Kate Forbes demands ‘urgent clarity’ on funding from UK Government

The Scottish Government insists it needs “urgent clarity” from Westminster over whether ministers at Holyrood will receive additional cash after a funding boost of more than £500 million was given to Wales.

It was confirmed last month that a total of £547 million from the Local Growth Fund – which replaces money which used to come from the European Union – will go to the Welsh Government over three years.

Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan said at the time she was “very pleased” that “decisions on the priorities in this fund will be made here by the Welsh Government”.

But Scottish deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said that “no equivalent scheme” had been announced for Scotland – as she said the UK Government “must now confirm that the Scottish Government will receive an equivalent share of this funding, with the same conditions for managing and distributing” it.

She raised the issue in a letter to Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander, with Ms Forbes saying this approach had been necessary after Holyrood’s Finance Secretary Shona Robison failed to receive a “satisfactory response” from the UK Treasury.

Hitting out at the Labour Government at Westminster, Ms Forbes said: “The Welsh Government has been told it can manage and distribute £500 million UK Government funding, but there has been no equivalent scheme for the Scottish Government.”

She insisted this “runs completely counter to the principles that underpin the Barnett Formula” – which is used to determine funding to the devolved nations.

Ms Forbes said that while “considerably smaller funding allocations have been made to Scottish local authorities” ministers at Holyrood “need urgent clarity from the UK Government on when the Scottish Government will receive our equivalent share of this investment”.

But she said: “So far, the Treasury has provided no useful answers.”

The deputy First Minister recalled there was “widespread outcry” when former Tory prime minister Theresa May allocated £1 billion to the DUP-led Northern Irish Executive, without any proportionate funds being awarded to Scotland or Wales.

And she added: “It looks like history is repeating itself under the Labour Party.”

Ms Forbes demanded: “The UK Labour Government must now confirm that the Scottish Government will receive an equivalent share of this funding, with the same conditions for managing and distributing the funding.

“Scotland has been short-changed by Westminster, and treated as an afterthought, far too many times.”

A UK Government spokesperson said: “Our position is clear – we are doing what is needed to bring much-needed transformation to people, towns and communities across Scotland.

“The new locally-delivered programmes will match existing levels of investment, with better local targeting to have the maximum effect.

“Our support for local and regional projects in Scotland is now worth more than £2 billion over the next decade.

“We are also supporting the Scottish Government through the largest real terms settlement in the history of devolution to spend on improving public services and living standards.”