Latest news with #ScottishSpendingReview
Daily Record
2 days ago
- Health
- Daily Record
'Further blow' over new Ayr National Treatment Centre
The plans were put on hold in February last year due to funding problems. The future of The National Treatment Centre at Carrick Glen Hospital, Ayr, won't be known until December. The plans were put on hold in February last year due to funding problems. However, the Scottish Government is now saying there won't be any update on its future until the end of the year. Ayrshire Live previously told how NHS Ayrshire & Arran were forced to 'pause' any new capital projects, including Carrick Glen, from the Scottish Government because of budget constraints. In April 2022, £1.8m of public money was used to purchase Carrick Glen Hospital in order to take it out of the private sector. At the time the overall plan was to build 10 National Treatment Centres across the country and thus reduce waiting times. It was supposedly part of £400m investment in 10 centres across the country from the Scottish Government. They were touted to play a 'pivotal role' in reducing waiting times. Carrick Glen was due to be operational in 2025 and help reduce waiting times in orthopaedics. However, with no fresh finance going towards its completion, the Carrick Glen Hospital plan, which passed all planning hurdles in the summer of 2023, remains in a state of paralysis. And news of this fresh delay has been greeted with dismay. South Scotland Labour List MSP, Colin Smyth, said: 'This is a further blow to plans for a treatment centre in Ayr. 'New National Treatment Centres were at the heart of the SNP's NHS Recovery Plan and these delays spell disaster for waiting lists in the south of Scotland.' Mr Smyth continued: 'This will be very worrying news for patients in south Scotland who are languishing on waiting lists, and show just what a serious situation our NHS is facing. 'Hospitals in Ayrshire, and across the whole of south Scotland, are under huge amounts of pressure and every month we see yet more record high waiting lists. 'Our amazing NHS staff are doing all they can, but they can't work miracles and need the improved facilities they were promised.' The Scottish Government did say they were spending more than £1bn on NHS capital investment this year. A spokesperson added: 'As part of our own Scottish Spending Review, we are undertaking a full review of our capital spending to prioritise the available funding towards projects that drive progress against our priorities. 'We will provide clarity over which projects and programmes will receive funding in the medium term when we publish our new infrastructure pipeline, alongside the 2026-27 Budget and Scottish Spending Review. 'The publication of the new pipeline will put our capital budget back on a sustainable trajectory.'
Scotsman
7 days ago
- Business
- Scotsman
SNP ministers to axe public sector jobs as near £5bn funding black hole emerges
Shona Robison has warned compulsory redundancies will be considered if 'no other route' to cutting jobs is available in order to balance the books. Sign up to our Politics newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... SNP ministers are poised to shed public-sector jobs after bracing for a near £5 billion funding black hole by 2030 - amid a warning 'more than 10,000 workers could be tossed on the scrapheap'. The Scottish Government's medium-term financial strategy has revealed public services pressures and 'the cost of achieving statutory net zero and child poverty targets' will put strain on the Scottish Government's finances. The door has been opened to compulsory redundancies if not enough jobs are cut through other means. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad STUC general secretary Roz Foyer labelled the strategy as 'scything cuts to Scotland's public services'. St Andrew's House is the Scottish Government's headquarters, based in Edinburgh. | TSPL Savings worth £2.6bn will be needed to balance the books for day-to-day spending by the end of the decade. The document also predicts an additional funding gap of £2.1bn for capital investment plans. Capital spending is forecast to increase from £7.2bn in 2025-26 to £9.2bn by 2030, with more money poised to be allocated to affordable housing, public transport and a flagship strategy to decarbonise buildings. Finance Secretary Shona Robison blamed the deficit on less money being handed to Holyrood from Westminster than to core UK government departments, but Labour has accused the Scottish Government of having 'spectacularly mismanaged Scotland's budget'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Scottish Government is poised to see its social security bill rise to almost £9bn by 2029. Funding gap could reach £3.5bn The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned the funding deficit could be closer to £3.5bn - rather than just £2.6bn - due to 'optimistic' forecasts in the strategy that 'assume earnings grow significantly faster in Scotland than in the rest of the UK'. A Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan (FSDP) sets out that a Scottish Spending Review will set a savings target of between £300m and £700m a year over five years. Efficiency and productivity improvements, alongside reforming public services, is forecast to see savings grow from £600m to £1.5bn a year over the five-year period. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Compulsory redundancies on the table A target of cutting the public sector workforce by an average of 0.5 per cent every year until 2030 is expected to see savings grow from £100m to £700m a year. Ms Robison told MSPs the Scottish Government will 'reshape and reform our public services'. She said: 'We will set a public sector workforce managed reduction target to reduce staffing levels by an average of 0.5 per cent per year until 2030. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'This will be achieved by reforming our public services as set out in the public services reforms strategy and through natural attrition and recruitment controls. SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison 'By taking this action, we will protect valuable frontline services and continue to offer a progressive pay policy, which recognises that our public sector workforce is our most valuable asset.' Ms Robison insisted 'no compulsory redundancies maintains to be the default position'. But she added: 'As a last resort, once all steps have been taken through voluntary severance, through redeployment - if there is no other route and there are no jobs for those people involved, then the compulsory redundancy can be considered.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The delayed document warns 'without action, the difference between projected funding and estimated spending is set to grow from a balanced budget in 2025-26, to £2.6 billion in 2029-30'. Net zero, poverty and services pressures It adds that 'day-to-day government spending … continues to face pressures from growing demand for public services and the cost of achieving statutory net zero and child poverty targets'. The document says: 'The devolved public sector wage bill is also a significant driver of projected costs, recognising the proportionately larger and better paid public sector in Scotland. