No raid on funds for enterprise

YOUR article “SNP raid to plug building fund hole” (News, 16 October) claimed that the government planned to take £280 million from Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to fill a funding gap. That is simply not true.

I have consistently stressed the importance of sustained capital investment to economic recovery and the creation of jobs. That is why I have decided to switch around £800m from resource spending to capital investment over the next three years. This is our response to the UK Government’s real terms cut of 36 per cent to Scotland’s allocated capital budget over the spending review period, compared with 2010-11. I am maintaining the enterprise bodies’ operational spending at current levels and seeking further savings from increased efficiencies. The flexibility to switch will mean all transfers from resource within the enterprise programme going to capital projects within the enterprise programme, funding projects such as expansion at the Fife Energy Park, the International Technology and Renewable Energy Zone in Glasgow, the development of the Dundee Waterfront, the Inverness Campus and Scrabster Harbour and projects coming forward through the £70 million National Renewables Infrastructure Fund.

Using other innovative financing mechanisms, Scottish Government-supported capital investment will be 25 per cent higher in 2014-15 than in 2011-12 – a practical measure by this Government to boost employment and support long term economic recovery.

John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth