The Scottish Budget will see inflation-busting council tax increases, while essential services will continue to be squeezed across the Highlands and Islands.
That’s according to Scottish Conservative MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston who called it a “Central Belt budget”, accusing the Scottish Green Party of backing a deal which is bad for local communities and fails to meet long established commitments from the Scottish Government.
Mr Halcro Johnston said: “This is another Central Belt budget from the SNP and one which is challenging for communities across the Highlands and Islands.
“We are seeing renewed cuts to important local bodies like Highlands and Islands Enterprise, while the settlement for local councils again represents another year, after far too many years, of budgets being squeezed and real-terms cut to core council services.
“Moray Council, which has faced years of cuts from Edinburgh, now faces even more cost-savings, threatening services including public toilets. And Orkney and Shetland councils again miss out on the funding they need, and which the SNP has repeatedly promised, to meet the costs of our vital lifeline inter-island ferries, threatening their future sustainability.
“And none of this is necessary. The UK Government has provided Holyrood with an extra £1.5bn in funding but Nicola Sturgeon and her ministers are not passing that additional money on to regions like ours.
“Yet the Scottish Greens will back it because they have been bought off with a very watery pledge on free bus travel, one which has changed from a commitment one day to only “if possible” the next. The SNP have sold the Scottish Greens a pup.
“But the Scottish Greens rolling over means that the Budget will pass, people’s council tax will go up and their local services will be cut. A bad Budget passed by bad politics. And it is local people and local communities who will pay for it.”
