Short term measures not addressing gap in public sector finances …

by Democrat reporter

The Scottish Government recorded a £1 billion underspend in 2024/25 but still needs to move away from short-term measures to address a stark forecast gap between its spending plans and funding. 

The underspend was supported by over £2 billion of additional funding from the UK Government, meaning a plan to help balance the budget with £460 million of offshore wind leasing revenues was not needed.

Significant pressures remain in achieving financial balance in 2025/26, and many of the necessary savings identified and delivered so far are non-recurring. This continued short-term approach to managing spending is not supporting the fiscal sustainability of the Scottish public sector.

The Scottish Government’s latest Medium Term Financial Strategy projects a combined resource and capital funding gap of £4.7 billion by 2029/30. This is due to policy choices and higher workforce costs. However, the government’s plan to make savings over the next five years lacks detail on how they will be delivered.

Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland, right, said:   “Although the Scottish Government reported a £1 billion underspend this year, it did so from a combination of additional funding from the UK Government and one-off savings.  

“A forecast gap of nearly £5 billion remains between what ministers want to spend on public services and the funding available to them.

“The Scottish Government needs to prepare more detailed plans setting out how it will close that gap by the end of the decade.”

Responding to the report by the Auditor General, with its latest £1bn underspend largely supported by the UK Government, Scottish Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie MSP, pictured left,  said:“The SNP have no serious plan for our public services.“Instead, they have put them on the line by making one expensive blunder after another, from their disastrous bungling of the ferries to selling off the seabed on the cheap.

“Scotland deserves better, which is why my party want a step change in how public money is spent.”