scotland to take on additional staff, provide additional assistance to those who wish to start up in business and give additional help to exporters. The additional funding for housing will not only allow families to get on the housing ladder, although that is crucial; it will provide a timely boost to the construction industry and create and protect thousands of jobs—more than 5,500, according to some estimates. Other housing measures that have been announced as a result of our discussions will help first-time buyers and allow developers to get on with delivering the additional housing that Scotland needs.

In his speech, the cabinet secretary referred to the reform of absence management. We believe that that has the potential to release multimillion pound savings and to provide those who are off work through ill health with the help that they need to get back to work as soon as possible. A two-day reduction in absenteeism across the devolved public sector in Scotland would save £138 million a year. That issue needs to be tackled.

We very much welcome the commitment to make progress on access to cancer drugs. I understand that further meetings will take place on that in the near future.

All of that, of course, is on top of the welcome rejection of the additional tax on shops, which would have put jobs and investment at risk. We have learned today that that tax was entirely unnecessary.

The measures fit against the background of the Liberal-Conservative UK Government’s reducing corporation tax, lifting the lower paid out of tax, reforming the welfare state to make work pay, and providing a national insurance holiday for new Scottish start-up businesses. That is a platform for economic recovery and job creation. The Scottish and UK Governments are working together with the same aim, which is surely what all of us should seek.

I know that all parties have considered college bursaries in the debate on the budget. Today, we have a solution for the coming year, which we welcome. However, we need a solution for every year. Students, whether in further or higher education, are rightly wary of promises that politicians make before elections. It is obvious to everyone that the current funding arrangements for further and higher education and student support cannot be sustained without reductions in student numbers or in the quality of education. We need additional sources of income for the FE and HE sectors, which is why the Conservatives would like to introduce a graduate contribution. Having protected the national health service and wishing to avoid council tax rises, few options are available to reduce spending elsewhere on the scale that is required to maintain existing funding models for FE and HE.

Overall, the package of measures that has been announced today moves the budget substantially in the right direction so, as Mr Kerr correctly predicted, the Conservatives will vote for the budget today. We have secured significant progress on delivering Conservative priorities, creating jobs and reforming public services. It seems as though the Labour Party does not support those. The budget takes effect from April, so the decisions that Parliament takes today will be implemented largely in the next session of Parliament. We hope to be in a position of still greater influence in that next session but, for the avoidance of doubt, I make it clear that, if a Government of any colour seeks to remove what we have achieved in the current budget or previous ones, there will be a high price to pay. Across a range of policy areas, we have delivered substantial achievements and we will vote for the budget to deliver more.

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