Scotland given too much cash – expert

Published on Tuesday 17 June 2008 01:21

A LEADING political economist, close to Gordon Brown, has called for the scrapping of the Barnett formula, claiming that Scotland gets more than its fair share of UK public spending.

Iain McLean, professor in politics at Nuffield College, Oxford University – one of the independent specialists giving evidence to the Calman commission on Holyrood's financial powers – also said the Barnett formula was being used to tackle the threat of independence.

His comments came in a document ahead of his appearance before the committee today.

" It is reasonable to expect any fiscal future would involve a larger role for locally raised taxation, and a smaller role for block grant," he said.

Prof McLean stated little could be done to improve the budget process while the Barnett formula existed.

He also criticised the arrangement as it calculated spending purely on the needs of English government departments, with Scotland's share simply being the Barnett differentials of the English calculation.

In a second submission written with economists Guy Lodge and Katie Schmueckere, he said Scotland and Northern Ireland received too much money per head from the formula and questioned why Wales received less.