Scottish Government must sensibly spend extra £3.4b given in UK Budget

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Rachel Reeves handed the Scottish Government £3.4billion of extra cash this week. It’s now up to SNP ministers to spend it sensibly.

The clear priorities should be our NHS, schools and crumbling public services. Tens of thousands of Scots remain stuck on waiting lists, many of them uncertain of when they will begin badly needed treatments.

Many are choosing to take on considerable debt to pay for a private procedure as they are at their wits’ end. Meanwhile, pupils across Scotland are at the mercy of a postcode lottery when it comes to the condition of their schools.

If they’re lucky, the building may have been built or refurbished in the last 20 years. Many others are being taught in schools which are considerably older and have been patched up at best.

It’s a similar story when it comes to hospitals – with Monklands Hospital in Health Secretary Neil Gray’s own constituency deemed not up to standard. The windfall from Reeves’s big-spending Budget must be used to improve the public services we all rely on.

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However, the SNP are right to say they won’t spend the money fixing problems created by Westminster. The two-child cap on benefits is a despicable policy implemented by the Tories a decade ago. It’s up to the new Labour Government to scrap it. The sooner that’s done, the better.

It shouldn’t always be up to Holyrood to fix bad policies imposed by Westminster. The SNP Government has more than enough to be getting on with.

Reeves is right when she says Scots expect improvements in their health service. Patients deserve results, not more empty promises of reform. Holyrood and Westminster must take responsibility for their own decisions.

Homes for all

Rents for Scottish families are far too high – and have been for years.

That’s why the SNP Government is right to push ahead with a law to cap rent increases. This move should stop greedy landlords from taking advantage of a housing shortage to massively hike the money they make.

It will also provide families with some security as they will not face huge and unexpected rises. But this is just one of the measures needed to tackle the housing emergency which our country faces. We need to go further and start building social housing in big numbers again.

This would provide good-quality, affordable homes for families across Scotland. Instead, the Scottish Government inexplicably cut the affordable housing budget last year. If devolution has a purpose, it is to improve the everyday lives of Scottish families.

Providing decent affordable housing for all should be a priority – not an afterthought.

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