Scottish Budget RECAP: Scottish Government confirms no limit to council tax rises in 2023/24
Scotland’s Deputy First Minister has announced an increase to income tax for the highest earners and scrapped funding for another independence referendum in next year’s budget.
John Swinney published the draft budget on Thursday, against what he said was the “most turbulent economic and financial context most people can remember”, saying an increase to the highest rates of income tax in Scotland would allow for an extra £1 billion in spending on health and social care.
He said standard and basic rates of tax would not change.
Here’s a recap of how the day unfolded.
Scottish Budget LIVE: Scottish Government confirms no limit to council tax rises in 2023/24
Good morning and welcome to our live blog on an imprtant day in Scottish politics, with FMQs followed by the Budget announcement.
Scottish Greens finance spokesman Ross Greer said the budget will have “people and planet at the core”.
Scotland’s biggest teaching union, the EIS, has urged the Scottish Government to give adequate funding for a new pay settlement for teachers.
The profession has been locked in a dispute in recent months, with further strike action planned for early in the new year.
BREAKING: Members of the GMB union have become the first to reject a new pay deal offered by the Scottish Government for NHS staff.
Full story HERE
Meanwhile FMQs is underway. Douglas Ross has opened FMQs by asking about the attainment gap, and what the Scottish Government’s aims were adding that Nicola Sturgeon has failed in her promise to close it
The First Minister lists a hosts of achievements her government have achieved in closing the attainment gap, but like any other nation Scotland has been impacted by Covid.
Douglas Ross adds that the gap has only just returned to 2016 levels.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has quizzed the First Minister on worsening waiting times for cancer patients in Scotland. He asks “When will our cancer waiting times be met?”
He cites the percentage of targets being missed. The First Minister says that there has been some improvements in recent figures but she accepts that more needs to be done to meet targets.
Rachel Hamilton, and Labour’s Jackie Baillie both took the opportunity to ask about the antibiotic shortage alert notice issued by the Scottish Government.
The First Minister adds there is not an overall shortage adding that medicine supply is a reserved matter.
As mentioned below, the reports on the BBC website while FMQs was ongoing created a number of points of order at the conclusion of FMQs. Here are some key points from the reports on the BBC,
- Income tax rates for higher earners are expected to be increased in Scotland for the next financial year.
- Tax in Scotlans expected to put up the higher rate of tax from 41p to 42p in the pound and to increase the top rate from 46p to 47p.
- The tax threshold for the top rate is also expected to be lowered from £150,000 to closer to £125,000.
While we await news from the Scottish Parliament, there was also some significant news this afternoon with the Bank of England hiking interest rates.
Aspiring first-time buyers have been warned they may need to lower their ambitions as another Bank of England base rate hike adds to mortgage costs.
Thursday’s base rate hike from 3% to 3.5% will add around £49 per month to the average tracker mortgage, according to calculations from trade association UK Finance.
Since December last year, the average tracker mortgage cost has increased by around £333 per month.
Around four-fifths of mortgages are fixed rates, but borrowers on these deals may well get a bill shock when their fixed-rate deal comes to an end.
As well as following this blog, we will have a live stream of the Scottish Budget. Here are further details about how to watch and timings.
BREAKING: Holyrood’s Budget has been delayed for 30 minutes to allow Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone to continue her “deliberations” after the leak of income tax changes.
The Budget was delayed after serveral points of order were raised at FMQs after the BBC reported that John Swinney planned to put up the higher rate of tax from 41p to 42p in the pound and to increase the top rate from 46p to 47p.
The tax threshold for the top rate is also expected to be lowered from £150,000 to closer to £125,000.
MSPs called several points of order as the announcement had been due to be raised to the chamber before the media.