Hansard

Of course, tax revenues are up in that sense, but they are not up to the extent that the Scottish Government requires for its spending. There is a huge divergence. This morning, at the Scottish Fiscal Commission breakfast, a graph showed that to be patently obvious. That is a serious concern.

The context of that is set out by the Scottish Government’s approach to the north-east and the oil and gas sectors, which encompass a large number of well-paid and highly skilled workers whose tax contributions to the Scottish economy are extremely important. That has become a problem, because we know that the SNP wants to rip the heart out of those industries.

The tax revenue issues were set out in stark terms by the Finance and Public Administration Committee. I remind the cabinet secretary that its unanimous conclusion was:

“The Committee believes that the outlook for Scotland’s economic performance and the downward pressure on the Scottish Budget, requires greater emphasis on prevention and reform.”

The committee wanted the Scottish Government to streamline and make much more coherent its policy strategies. Paragraph 97 of its report said:

“We consider that evidence showing that Scotland is lagging behind almost all other areas of the rest of the UK in key indicators of economic performance is deeply worrying.”

I have mentioned two changes that we would like the Scottish Government to deliver. They are a return to parity on income tax rates, so that Scotland is not disadvantaged, and a finance bill that would enhance the scrutiny of public spending decisions. However, the crucial element in all this is policies to enhance economic growth, even if the SNP’s partners, the Greens, do not agree with that.

Our Scottish Future was absolutely blunt in its analysis last week. It said that

“Scotland’s long-term failure to increase its growth rates relative to the UK”

is

“the elephant in the room.”

Our Scottish Future told the Scottish Government to stop

“throwing good money after bad or non-productive”

projects, and it cited the illogical decision to cut spending on university research as one example. We agree with that, just as we agree that the Government should ensure that there is a much simpler and more easily understood pathway through the enterprise bodies and grants that it can award. Just about everybody in business wants that change as quickly as possible, because they are keen to get on with boosting innovation and productivity without red tape, form filling and complex planning and procurement processes getting in their way. It is essential for business to feel good about itself and its future if Scotland is to achieve the growth rates that we need.

In recent weeks, several key business leaders have said that the national economic transformation strategy and the Scottish National Investment Bank do not have anything like the clarity and rigour that we need to deliver growth. Businesses also want to see Scotland’s Governments working together—not embroiled in constant bickering and constitutional rivalry, which divert attention away from the important focus. That is another unanimous conclusion of the Finance and Public Administration Committee.

Scotland has immense talent in every corner of the country. We need to mobilise that talent in every way that we can, and we need policies that support that talent, incentivise investment and support our businesses and public services. We need a Scottish Government that is wholly committed to efficiency and transparency in public finances. We do not need one that is constantly peddling grudge and grievance at every turn and not looking after our finances properly.

I move,

That the Parliament is deeply concerned by many of the trends published within the recent analysis of the Scottish economy undertaken by the Scottish Fiscal Commission; is concerned, in particular, by the revised downward growth estimates and decline in real earnings, and that the Scottish Government has imposed higher tax rates on Scotland without increasing revenues, compared with the block grant adjustment, due to the ongoing issues relating to weaker productivity and inflexibilities within the Scottish labour market; is further concerned by the real-terms cuts of more than £1 billion announced by the Scottish Government, which will affect local government, the police and higher education, among key services; calls on the Scottish Government to commit to ensuring that no one in Scotland pays more income tax compared with people in the rest of the UK, when finances allow, ensuring that policies to deliver long-term growth, including collaborative projects with the UK Government such as city deals, are a priority within Scottish Government spending plans; calls for a finance bill mechanism to be introduced to evaluate the effectiveness of public spending, and further calls for plans for a second independence referendum to be taken off the table.