Agreement has been reached in the Scottish Parliament for the 2020/21 budget. As well as the original pledges, the SNP Scottish Government will deliver:
🚌 Free bus travel for under-18s.
🏢 An extra £95m for local authorities – including £6m for North Lanarkshire.
👮♀️ £13m for frontline Police and £5m capital.
🌅 £25m on energy efficiency and tackling fuel poverty.
🚲 An extra £5m on rail and £15m on active travel.
Given the increase in North Lanarkshire Council’s funding, I hope Councillors of all parties will meet soon to agree how local people and services can be protected from the relentless onslaught of Tory austerity.
These pledges are in addition to those made earlier this month:
🏥 Record funding of £15bn for Health and Social Care – including £117m in mental health.
🏠 £800m and an additional £300m to build more homes beyond the 50,000 target of this Parliament.
🧒 £3.4bn – part of which will be towards the new Scottish Child Payment which will lift 30,000 children out of poverty.
🚆 £270m in rail investment and an extra £16m on concessionary travel.
👮♀️ £37m extra for Policing.
🏢 A real terms increase of 4.3% for local authorities.
💵 For the third consecutive year, more than half of Scottish income tax payers will pay less tax than if they lived elsewhere in the UK.
