Budge on the budget

January 21st, 2010

The number-crunchers are hard at work this week as the Scottish Parliament decides on its budget for the forthcoming financial year.

Negotiations are tense between the various political parties as they try to come up with spending programmes that reflect their priorities.

The first stage of the budget process was completed this week and the talks will continue right up until the budget is passed next month.

This year though, there is a different dynamic to the discussions in light of the global downturn.

For years, we had the luxury of creating news ways of spending an ever-increasing budget.

We are fortunate that the budget is growing again this year, giving us more than £1 billion extra to spend in 2010-2011 and a total budget which is now more than double what it was 10 years ago.

But with the public finances in a less healthy shape, the challenge for the future will be making those hard choices on spending priorities and trying to get as much value from the public purse as we can.

This week, a report was issued highlighting inefficiencies in our health service that didn’t have to be addressed as budgets grew but will come under sharp focus now.

We have also seen ambitious education programmes, such as class size numbers, shelved by the SNP government in Edinburgh, which now admits it can’t deliver them this decade.

And major infrastructure projects such as the Glasgow Airport Rail Link have become bargaining chips at a time when people and businesses are crying out for the jobs it would bring.

These debates cut right to the heart of our politics. After all, what is politics but an exercise in priorities?

I think people’s priorities are jobs, quality homes, clean hospitals and good schools for their children and that is what we should be trying to extract from this budget.

Last year, we were able to win 7,000 extra apprenticeships for this process and it is important we fight again for the investment Scotland needs.