Swinney pledges £3.5m to pay for capital city status

Published on Friday 9 January 2009 08:49

EDINBURGH was today promised an extra £3.5 million to help meet the additional costs of being Scotland's capital – a tenth of what the city says it needs.

The cash is a fraction of the 33m a year burden which council chiefs calculated the city has to shoulder because of its capital status but city leaders today welcomed the extra money.

Finance Secretary John Swinney announced the new funding – the first time the city's special role has been recognised financially – as he outlined the Scottish Government's budget.

Edinburgh will also get a share of the 90m of accelerated capital spending, which Mr Swinney said would go to local authorities over the next financial year, raising the prospect of cash at last for the next phase of the city's school replacement and refurbishment programme.

And Scottish Enterprise is to invest an extra 15m in the Edinburgh Bio-Quarter close to the Royal Infirmary at Little France.

An aide to Mr Swinney said: "For the first time, a Scottish budget is making provision for a capital city supplement.

"Edinburgh City Council can use this additional 3.5m for their frontline priorities."

The SNP promised Edinburgh a capital city supplement as part of last year's budget negotiations to secure the backing of independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald for its package.

Today Ms MacDonald said the government had originally proposed a figure closer to 3m but she had been able to negotiate the extra 500,000.

She said: "It's no secret John Swinney is absolutely up against the wire and so at a time of recession to have established the principle and been able to negotiate a figure is better than it might have been.

"But I have informed him I reserve the right to come back during this year if the deterioration in the Edinburgh city-region's economy is more severe than predicted."

Last year, city chiefs earmarked 3.3m of their own money as a "capital city supplement" as part of the 2008-09 budget.

However, in their submission to the Government, city leaders outlined a wide range of pressures that Edinburgh faces because of its capital city status, including international visits, ceremonial events and dozens of protest marches every year. The total extra cost came to 32,834,000.