Findlay: Tories will save £650m – and use the cash to cut taxes for Scots

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay will promise voters his party can bring down taxes by stopping “wasteful spending” and making £650 million of savings.

He will insist there is a need to “urgently streamline bloated government” at Holyrood.

The party leader will outline plans for a Taxpayer Savings Act, promising this will save £650 million by “cutting red tape, getting a grip on spending, and harnessing business expertise”.

Mr Findlay will also tell the Scottish Conservative Party conference in Edinburgh about plans to establish a Scottish Agency of Value and Efficiency.

This would be run by business leaders, he will tell the conference, who would then be “tasked with wielding a claymore on waste”.

The Scottish Tory leader has already accused First Minister John Swinney and his Government of wasting money “on an industrial scale”.

In his keynote speech to the conference – his first since becoming leader north of the border last year – he will say that “putting a stop to wasteful spending is top of our agenda”.

Mr Findlay will tell party supporters: “We need to urgently streamline bloated government.

“Improving services means treating people’s money with respect.”

He will say £650 million that could be saved as a result of a Taxpayer Savings Act would be used “to bring down people’s taxes”, adding: “By doing that, we would start to restore trust.”

Mr Findlay will also promise the Tories would “shut down quangos that don’t deliver value” and “tackle the SNP’s culture of cronyism through strict new rules on public appointments”.

He will pledge a future Conservative government at Holyrood would seek to reduce both the number of ministers and special advisers.

He is then expected to say: “We would introduce a Scottish Agency of Value and Efficiency, run by business leaders. People in the real world who know how to get things done.

“They would be tasked with wielding a claymore on waste.”

Another proposal will be for an Accountability and Transparency Index, with Mr Findlay saying this would “shine a light on every organisation that receives public money, and would begin to dismantle the SNP’s toxic era of secrecy”.

Scottish public finance minister Ivan McKee said: “The Scottish Government is making real progress in reforming the public sector: the number of Scottish public bodies under Government control has shrunk from 199 in 2007 to 131.

“However, we know there is more to do, which is why I will soon unveil our public service reform strategy.

“Unfortunately, this work has been made more difficult by the UK Government’s decision to pursue Brexit, which in 2023 alone led to an estimated cut in public revenues of about £2.3 billion.

“Most Scottish taxpayers already pay less income tax than they would elsewhere in the UK.”