Meeting of the Parliament 21 February 2018
The figure is lower than it was last year—and all the more reason to support this budget to invest in the economy, skills, productivity, research and development and innovation.
I can confirm that Transport Scotland has now developed specific proposals on how the pre-pipeline fund for new rail projects will work and be governed. It will publish full details over the coming weeks.
As I confirmed at stage 1, between 2017-18 and 2018-19 the proportion of the Scottish Government capital budget that is spent on low carbon has increased from 21 to 29 per cent. The proportion of our capital budget that is spent on low-carbon projects will continue to increase in future years.
To further support our transition to a low-carbon economy, the budget invests £146 million in energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation, including real-terms protection for the home energy efficiency programme. It also allocates £60 million for a low-carbon innovation fund and £20 million to support the transition to electric vehicles and to support more green buses, and it doubles investment in active and sustainable travel.
The budget today delivers £756 million of investment in affordable housing and £10 million in an ending homelessness together fund as part of our commitment to eradicate rough sleeping and transform the use of temporary accommodation.
Those investments will help to ensure that our future growth will be both inclusive and sustainable. Investment now in infrastructure and support for business needs to be complemented by investment in our people, services and communities.
Education is this Government’s number 1 priority. That is backed by above-inflation investment in our universities, colleges and local government. There is £243 million to support the expansion of publicly funded early learning and childcare entitlement; £120 million is allocated directly to headteachers through the pupil equity fund; and a further £59 million provides targeted support to children and young people in the greatest need. We are also providing the first investment of a new £50 million tackling child poverty fund, which will help address the underlying social and economic causes of poverty.
Yesterday I laid the local government finance order, which includes the additional £170 million that was announced following the constructive discussions with the Scottish Green Party at stage 1. That delivers an above-inflation investment in local government for local revenue services and adds to the real-terms increase in capital support. That has been welcomed by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and I note that, so far, 11 councils have exercised the flexibility that they have to increase their council tax levels by up to 3 per cent. If the remaining councils follow suit, that will be worth around a further £77 million to support local services next year.
I also had the opportunity yesterday to see a prime example of support for our national health service when I went to Leith surgery. I saw at first hand how the additional funding provided by the budget delivers for our core public services.
The bill will see a £400 million increase in health resource funding and take our total front-line investment in the NHS to more than £13 billion in the coming year. We will invest £110 million in reform of primary care, which will support our general practitioners and health centres to meet the changing needs of our people. We will increase our direct investment in mental health services—child and adolescent mental health services in particular—by a further £17 million. That is the third annual increase in a row, which will help to deliver an additional 800 mental health workers over this session of Parliament.