Tories may back SNP bridge cash proposal

Published on Thursday 28 May 2009 22:03

THE SNP government might succeed in its plan to spread the cost of the new Forth Bridge over the next dozen years – but only if the Conservatives win the next election.

Philip Hammond, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, promised yesterday to look again at the proposals if the Tories form the next government at Westminster.

The SNP plan, which would involve paying the 2.5 billion cost of the new road bridge over the next 12 years, was rejected by the Westminster Labour government last year.

Instead, the Scottish Government has to find all the money from the three or four years from 2012 when the bridge is actually under construction.

With a squeeze on public spending and a limited transport budget, SNP ministers have already warned many other infrastructure projects will have to be delayed or cancelled to meet the costs of the new Forth Bridge.

But Mr Hammond's intervention suggests that the Scottish Government would, at the very least, be greeted with a more sympathetic ear if the Tories return to power next year and, at the most, might provide them with the time they want to spread the cost out until 2021.

Mr Hammond held private talks with John Swinney, the SNP finance secretary, yesterday.

Afterwards, he told The Scotsman: "Of course we would look at this issue; it would be part of our engagement with the Scottish Government."

And he added: "

We have ruled nothing in and nothing out.

"We are not in a position to make commitments from opposition, clearly we don't have the technical support from the Treasury.

"But I think we have now got a good understanding of the issues, of how the Scottish Government sees those issues and some sense of the way in which the Westminster government is currently, or not, dealing with those issues."

The meeting between Mr Hammond and Mr Swinney was the first to talk in detail about financial issues for the devolved government if, as many experts expect, the Tories form the next government at Westminster.

Mr Swinney raised the issue of Labour's plans to squeeze public spending over the next two years and he wanted to know whether the Tories would implement the same 1 billion worth of cuts planned by Labour.

Mr Hammond said afterwards that he could not go into detail about the Tory plans but he stressed that every government department and administration had to be prepared for a public spending squeeze because of the mess the public finances are in.