Budget Resolutions
Graham Leadbitter Excerpts(4 days ago)
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Graham Leadbitter (Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey) (SNP)
Scottish voters were promised change, but instead this Budget delivers a real-terms cut of £650 million to Scotland’s block budget. It treats Scotland as an afterthought, syphons off our energy wealth and fails to protect hard-working families facing a bitter cost of living crisis this winter. Rather than delivering economic growth or protecting the vulnerable, this is a Budget of broken promises.
Turning first to the cost of living crisis, during the election campaign Labour explicitly promised to cut household energy bills by £300, yet under its watch, energy bills are forecast to surge by 27% this coming January, taking average annual bills to £2,192, before climbing further to £2,389 by April. Scottish families will face energy bills a whopping £1,275 higher than Labour promised.
Even worse, the Chancellor’s decision to replace standing charges with higher gas unit prices creates a deeply unfair geographical penalty. Recent YouGov polling shows that 84% of people in Scotland already had to turn their heating on this year, compared to 59% in London, and independent analysis from the Scottish Parliament confirms that over 800,000 Scottish households face higher gas bills under these changes. Scots are effectively being forced to pay higher bills to subsidise warmer homes in the south of England. This Budget ignores the 142,000 Scottish households who rely on heating oil, leaving them exposed to soaring fuel costs with negligible support.
At the pumps, drivers face a similar squeeze. Since July, diesel has rocketed by 34p per litre to over £2 a litre in many locations, leaving diesel drivers £130 worse off each year. Regrettably, the Prime Minister and Chancellor are frankly asleep at the wheel.
Nowhere is Westminster’s contempt for Scotland’s economic future clearer than in the decision to axe grant funding for the Acorn carbon capture project in Peterhead. Despite explicit promises that capital was secured, the Government have removed Acorn grant funding. Out of the £200 million promised by Ministers, a mere £12 million in grant funding was delivered, with the rest now being converted to a loan or—possibly, maybe—equity proposals. This continues a 20-year history of Westminster betrayals, from Gordon Brown to the Tories, and Acorn being snubbed, with carbon capture projects being left on the scrap heap all over the place.
The decision deals a direct blow to a just transition. In its Budget documents, the Treasury has banked £5.1 billion in revenue from Scottish oil and gasfields. Over decades, more than £400 billion in oil and gas revenue flowed from Scotland’s waters into Westminster’s hands, with the Chancellor admitting that a Scottish sovereign wealth fund would today be worth £1 trillion, had that wealth been properly invested, as Norway chose to do. Every single penny generated from Scotland’s natural resources should be reinvested in Scotland to secure a genuinely just transition to a renewables future.
Oral Answers to Questions
Graham Leadbitter Excerpts(8 months, 2 weeks ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Miatta Fahnbulleh)
I thank my hon. Friend for all the work that he is doing with his community on Pride in Place. We are very clear that communities should be in the driving seat, and we are setting a clear expectation that all places will have forms of community-led delivery by the third year. That creates the opportunity for community interest companies, co-operatives and other models, because at the heart of this is the principle that the people who know their patch the best should be in the driving seat of changing their place.
Graham Leadbitter (Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey) (SNP)
Miatta Fahnbulleh
We have committed to local growth funding to boost growth in Scotland. We have also delivered record investment to the Scottish Government, who have in their gift the ability to invest in communities and in programmes that will drive the prosperity of local areas. The hon. Gentleman should not be looking to national Government; we have done our part—now it is over to the Scottish National party.
Oral Answers to Questions
Graham Leadbitter Excerpts(11 months, 1 week ago)
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Alison McGovern
I would be grateful if my hon. Friend would pass on my very best wishes and thanks to Streets2Homes. In the best case, the money we are investing can stop homelessness before it starts through good advice. If a family or an individual do find themselves homeless, support can be in place to get those people into a more stable situation and properly housed. Every penny is worth it, because in the end, long-term homelessness costs the state more.
Graham Leadbitter (Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey) (SNP)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Miatta Fahnbulleh)
Areas across Scotland, including Elgin, will receive up to £20 million of Pride in Place programme funding to transform their areas. Phase 1 places have already been identified, and we are working with the Scotland Office and partners to confirm additional neighbourhoods, which will be announced shortly for phase 2.
Graham Leadbitter
The Government are encouraging towns across the UK to apply for Pride in Place funding, but with the specific exclusion that any town applying should not be located in a UK parliamentary constituency with a phase 1 neighbourhood. Does the Minister appreciate that in my constituency of Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey, this would exclude Nairn from applying because Elgin is already in receipt of funding, despite Nairn being in a different unitary authority and not even being in the same constituency prior to boundary changes? As a further example, it would also exclude Shetland from applying because Orkney already has funding. Does the Minister agree that this exclusion is nonsensical and discriminatory against large geographies, and needs to be changed?
Miatta Fahnbulleh
The big driver of how we are allocating funding is deprivation. We are taking a slightly different approach in Scotland, where we have also looked at other indicators, including health indicators. As I said, we are working closely with the Scotland Office and local partners to ensure we are getting the Pride in Place programme into the areas that need it, and we will be announcing that allocation in due course.