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
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.
If you are just joining us expecting to have some details from the Scottish Budget - there has been a delay to proceedings, and we now expect the Budget after 3pm.
Alison Johnstone said she needed more time to investigate the alleged leak of Budget details to the media, so paused proceedings for 30 minutes.
She announced the pause just before Deputy First Minister John Swinney was due to stand up to deliver his annual speech, where he unveils key points of the Scottish Budget.
Referring to earlier points of order which were raised by MSPs, the Presiding Officer said: “As I said at that point, I would investigate this matter.
“I’ve been unable to conclude my deliberations in the time available and I’m therefore suspending this meeting for 30 minutes.”