6 days ago
Scots receive a record £2,669 more public spending each than UK average
Scots receive nearly £2,700 more public spending each than the UK average, according to official figures revealing that the gap has widened to record levels.
A major report, published by SNP ministers, showed total spending by the UK and Scottish Governments equated to £21,192 per person in Scotland in the 2024/25 financial year.
This compared with an average £18,523 of public spending per person across the UK as a whole – £2,669 lower than the figure for Scotland.
The cross-border spending gap was by far the largest on record, £2,311 up on the previous year and having nearly doubled over the previous decade.
The Scottish Government's annual Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland report also found public spending accounted for a record 52 per cent of the country's GDP, compared with 44.4 per cent of the UK as a whole. This was more than five points higher than before the pandemic.
And Scotland's deficit – the difference between total revenue and expenditure – has surged to 11.7 per cent of GDP. This was more than double the UK figure of 5.1 per cent and higher than anywhere else in Europe.
The report was published after SNP ministers recently confirmed they backed full fiscal autonomy, with Scotland getting control over all taxes and the abolition of the Barnett formula that provides the higher spending from Westminster.
But Ian Murray, the UK Government's Scottish Secretary, said that would mean a funding gap of more than £14bn, resulting in 'turbo-charged austerity and economic chaos for Scotland'.
He said: 'These figures underline the collective economic strength of the United Kingdom and how Scotland benefits from the redistribution of wealth inside the UK.
'By sharing resources with each other across the UK, Scots benefit by £2,669 more per head in public spending than the UK average. It also means that devolved governments have the financial heft of the wider UK behind them when taking decisions.'
Mr Murray added that Scots want to see 'better outcomes' from the extra money the SNP has to spend on schools, hospitals and policing.
Craig Hoy, the Scottish Tories' shadow finance secretary, said: 'The SNP Government's own figures highlight the huge, and rising, Union dividend that Scots enjoy thanks to being in a strong United Kingdom.
'Every single person in the country is almost £2,600 better off because we are part of the UK. If we lost that – as we would if the SNP achieved their goal of Scottish independence – it would have a catastrophic impact on the nation's finances.'
He said the figures also demonstrated the 'economic lunacy' of Sir Keir Starmer's opposition to allowing new exploration licences to be issued for the North Sea. Oil and gas revenues in Scotland's geographic share of the UK's waters fell by £800m last year to £4.1bn.
The Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland report is produced by Scottish Government economists and calculates public spending on devolved services, such as health and education, by SNP ministers and local authorities.
Scotland is also allocated a population share of spending by the UK Government on reserved policy areas such as defence and debt interest.
The report said the main reason for Scotland's deficit increasing from 9.7 per cent to 11.7 per cent was 'Scottish revenue growing more slowly and Scottish expenditure growing more quickly than the UK'.
Oil and gas raise tax revenue total
Public spending in Scotland rose by £6.2bn to £117.6bn last year, the report said, with the cost of benefits rising more quickly than across the UK. This was partly thanks to the Scottish Government's more generous welfare system.
Tax revenues north of the border totalled nearly £91.4bn, £91 per person higher than the UK average. However, they were £578 per person lower when oil and gas were excluded.
Scotland's 11. per cent notional deficit amounted to £26.5bn, a rise of more than £5bn compared to the previous year. The next highest deficits in the EU were recorded in Romania (9.3 per cent of GDP), Poland (6.6 per cent) and France (5.8 per cent).
Shona Robison, the Scottish finance secretary, said: 'The decisions we have taken here in Scotland are helping support sustainable public finances. For the fourth year in a row, devolved revenues have grown faster than devolved expenditure.
'Scotland's public finances are better than many other parts of the UK, with the third highest revenue per person in the UK, behind only London and the South East.'
But Struan Stevenson, the chief executive of the pro-Union Scottish Business UK group, said: 'The sharp rise of the 'Union dividend' once again in the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland figures show that independence would be a disastrous calamity for Scotland, costing us tens of billions and almost bankrupting the nation at a stroke.'
