Hansard

I welcome a number of the individual measures that have been announced today, but the way in which our final budget has emerged—following deals in what in the old days would have been smoke-filled but which these day are smokeless rooms—means that it is easy to lose sight of the longer-term trends. The last-minute deals on what are fairly small sums of money miss the longer-term trends in budget setting, and it is those longer-term trends that I want to focus on.

Over the past 12 years in Scotland, we have increasingly developed a treasury function. As this session of Parliament draws to a close, I want to look back at the budgetary progress that we have made over the past four years. At this stage four years ago, there was no shortage of promises, particularly from the current party of Government. Its success in keeping those spending promises is a matter of record, and I will not be tempted to revisit that.

Four years ago, the SNP made not just big spending promises but big budget promises. It promised to develop the treasury function as well as the spending function. First among the budgetary promises was the promise to abolish the council tax and replace it with a local income tax. Members will recall that the Scottish Government dropped those plans on the fair basis that it thought that they could not command a majority in this place. That might have been true, but the key issue is that the plans were never published.

We approach another election at which the SNP will offer plans for a local income tax, but with no figures, modelling or detail. Four years on—and despite all the resources of the Scottish finance directorate and the office of the chief economic adviser—the SNP still has no plans for a Scottish local income tax and no discussion document, green paper or white paper.

The second big budgetary commitment in 2007 was a promise to write off student debt. Again, four years on—despite all the resources of Government—the SNP has produced no discussion document, green paper or white paper, no detail and no modelling.

The third big budget promise of 2007 was to abolish public-private partnerships and replace them with not-for-profit trusts and bonds. Again, we have no discussion document, green paper or white paper.

The observant parliamentarian will spot the pattern. The Government came to power with three really ambitious budgetary promises: to introduce a local income tax, abolish student debt and replace PPP. On every one of those big three financial promises, it did not get as far even as laying out the detail. The truth is that the treasury role in Scotland that developed in the first eight years of devolution has been allowed to atrophy and not to progress under the current Government.

Given that record on budgetary promises in the past four years, what are the challenges for all of us in the next four years? The first is higher education finance. How will we in Scotland respond to the new system of higher education funding in the rest of the United Kingdom? The truth is that the future of our universities and colleges hangs in the balance. Arguably, that will be the biggest decision that we will face in the next four years. However, with weeks to go to the election, the SNP has produced no modelling, numbers or detail—members will get the picture.

The second challenge is building infrastructure. Four years ago, the Scottish Government’s website would have shown that dozens of projects were reaching financial close. I suggest that members who want an investment-led recovery go to that website today. It shows one project for which tenders have been advertised and four “potential” projects. Not a single project is in the pipeline. The Scottish Government has left an inheritance of nothing in the pipeline for whomever tries to stimulate an investment-led recovery.

The third big challenge that faces an incoming Government is the future of our public services. What progress has been made in the past four years on better delivery, improving effectiveness and service redesign? The SNP began well in 2007, when it published the Howat report, but nothing happened. In 2009, we had the Beveridge review. It reported in 2010, but nothing happened. Now, in 2011, we have the Christie commission and an invitation to wait and see until after the election.

Whatever small sums of money are reallocated today, the truth is that we have made anything but progress in budgetary terms in the past four years. The next Parliament needs to rise to the challenge that the Government has neglected, so that the spending machine starts to become the treasury function that we were promised, that the country needs and which the Scotland Bill will start to deliver.

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