Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will have to contribute £704 million towards the overall UK cuts this year.
Among the package of cuts outlined by George Osborne and David Laws yesterday was an announcement that collectively, the devolved bodies would have to contribute £704 million towards the overall UK cuts; this will mean:
• £332.46 million of cuts to the budget of the Scottish Government, taking into account £42.2 million of funding from “recycled savings”;
• £162.5 million out of the Welsh budget, with recycled savings of £24.4 million cushioning the blow; and
• £128 of spending reductions in Northern Ireland.
Scotland
Responding to the Treasury’s announcement, SNP Finance Secretary John Swinney said:
“At a time when economic recovery is extremely fragile, the spending cuts outlined by the Treasury risk undermining recovery and damaging our comprehensive work to support the Scottish economy. These further spending cuts are on top of a £500 million reduction imposed on this year’s Scottish finances in the then Chancellor’s 2009 Budget.
“The Scottish Government will prioritise economic recovery. That is why we are planning to defer these further cuts until the following year, in order that we can entrench economic recovery.”
Swinney’s comments, however, came after the Scottish Government’s chief economic adviser Andrew Goldie and economist Professor David Bell of Stirling University both warned that leaving cuts until next year could leave Scotland facing cuts worth £1 billion.
Wales
Echoing the Scottish Government, Labour’s Welsh Budget minister, Jane Hutt, made clear that to cut this year would be bad for Wales, saying:
“We are all agreed that we need to reduce the deficit and reduce the national debt. Wales will play its part in this. But making unplanned cuts in spending this year would be bad for Wales – bad for businesses in Wales, bad for jobs in Wales and bad for public services in Wales.”
In July 2009, the Holtham Commission reported Wales was losing out to the tune of £300 million a year under the Barnett Formula. Despite this unfairness, the UK government in its Coalition Agreement decided to kick reform of the formula into the long grass.
Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, a more pragmatic approach seemed to be being taken. Democratic Unionist Party finance minister Sammy Wilson said:
“We knew it was coming down the line and when departments surrender money through the year as inevitably they do, we can maybe use some of that to offset these cuts that have been imposed on us. So it might be a combination of some deferral, some implementation now, or deferral or full implementation now.”
Meanwhile, the nationalist SDLP called for changes closer to home. Responding to the Chancellor’s announcement, the party’s former leader, Mark Durkan, said:
“The current situation only serves to further highlight the urgent need to look again at our own budget. Set back in 2008 the three-year Executive Budget which the SDLP voted against is no longer fit for purpose. But Sinn Féin and the DUP have refused to change anything.”
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4 Responses to “ConDem cuts – what it means for the devolved bodies”
Anon E Mouse
Ed – Which is fine but instead of hand wringing and moaning perhaps you could enlighten us on how you’d pay back the largest peacetime debt the last Labour government left us with.
I know, without exception, every Labour government has always left the UK in a worse position than the one they inherited in terms of unemployment, government debt and inequality but this time it really is *beyond* and I’m afraid we need to grit our teeth and put up with it.
No matter how often you say it this government is not responsible for this lot. End of boom and bust? Yeah right.
Billy Blofeld
“ConDem cuts”
We mustn’t forget whose cuts these really are: Labour’s.
If Labour hadn’t crashed the economy and nations finances we wouldn’t be in this situation.
Mr. Sensible
Mr Mouse and Billy, if we are in so much of a mess then how can the coalition afford to fund their pet projects, such as on education?
Look Left – The Week in Fast Forward | Left Foot Forward
[…] cuts would “blight the prospects” of young people and threaten jobs, and there was also concern from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland over the impact of the […]