Covid: If Chancellor Rishi Sunak cuts economic support too soon, it would risk disaster at Scottish elections – John McLellan
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Last weekend, Chancellor Rishi Sunak pointed out that the Scottish government was receiving an additional £8.2bn of Covid emergency funding, with new measures pushing up the receipt from the £7.2bn extra identified by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre last month, itself a leap from the £4.6bn allocated by July.
With so much cash available so quickly, perhaps it’s understandable that, according to Strathclyde University’s Fraser of Allander Institute (FoAI), the Scottish government could still have around £1bn of unallocated funds to spend, but it does put the Scottish government’s demands for more borrowing powers into a more political than practical context.
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There are no shortages of businesses, institutions and investment programmes desperate for cash, like the Edinburgh tram which poses a real threat to the entire Edinburgh Council budget, so the challenge is to spend it wisely.
But such spending can’t go on and, as FoAI points out, when and how to stop will be hard to judge, especially in tourism and hospitality which, even with vaccines on the horizon, will not be off their knees before summer.
With the Scottish elections in May, if Chancellor Rishi Sunak withdraws support too soon it could be politically as well as economically disastrous.
John McLellan is a Conservative councillor for Craigentinny/Duddingston A message from the Editor: Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.