There was good news about the £20m investment in Inchgreen. This builds on the £11m of City Deal investment in the area. Hopefully the false dawns of previously interested parties now come to fruition and new jobs materialise.
The scrapping of the two-child cap, also known as the Rape Clause, is also welcomed. The SNP Government have been mitigating this in the Scottish Budget for a few years since the Tories introduced it.
At long last, Labour agrees with the SNP on this policy after voting against abolishing it in the Commons earlier this year.
We needed a step change from the UK Government with investment in public services, support for jobs and industry in Scotland and serious action on energy bills.
Instead, we got a chaotic mess and the increase in funding for the Scottish Government will not even cover half the cost of the Employer’s National Insurance Contributions introduced by the UK Labour Government this year.
This will have a direct impact on public services locally and across Scotland.
Energy bills are £337 higher than the Prime Minister promised. Logistics UK suggest bills and inflation will increase because of the higher taxation to affect their sector. People moving to electric or plug in hybrid vehicles will now be hit with a double whammy of both road tax and a mileage tax. This is hardly likely to encourage some to move from a petrol or diesel car.
I’m sure by the time this column is published on Monday, there will be more unravelling of the budget by financial experts.
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