Meeting of the Parliament 26 November 2025
I do not have a lot of time—I apologise.
There is a sense of urgency about the situation. Audit Scotland has told us there is a massive funding gap in the Scottish budget, which will be around £5 billion by 2029. My concern is whether we will have years of cuts to public services to fill that black hole.
I would have liked to have seen more in the UK budget today about rejuvenating and reviving our city centres, town centres and high streets, because many of them sit empty and derelict. I was pleased to see some money for Inchgreen in Greenock, but it is a drop in the ocean compared with what is actually needed to revive areas such as Inverclyde. There are 91 vacant retail units in my home area of Inverclyde—91 units sitting empty, without creating employment or raising taxes. In North Lanarkshire there were 382 vacant town-centre units. We can fill those spaces with economic activity, with a boost and a boon to small business growth. I would really like to see that.
The UK budget was a bit of a missed opportunity to galvanise the economy. We need to grow the pot of money that all Governments need to invest in public services. All eyes will now be on the Scottish Government and its budget. It will have some tough choices to make as well.
I hope that, if nothing else, we can all agree today that Scotland can and should be a powerhouse of economic growth across a wide range of key sectors. I hope that that is a shared ambition that will require a grown-up conversation about how we fund public services, how we finance capital investment and how we trigger a small business and start-up boom.
I move amendment S6M-19895.2, to leave out from first “should” to end and insert:
“must be a turning point, which delivers real economic growth, tackles the cost of living crisis and seeks a closer relationship with Europe; understands that far too many families are struggling to get by and believes that businesses have been held back by the increase to employer national insurance contributions; calls for an emergency plan to give immediate help through a 5p VAT cut for hospitality, accommodation and attractions until April 2027, alongside the removal of the main renewables obligation from people’s electricity bills, funding both through a new windfall tax on large banks and saving households £270; notes the analysis by Audit Scotland that shows that there is a projected deficit of £4.7 billion in the Scottish Budget by 2029-30, for which ministers have not provided detailed plans, and believes that Scotland deserves better than this, but that it needs to be a change with fairness at its heart.”
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