NICOLA Sturgeon has hit out at the economic “incompetence” of the UK Government as she decried the £1.7 billion impact of inflation on the Scottish Government’s budget.
The First Minister spoke at the annual conference held by the Poverty Alliance in Glasgow on Friday as the group marked 30 years since its foundation.
During her speech, Sturgeon outlined what the Scottish Government was doing to help people through the current cost-of-living crisis and spoke of her “deep frustration” that organisations like Poverty Alliance still need to exist.
The FM said times were “harder than it has been for some time”.
She added: “We are now in an era of double-digit inflation, the country is again in a recession, the Bank of England predicts that recession may last some time.
“As you know our powers are not unlimited, we have a largely fixed budget which has been eroded quite substantially by inflation.
“We don’t have extensive borrowing powers, don’t control energy markets, we can’t tax windfall profits or introduce a wealth tax.”
The FM added that Scotland was “too dependent” on the UK Government.
Although she welcomed some of the announcements made in Jeremy Hunt's autumn Budget, Sturgeon said it didn't go far enough.
She said it "showed a bit more concern for equality than had previously been the case" but that it was still "woefully inadequate" for many.
The Chancellor unveiled a package of tax rises and spending cuts worth £55 billion – as he was accused of making working people pick up the tab for the chaos caused by his predecessors.
The First Minister also singled out the Scottish Child Payment, a weekly payment of £25 for eligible children up to 16 years old, and called on Westminster to implement something similar.
Last week, the website for people applying for the next extended version of the benefit crashed with almost half of all children in Scotland eligible.
Sturgeon said the “massive demand” highlighted how important the scheme is. She said: “We have prioritised this payment as far as we can because we recognise how fundamental it is to the lives of children right now but also to future generations.
“I wish the UK Government would follow suit and will continue to press them to do so but because it is not yet doing so, we’re having to do it within a fixed budget.”
The FM spoke of the “significant investment” into social rent. She added that, per head of population, the number of homes built for social rent in Scotland was nine times that of England which was “an indication of priorities” in the Scottish Government compared to Westminster.
Speaking ahead of the event, Poverty Alliance director Peter Kelly said the organisation has “achieved a lot in the last 30 years to combat the injustice of poverty”.
He added: “These achievements show that ending poverty is a realistic and achievable goal.
“We can redesign our economy so that every worker gets at least the real living wage, and we can renew and rebuild our social security system so that every one of us has an income that’s enough to meet our needs.
“Now – during this time of crisis – is the moment for us to turn our shared values of compassion and justice into action and build a better future free from poverty.”
