Tory manifesto pledges would require ‘substantial cutbacks’, says think tank

Manifesto pledges from the Scottish Tories would require “substantial cutbacks” to services, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said.

The party laid out its election pledges on Tuesday, promising substantial tax and business rate cuts, which would be funded by a cut in disability benefits and cuts to back office functions in the civil service.

The benefits squeeze, the think tank said, would fund about £2.1 billion of the £6 billion needed, but finding the remaining £4 billion from back-office costs rather than service cuts is “not credible”.

The think tank did, however, praise the level of detail laid out by the Tories in both the manifesto and its costing document.

“Taking the entire package of measures together, this may be a costed plan on paper but whether it would survive contact with reality is far from clear,” said David Phillips, the head of devolved and local government at the think tank.

“Scotland can have lower taxes and higher spending on some services – but giveaways on the scale proposed by the Scottish Conservatives cannot credibly be funded largely through back-office and administrative savings.

“In addition to the cuts to benefits set out in the manifesto, there would likely need to be substantial cutbacks to either the range or quality of some services used by households and businesses too.”

Under the party’s tax plans, the personal allowance would be lifted in line with inflation – after the UK Government had decided to freeze it – while the higher rate of tax would be increased and the bottom three tax bands would be merged at 19p in the pound.

The Tories would also bring in a £20,000 tax-free allowances on business rates, as well as tightening the criteria for the Adult Disability Payment to ensure only those with a medical diagnosis can receive it, and introducing a two-child cap on the Scottish Child Payment.