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'This is due to investment that Scottish Government has made in our workforces over many years. However, the wage bill needs to be more sustainable going forward. Spending pressures in health and social care are particularly acute.' David Phillips, associate director at the IFS, stressed 'tougher financial choices lie ahead, including public sector job cuts'. He added: 'By 2029-30, a funding gap of £2.6bn a year for day-to-day spending is projected. That is roughly equivalent to spending on Scottish police and fire services, or the revenue from increasing all rates of income tax in Scotland by around 4 percentage points. 'Current forecasts for the contribution of devolved tax revenues to the Scottish Budget are likely optimistic, as they assume earnings grow significantly faster in Scotland than in the rest of the UK from 2026–27 onwards. All else equal, if earnings instead grew at the same rate as in the rest of the UK, the 'funding gap' for day-to-day spending would be closer to £3.5bn.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad STUC general secretary Roz Foyer | Andrew Milligan/PA Wire Ms Foyer said: 'They may dress it up as efficiencies, but this strategy proposes scything cuts to Scotland's public services. Over the next five years, more than 10,000 workers could be tossed on the scrapheap. 'At a time when ordinary people are crying out for help, our population is ageing, the climate crisis deepens, and public services are starved of funding, this strategy should have been a turning point towards a fairer, more progressive taxation system. Instead, we got cuts to our public services presented to us as some form of salvation.' Political 'courage' demand The trade union leader added: 'It's hollow to keep talking about improving schools, hospitals and care homes without acknowledging that it will take serious, sustained public investment. You cannot cut the staff who support these services and expect them to improve. 'We know Scottish ministers face fiscal constraints, but we need vision and political courage to build a better Scotland. Unfortunately, today ministers have chosen to cut public services rather than use their powers to help redistribute wealth, tackle inequality and invest in our collective future.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Scottish Labour's finance spokesperson Michael Marra Scottish Labour finance spokesperson Michael Marra said: 'This SNP Government is gearing up to make cuts because it has spectacularly mismanaged Scotland's budget. It is SNP ministers and their choices that have created a structural resource deficit of £2.6bn.' He added: 'The SNP's plans mean a funding cut of at least 12 per cent to Scotland's NHS and huge reductions in frontline workers – cuts to mitigate their incompetence. 'All of this comes at a time when A&E waiting times are atrocious, cancer waiting times are at their worst point on record, ministers are admitting lives are being lost, domestic abuse statistics are at a record high, and housebuilding rates are plummeting.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Scottish Conservative shadow finance and local government secretary Craig Hoy branded the strategy 'too little, too late to address years of gross financial incompetence'. He said: 'Thanks to the nationalists' mismanagement Scots will be facing continued tax rises or cuts to public services in the coming years.
Scotsman
25-06-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
SNP ministers to axe public sector jobs as £2.6bn funding black hole emerges
Shona Robison has warned compulsory redundancies will be considered if 'no other route' to cutting jobs is available in order to balance the books. Sign up to our Politics newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... SNP ministers are poised to shed public-sector jobs after bracing for a £2.6 billion funding black hole by 2030 - with an admission that the wage bill is a 'significant driver' of soaring costs. A stark document has warned that public services pressures and 'the cost of achieving statutory net zero and child poverty targets' will put strain on the Scottish Government's finances - with the door opened to compulsory redundancies if not enough jobs are cut through other means. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Savings worth £2.6bn will be needed to balance the books by the end of the decade. St Andrew's House is the Scottish Government's headquarters, based in Edinburgh. | TSPL The Scottish Government has published its medium-term financial strategy - painting a bleak picture of the public finances by 2030 without intervention. A Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan (FSDP) sets out that a Scottish Spending Review will set a savings target of between £300m and £700m a year over five years, while efficiency and productivity improvements alongside reforming public services, is forecast to see savings grow from £600m to £1.5bn a year over the five-year period. A target of cutting the public sector workforce by an average of 0.5 per cent every year until 2030 is expected to see savings growing from £100m to £700m a year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison told MSPs that the Scottish Government will 'reshape and reform our public services'. She added: 'We will set a public sector workforce managed reduction target to reduce staffing levels by an average of 0.5 per cent per year until 2030. 'This will be achieved by reforming our public services as set out in the public services reforms strategy and through natural attrition and recruitment controls. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison 'By taking this action, we will protect valuable frontline services and continue to offer a progressive pay policy which recognises that our public sector workforce is our most valuable asset.' Ms Robison insisted that 'no compulsory redundancies maintains to be the default position'. But she added: 'As a last result, once all steps have been taken through voluntary severance, through redeployment - if there is no other route and there are no jobs for those people involved, then the compulsory redundancy can be considered.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The delayed document warns that 'without action, the difference between projected funding and estimated spending is set to grow from a balanced budget in 2025-26, to £2.6 billion in 2029-30'. It adds that 'day-to-day government spending…continues to face pressures from growing demand for public services and the cost of achieving statutory net zero and child poverty targets'. It adds: 'The devolved public sector wage bill is also a significant driver of projected costs, recognising the proportionately larger and better paid public sector in Scotland.
