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Scottish households and businesses are crying out for help as they struggle to keep afloat in a sea of rising bills. Any sensible government would recognise that support is essential in this week’s budget and act accordingly.
Sadly, I won’t be holding my breath because it’s being presented by the party that has actively fuelled the cost-of-living crisis for years.
The SNP’s tax-and-spend policies have brought families and businesses to breaking point to pay for a spiralling benefits bill.
The majority of Scots workers already pay more income tax than they would in England, with middle-earners on around £50,000 being hit for £1,500 more.
Without a reversal of the freeze on thresholds proposed by Labour and the Nats, most full-time workers will be dragged into higher tax bands by 2029.
Yes, that’s right, the average full-time worker, not ‘those with the broadest shoulders’ as the SNP like to pretend. If this continues, by the end of the next Scottish Parliament they will be forking out an extra £1,800 per year.
Hammering Scots with the highest taxes in the UK might be justifiable if we got more in return, but under John Swinney’s government our NHS, schools and other frontline services are going backwards.
The SNP are incapable of reducing costs. They announced that they intended to save £1billion a year on government admin. Since then, there’s been a huge increase in salary costs.
Scottish households are crying out for help as they struggle to keep afloat in a sea of rising bills
While people struggle with soaring energy, food and housing bills, the SNP are spending £1.3 billion more on benefits than they receive through the block grant every single year. By the end of the decade, Scotland’s total welfare bill will be nearly £10 billion.
The only place to get that money will be from the taxpayer’s pocket. And John Swinney, if he’s still First Minister, won’t hesitate to take that option, because he doesn’t just excuse higher taxes as an unfortunate necessity – he thinks they’re a good thing, and frequently boasts about it.
He and Shona Robison are fond of saying that they are “asking” people to pay more, as if it were an option, like donating to charity.
But Scottish taxpayers have to pay for the disastrous political choices of the SNP, whether they like it or not.
The other Holyrood parties have all lined up to vote with the nationalists on some of their worst legislation, including tax rises.
Anas Sarwar has already said that he won’t oppose the SNP budget this week – even though he doesn’t know what’s in it.
That tells you everything you need to know about Labour’s uselessness as an opposition, and their readiness to pursue exactly the same wasteful left-wing agenda as the Nats.
Every other party, including Reform, would maintain or extend current welfare spending, even though independent economic analysis says that it is unaffordable and unsustainable.
In contrast, the Scottish Conservatives are proposing lower taxes and fairer benefits.
In the budget, the SNP should increase both the higher rate threshold and the point at which you start paying tax and accept our calls for a cut in the basic rate to 19 per cent.
That’s the bare minimum. Those measures alone would save Scots workers up to £718 a year.
After almost 20 years of nationalist rule, Scottish households and businesses are feeling the pinch as never before. Eye-watering energy costs also drive up the price of almost everything else, from the grocery shop to construction and manufacturing.
Now that Scotland has two left-wing governments, we are getting a double dose of this medicine, and it is paralysing the economy.
Labour’s national insurance hikes have had a devastating impact on businesses, while the SNP’s additional income tax rates, endless regulations and red tape are strangling growth.
The business rates revaluation, due to come into force in April, is the latest existential threat to Scottish firms. The hospitality sector is facing Armageddon, with some businesses being handed a 400 per cent rise in bills.
The UK Labour government were forced into a partial U-turn on rates rises by the outcry in England and it’s imperative that the SNP take action in Scotland, where the business climate is even more hostile. Otherwise, it’s game over for many Scottish firms.
My party are demanding an immediate pause to the rates revaluation, as well as full rates relief for the hospitality sector for commercial properties valued up to £100,000 and an extension of the Small Business Support Scheme to provide 100 per cent relief for properties worth up to £20,000.
Growth is the only way to produce prosperity. It is crucial to expand businesses, create jobs and open up new opportunities.
If the SNP don’t heed the call from us and business groups, they risk killing off thousands of Scottish jobs. That is the bleak and stark reality.
The Nationalists’ hostility to business must end.