Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Alan Brown Excerpts

Tuesday 9th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP) [V]]

The idea that the Tories can level up broken Britain just defies logic. They have been the party of government for two thirds of the past century, they have been in power since 2010, and it was them who brought in austerity aligned with tax cuts for the richest. The PPE contracts awarded to friends and cronies say it all: the Tories create inequality.

The Tories’ concept of levelling up is that Westminster knows best, as demonstrated by the UK shared prosperity fund, which bypasses Scottish devolution. We know that the stronger towns fund was manipulated for political gain, so why will this agenda be any different? Even the handling of the furlough scheme and support measures showed the opposite of levelling up, with the refusal to listen to the devolved Administrations and regional Mayors about the need to extend the furlough and business support schemes; they were roundly ignored until London had covid spikes again. The Budget measures demonstrate the Tories’ view of levelling up too— £1.6 billion allocated for maintaining the stamp duty freeze, and the introduction of a mortgage guarantee scheme to the value of £600,000. That shows they are out of touch with reality.

When we have 3,000 people per year dying from fuel poverty, levelling up should involve cutting VAT on energy- efficiency measures and direct Government investment in them. As we transition to net zero, we must not create further fuel poverty. The contracts for difference process has been successful in bringing down the cost of renewables, but the overall project costs go on our electricity bills. It is unsustainable for the costs of decarbonising our heating systems to go directly on to energy bills. When will the Government address that?

The 10-point plan itself is useless without policies to back it up. For example, a target of 600,000 heat pump installations per year is useless without a credible, funded programme. That needs to go hand in hand with energy installation measures, starting with off-grid homes—a proper levelling-up opportunity that has been missed.

We need a pricing mechanism to be put in place to allow pumped-storage hydro in Scotland, in order to progress in rural areas that need economic stimulus. We must move quickly on carbon capture and storage schemes or we can forget the 2025 target. We need real investment in marine and tidal, reform of the CfD process to create further green jobs and a hydrogen strategy that matches the lead of the Scottish Government—and we really need to repurpose investment from the nuclear folly.

I welcome the Government’s plans to raise corporation tax, but they show that we have been fed lies that previous cuts in corporation tax increased revenue. About £50 billion has been lost in recent years that the Government could now be using for reinvestment. We needed additional investment, but worse, the Scottish Government’s capital budget was cut. That shows more than ever that Scotland needs the full powers of independence to implement its own green recovery and level up.