John Swinney set to reverse Humza Yousaf's £200m housing cut in SNP Government Budget

John Swinney is set to reverse Humza Yousaf’s brutal £200m cut to housing in a full reset of the SNP Government. In a victory for the Daily Record, the First Minister’s Finance Secretary Shona Robison is poised to announce the decision in today's Budget.

Yousaf was widely panned after he delivered a £196m cut to affordable housing last December. The move angered critics who pointed out that the country is in the grip of a housing emergency and homelessness crisis.

We have led the way in exposing the harm caused by the housing cuts and Swinney is poised to bin the Yousaf policy by restoring the funding.

The SNP Government may also increase the housing budget over and above wiping out the previous cut. Ahead of the Budget, housing groups have pleaded with Swinney to axe the Yousaf cut.

Sally Thomas, chief executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Association, said yesterday: “This Budget needs to be a turning point: Ministers have repeatedly promised that housing would be the priority should there be an increase in the capital budget.

“The Scottish Government can now choose to keep its promise and reinvest in the affordable rented housing we so desperately need. That means reversing last year’s hammer-blow cut and taking immediate action to tackle spiralling waiting lists. Anything less would be unconscionable and would seriously jeopardise the First Minister’s defining mission to eradicate child poverty.”

Robison’s Budget will be Swinney's first tax and spending plan since taking over from Yousaf this year. An extra £3.4bn in funds from the Labour Government will result in a boost in public spending, with the NHS and housing benefiting.

Income tax rates are not expected to rise, but scrapping the council tax freeze is likely to result in an increase in the levy from town halls.

With Swinney leading a minority Government, he needs support from opposition parties and the Lib Dems are this year’s likely kingmakers. The Greens voted for previous Budgets but relations with the SNP have cooled after they were brutally ditched from Government by Yousaf.

Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, who wants extra cash for councils and health as well as an end to funding for the national care service, said no deal had yet been done: “It is fair to say there is still some considerable distance to travel and they are going to have to pull out all the stops to persuade us.”

He also insisted the Budget should not contain funding for promoting independence, saying the Government must not “waste time or energy on fighting the divisive arguments of the past”. He added: “We’re going to look and see what the detail of the Budget is tomorrow and then we will enter more discussions.”

Swinney, who secured the support of rival parties for budgets when he was Alex Salmond’s finance secretary, reached out to the opposition yesterday: “The Government will set out a Budget which is a product of an extensive amount of dialogue and discussion with all political parties.

“But also with multiple stakeholders in Scotland, in the business community, in local government and in the third sector.”

The Greens, who have complained about Swinney ditching some of the policies they delivered in Government, remain in dialogue with Ministers. But a senior party source played down the prospect of a deal unless Swinney makes major compromises. Green MSPs are demanding increased investment in climate action, an expansion of free school meals for P6 and 7 pupils and a £2 bus fare cap.

Meanwhile, Labour and Tories are expected to oppose the Budget regardless of its content. A failure to pass the Budget next year could result in an early Holyrood election, an outcome Labour finance chief Michael Marra is flagging up.

He said: “This budget is an opportunity to turn the page on 17 years of SNP failure – anything else will not do. Scottish Labour will fight an election before backing a bad budget and subjecting Scots to another year of SNP misery.”

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