Demands to spend £500m in unallocated Scotland cash to stop job loss 'tsunami'

A government slush fund of more than half a billion needs to be spent to prevent a “looming tsunami” of job losses and to get Scotland’s NHS up and running fully again, it has been claimed.

Cabinet Secretary for Finance Kate Forbes and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon have been urged to use all unallocated funding to support jobs when furlough ends.

Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson Jackie Baillie said £537m was left unallocated by the Scottish Government in last week’s autumn budget revisions and urged finance minister Kate Forbes not to hold on to it until spring next year.

"There is no sense in saving money for a rainy day when the nation is in the midst of an economic tempest,” she said.

Ms Baillie has now called for a statement from Ms Forbes on the unallocated funding, which The Scotsman understands will be made in Holyrood tomorrow.

She said with a “tsunami of job losses looming and the NHS still not fully re-mobilised” it was “vital” the Government allocated the funding "urgently”.

The funding should be spent on “swiftly implementing” a quality Jobs Guarantee Scheme, she said, as well as giving more cash to health boards to get all NHS functions running again. Further funding should also go to Scotland’s councils and to support financially-struggling families.

Ms Baillie said: “With the economy in crisis and the pandemic once more gathering steam, it is incredible that the Scottish Government has decided to leave over half a billion pounds of funding unallocated.

“The scale of the crisis before us demands immediate action, not dither and delay. These funds must be reallocated swiftly to protect jobs, support the NHS and our councils, and to provide those living in debt with the breathing space that they need.

“There is no sense in saving money for a rainy day when the nation is in the midst of an economic tempest. We have no time to lose.”

The revisions to the Scottish Government’s budget were made last week, with a further £2.5 billion allocated to respond to coronavirus, bringing the total committed so far to dealing with the pandemic to more than £6.5bn.

At the time Ms Forbes said spending had now exceeded the cash Holyrood ministers had received from the Treasury, and the government was “severely limited” as to what it could do. She criticised Chancellor Rishi Sunak for cancelling the UK Budget and said it would “increase uncertainty” over public finances in Scotland.

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