Train ticket price rises and increases to water charges should be shelved with more targeted support to ease the cost of living crisis paid for by a windfall tax on gas and oil firms’ profits, Scottish Labour has said.
The party will lead a debate at Holyrood today calling for the Scottish and UK governments to support people affected by soaring living costs, which the party says will “devastate family finances”.
Among its demands, Scottish Labour wants a £400 payment targeted at households in financial difficulty that would be paid for by a “one-off windfall tax on increased oil and gas profits”.
The UK Government will also be urged to cut VAT on home energy bills for 12 months as gas and electricity prices rise and the price cap is expected to be raised to almost £2,000 per year for the average household.
It is estimated that removing VAT would save families £200.
Ahead of the debate in the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “Thousands of Scottish households are looking down the tracks at a cost of living crisis which will devastate family finances.
“With energy and other household bills set to rise, food prices soaring, and the Tories set to raise national insurance payments, the time has come to act.”
The motion proposed by Scottish Labour calls for MSPs to recognise the financial burden of rising inflation, increasing food and fuel prices, and high energy bills - stating that “this will be exacerbated by the increase to national insurance, the likely hike to the energy price cap in April 2022, and the rises in Scotland to rail fares and water charges”.
It added there should be “extra targeted support to those who need it most, including pensioners and low earners, by expanding and increasing the Warm Home Discount, giving those households an additional £400 off energy bills, and agrees that this should be paid for by a one-off windfall tax on increased oil and gas profits”.
A separate motion tabled by Labour MSP Neil Bibby - also to be debated on Thursday - calls on the Scottish Government to rule out mandatory redundancies and “any dilution of collective bargaining” when ScotRail comes back into public ownership on 1 April.
The motion also seeks to condemn plans to cut ticket offices, reduce services and a recent increase in ticket prices.
Ahead of the vote, he said: “This vote is a chance for the SNP to stand with rail passengers and workers and show us what kind of a railway they want to deliver for Scotland.
“We should be trying to rebuild from the pandemic – but instead services have been cut to the bone while passengers pay record fares.
“The new transport minister must take this opportunity to show she is going to take a new approach.
“The SNP must back this motion and agree to fix the problems piling up at ScotRail, or else the hopes we have for genuine public ownership will be over before it’s even began.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives said the emergency rail timetable, which was recently extended into February due to the number of Covid-19 cases in the country, should be scrapped ahead of many Scots returning to the office on Monday.
The party’s transport spokesman Graham Simpson said: “SNP-run ScotRail is on the horizon, but all we’ve seen so far are passengers having to pay more for less – with sharp ticket price rises and a reduced timetable.
“Temporary timetables were appropriate during the height of the pandemic but with Covid in retreat the country needs to get back up and running.
“Returning to the office will help our economic recovery but it’s not feasible with an inadequate rail service.
“The transport minister needs to bring pressure to bear on ScotRail to end the restricted service now, given that isolation requirements have been reduced for over a month.
“Scots cannot be left to suffer the consequences of ScotRail’s cuts indefinitely. It is time that the SNP Government stepped in to pressure ScotRail to resume normal service levels ahead of the imminent nationalisation.”
ScotRail operations director David Simpson said the decision to extend the temporary timetable was “the right thing to do”, adding: “We are keeping the timetable under review and will make changes based on the demand from customers and the continuing impact on services of staff who are absent due to testing positive for coronavirus or who are self-isolating.”
Addressing Bibby’s assertions, Simpson said: “The significant cost of running the railway following the impact of the coronavirus pandemic means it’s essential that the railway meets the changing needs of customers, as well as provides the taxpayer with best value for money.
“That might mean offering a different service on different days of the week or different times of year as passenger demand varies across the week or through the year. But by doing so, we can ensure Scotland’s railway remains sustainable into the future.”
Don't miss the latest headlines with our twice-daily newsletter - sign up here for free.
