Pressure mounts on SNP to accept £1bn Forth Road Bridge 'lifeline'

Published on Thursday 5 March 2009 08:41

THE SNP was today under growing pressure to accept the UK Government's £1 billion "lifeline" to help fund the new Forth Road Bridge.

Treasury Minister Yvette Cooper yesterday outlined a funding package to cover half the cost of the 2 billion project, which she claimed could avoid an "unacceptable squeeze" on other spending.

At an hour-long meeting with Scottish Finance Minister John Swinney in London, she repeated her rejection of the Scottish Government's preferred method of paying for the new bridge by bringing forward money from its capital budgets over the next 20 years.

But she said Scotland could expect around 500 million from Westminster linked to spending on London's Crossrail scheme.

She said the rest of the 1bn could come from Scottish ministers being allowed to keep unspent cash and the proceeds from the sale of land and buildings.

Both sides described yesterday's talks as useful and constructive.

But the SNP insisted the Treasury proposal involved "no new money" and said it had already expected to receive Crossrail cash through the Barnett formula.

However, Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy said it was "the type of deal it's almost impossible the Scottish Government would say no to".

He said: "The UK Government put a 1bn offer on the table which was taken seriously by John Swinney.

"It's clear our offer will form an important part of the funding jigsaw required to build Scotland's most important infrastructure project in a generation."

Labour's Holyrood finance spokesman Andy Kerr described the package as a "great offer".

And he claimed it "dug the SNP out of a hole of their own making".

Mr Kerr continued: "It's also making a nonsense of the SNP claim that the UK Government doesn't deal constructively with the Scottish Government."

Edinburgh West Liberal Democrat MSP Margaret Smith said: "This seems to represent a much better position than we have had so far and if there is an acceptance by the UK Government that this is a crucial national project for the whole of the UK, not just something of interest to people in Scotland, that is something I welcome.

"The governments need to be working together on this. It should not be used by anyone as another way to have a go at each other."

A spokesman for Mr Swinney repeated the SNP's commitment that the bridge – due for completion in 2016 – would be built on time and on budget.

He said: "In terms of the various suggestions that were made, we're not actually talking about any new money.

"And we obviously still would wish progress to be made in relation to the key issue, which is being able to spread the costs over a longer period of time."