Holyrood Finance Committee convener slams Westminster ‘council tax swindle’

SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson hit out at the UK Government.

Finance Secretary Kate Forbes told MSPs the £290 million had not been provided (Fraser Bremner/Scottish Daily Mail/PA)

Westminster has been accused of a “council tax swindle” which could cost households £115 each after the Scottish Government confirmed it has not received £290 million of cash to help with the cost of living.

Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said £290 million the Scottish Government had hoped to receive as a result of funding announced to help people south of the border with rising council tax bills has not been provided.

In a letter to the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee, Ms Forbes said: “The £290 million of consequentials in relation to cost of living was not provided in addition to provisional allocations.”

The money could have provided every household in Scotland with £115 in financial support, the SNP calculated.

This trend is all too familiar to people in Scotland – when it comes to the Tories, all we get is cuts, not cash

SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson

Finance Committee convener Kenneth Gibson hit out and said: “This has exposed the great Tory council tax swindle.

“It is scandalous they have tried to pull the wool over the eyes of people in Scotland by claiming they would be providing extra cash to deal with the cost-of-living crisis.”

While he said Chancellor Rishi Sunak had “made a huge fanfare about how Westminster was being generous to Scotland”, Mr Gibson insisted “the truth is that they have provided nothing extra at all”.

The SNP MSP continued: “This is real cash to deal with the cost-of-living crisis, not Tory smoke and mirrors.

“This trend is all too familiar to people in Scotland – when it comes to the Tories, all we get is cuts, not cash.”

The UK Government insisted however that the cash has been made available – although it conceded the amount allocated to Scotland in other areas has been less than previously estimated.

This is because the impact of the Omicron variant of coronavirus was not as severe as initially feared.

The economic strength of the UK has allowed us to deliver financial support for millions of people. This has included an additional £15.7 billion of Barnett funding for the Scottish Government in the past two years

HM Treasury

An HM Treasury spokesman said: “The economic strength of the UK has allowed us to deliver financial support for millions of people.

“This has included an additional £15.7 billion of Barnett funding for the Scottish Government in the past two years, and they are also receiving around £41 billion each year for the next three years – the biggest annual funding settlement since devolution.

“At the Scottish Government’s request, we shared estimates of funding throughout the year, always being clear that final figures would only be confirmed through the Supplementary Estimates process. This confirmed additional funding on top of the extra £440 million announced in December.”