Scottish independence: SNP demands funding for ‘shovel-ready’ projects

It follows a meeting between Prime Minister David Cameron and First Minister Alex Salmond last month, at which the SNP leader raised the prospect of dipping into future years’ budgets to release spending now and boost growth.

However, the Treasury said it had provided an extra £300m in spending for capital projects in Scotland just a few months ago.

The issue is likely to dominate the SNP conference over the next two days as Nationalists gather in Glasgow, with Mr Salmond making a keynote address to delegates today.

Scottish infrastructure secretary Alex Neil said 36 “shovel-ready” projects, worth more than £300m, could get started now if the Treasury gave Scotland the green light to access the “accelerated” spending.

“If these projects got under way this year, rather than being delayed, they would generate significant employment impacts that would be vital as we continue to do all we can to tackle unemployment,” he said.

Scotland’s jobless total stands at 231,000, with youth unemployment accounting for about half. The SNP government says that each additional £100m of capital spending supports 1,400 jobs in the economy.

“The Scottish Government will go on doing what we can, but we need the UK government to allow us to bring forward capital spending to get the diggers on the ground and these projects built as soon as possible,” Mr Neil said.

All the projects are close to, or have already completed, the planning and procurement processes. As spending cuts bite in Scotland, capital budgets for major building projects are being particularly badly hit, falling by a third in the year ahead.

But a Treasury spokeswoman said that the Scottish Government has already received significant extra funding in the recent autumn statement.

“Only four months ago, the UK government provided an extra £300m for capital projects in Scotland,” she said. “It is for the Scottish Government to decide how to spend this money.

“We have repeatedly supported the Scottish Government with capital projects, by providing an additional £50m for the Caledonian Sleeper service, and access to £100m of pre-payments to bring forward work on the Forth Road Crossing.”

Among the projects on the Scottish Government list, which was submitted to the Treasury last week, are work on Ullapool Pier, worth £4m, £13m for the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Virology Research, a £6m upgrade of Inverness Campus research complex and £37m for Clyde Gateway developments at Bridgeton Cross, Dalmarnock Cross, Rutherglen and Shawfield.

Mr Neil said: “The Scottish Government has always been clear that investing in our infrastructure is one of the primary ways to create jobs and stimulate growth in our economy. That is why Westminster cuts in our capital budget of 32 per cent are both wrong and damaging.”

It is not the first time that the SNP government has appealed to Westminster for “accelerated” funding to boost building developments.

It secured hundreds of millions of pounds from the last Labour government in 2008-9 and 2009-10 which allowed projects such as the Fife Energy Park and the SECC in Glasgow, and roadworks including A96 Fochabers bypass, to go ahead.

There was also £120m in housing projects to support around 2,000 homes and £90m invested through local authorities in school building programmes.

Mr Cameron suggested to Mr Salmond during their recent meeting that he accepted the principle of bringing forward capital investment, according to Mr Neil. But the Prime Minister explained there are not suitable shovel-ready projects in England which could receive funding to begin in 2012 or 2013.

“That is not the case in Scotland, and the First Minister made that clear, and suggested supplying a list highlighting where opportunities exist,” Mr Neil added. “We have done that, showing there are valuable projects that will boost the economy and provide work, right across Scotland, that are ripe for investment now.”

But Labour infrastructure spokesman Richard Baker said that the SNP had delayed a “huge number” of building projects. “When they have proceeded with investment, millions of pounds worth of investment and jobs have gone abroad when far more could go to local Scottish firms,” he added.

He said that £302m was a drop in the ocean “when you consider that under the SNP, of the £800m Forth Crossing project – the single largest, most iconic infrastructure project in a generation – only £20m of investment has gone to Scottish firms”.

“At a time when unemployment is pushing 250,000, we need a guarantee from the SNP that if this money is brought forward it would result in more jobs for Scots, not more jobs and investment going to China, Poland and Spain as happened with the Forth Crossing.”

The Nationalists say they expect a record turn-out for their conference, which the party will use as a springboard to the council elections in May.