The First Minister has said the SNP has “delivered the goods” on balancing the budget as he responded to concerns from a prominent think tank.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that a slowdown in cash from the UK Government, combined with growing demands – and costs – for health and social care and devolved Scottish benefits, together with a “hangover from some bad budgeting habits” by the last Scottish government, means whoever is in charge after May 7 will find their budget “under significant pressure”.
In a paper published 10 days before polling day, the institute said that plans to either expand the welfare state, as proposed by both the Scottish Greens and the SNP, or alternatively to cut taxes – as put forward by both Reform UK and the Scottish Conservatives – would require “difficult decisions elsewhere in the Scottish budget”.
The think thank examined the manifestos from the six major parties running in next week’s election: the SNP, Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservatives, Reform UK, the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Greens.
Responding to the report, Mr Swinney said the SNP had “delivered the goods” on the budget amid financial uncertainty.
He said: “The IFS are obviously entitled to their opinion and their commentary, but I would simply say that we’ve delivered the goods on balancing the budget, living within our resources, dealing with the effects of the financial crash in 2008, the years of Tory austerity, the negative impact of Brexit, the impact of Covid, the inflation spike that came from the war in Ukraine, the issues that we’re now wrestling with in relation to Iran, all of these issues have happened under… (an) SNP government.
“Major financial and fiscal challenges, and we’ve dealt with them, we’ve addressed them, we’ve worked to make sure we deliver for the people of Scotland, and that will be the approach we’ll take in the future.”
The First Minister’s comments came as he visited a food pantry in Northern Edinburgh for the SNP’s pledge to cap food prices to curb the cost of living crisis.
He said: “Our affordable price cap in supermarkets would provide access for people to 20 to 50 items of nutritional value shopping, which would enable individuals to undertake a nutritious shop.
“It’s one measure to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
“One of the other measures is to put in place a £2 bus fare cap right across Scotland.
“It exists in the Highlands and Islands just now, we would extend that across the whole of Scotland, starting in the West of Scotland as the first area to make sure that again, we take action to support people with the cost-of-living challenges.”
