{"id":1206,"date":"2017-12-14T15:43:57","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T15:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/?p=1206"},"modified":"2018-01-14T15:44:47","modified_gmt":"2018-01-14T15:44:47","slug":"scot-gov-scotlands-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/scot-gov-scotlands-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Scot Gov: Scotland\u2019s Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Investing in the NHS, protecting low earners, backing Scotland\u2019s economy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(Article via www.gov.scot 14\/12\/17)<\/p>\n<p>The 2018-19 Draft Budget will protect the NHS and public services, support low earners and unlock Scotland\u2019s economic potential, according to Finance Secretary Derek Mackay.<\/p>\n<p>Setting out plans to invest an additional \u00a3400 million in Scotland\u2019s health service, protect public services, lift the public sector pay cap and provide a package of investment in growing the economy and supporting small businesses, Mr Mackay said the budget would \u201cinvest in our public services and support business to thrive\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Draft Budget proposes the introduction of a more progressive income tax policy that will protect low and middle income taxpayers, resulting in the majority of taxpayers paying less income tax than they do now with those on the highest incomes paying proportionately more.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- responsive1 --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-slot=\"3379014842\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8934562929349122\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Publishing the Draft Budget to parliament, Mr Mackay set out a programme that will:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Increase spending on the health service by over \u00a3400 million &#8211; \u00a3200 million more than inflation.<\/li>\n<li>Provide \u00a3120 million &#8211; over and above core education funding &#8211; direct to head teachers to help ensure all young people can fulfil their potential<\/li>\n<li>Lift the one per cent public sector pay cap and provide for up to a three per cent pay rise for NHS staff, police, teachers and others earning up \u00a330,000<\/li>\n<li>Invest \u00a3243 million towards the expansion of free nursery education and childcare<\/li>\n<li>Protect funding for Police and Fire services including retaining VAT refunds in full<\/li>\n<li>Deliver a local government finance settlement worth more than \u00a310.5 billion<\/li>\n<li>Contribute \u00a3756 million towards investment of more than \u00a33 billion by 2021 to deliver 50,000 affordable homes<\/li>\n<li>Allocate over \u00a34 billion of funding for infrastructure<\/li>\n<li>Deliver \u00a3600 million to ensure every home and business will have access to superfast broadband by 2021<\/li>\n<li>Deliver the first \u00a370 million of a new \u00a3150 million Building Scotland Fund<\/li>\n<li>Set aside \u00a3340 million for initial capitalisation of the Scottish National Investment Bank<\/li>\n<li>Invest nearly \u00a32.4 billion in our colleges, universities, enterprise and skills bodies \u2013 including a real terms increase for both college and Higher Education budgets<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mr Mackay said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a budget for a stronger economy and a fairer society, with increased funding for the NHS and protection for low and middle income earners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are investing in our public services and supporting business to develop and thrive. This budget mitigates against the UK Government\u2019s cuts to our block grant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt delivers an additional \u00a3400 million to the health service, it invests in expanding childcare, delivering broadband, building 50,000 new homes and supporting our police and fire services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt provides the investment we need to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Article Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gov.scot\/news\/scotlands-budget\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/news.gov.scot\/news\/scotlands-budget<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Investing in the NHS, protecting low earners, backing Scotland\u2019s economy (Article via www.gov.scot 14\/12\/17) The 2018-19 Draft Budget will protect the NHS and public services, support low earners and unlock Scotland\u2019s economic potential, according to Finance Secretary Derek Mackay. Setting out plans to invest an additional \u00a3400 million in Scotland\u2019s health service, protect public services, lift the public sector pay cap and provide a package of investment in growing the economy and supporting small businesses, Mr Mackay said the budget would \u201cinvest in our public services and support business to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1207,"href":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions\/1207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imadscotlandgroup.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}