Scotland’s Debt mountain: Holyrood’s borrowing could hit £50bn by 2020!!!

[bekisman]

Has anyone else noticed this? twas published by a newspaper on 15th December.. oh yes twas NOT the Telegraph or Daily Mail, but in the august pages of The GUARDIAN! Scotland’s Debt mountain: Holyrood’s borrowing could hit £50bn by 2020



“Guardian investigation finds public sector borrowing for schools, roads, rail and education is set to dwarf Scottish parliament’s annual £30bn budget, prompting auditor general and opposition parties to call for greater transparency. Public sector debt in Scotland has mushroomed to record levels after an SNP government spending spree funded by billions of pounds’ worth of borrowing from pension funds, international banks and the Treasury.


An investigation by the Guardian has found that total borrowing to build schools, roads, railway stations, colleges and hospitals under the devolved government could reach £50bn by the end of the decade, putting a heavy strain on the public finances.

The scale of the debt, which dwarfs Holyrood’s annual budget of £30bn, has never been set out by ministers or investigated by the Scottish parliament. It has led to calls by Scotland’s auditor general, Caroline Gardner, and opposition parties for greater openness over public finances. Gardner said the need for full transparency was even more urgent given that Holyrood is due to get far greater tax-raising powers and is under significant pressure on public spending. John Swinney, the Scottish finance secretary, is expected to reveal new spending cuts in his budget [grants to Councils?] on Wednesday after a 1.3% cut in Scotland’s block grant from the Treasury in London Calling for Swinney to publish whole government accounts that would set out in a single document the full details of all Scotland’s devolved public spending, borrowing and assets, Gardner said: “It is critically important that the Scottish parliament and the people of Scotland have got a very clear picture of what both those assets and those long-term liabilities look like.”

She added it was a “basic matter of accountability” and necessary “to enable the Scottish parliament to make some of the difficult decisions that it will need to make in future, particularly as it takes on its new tax-raising powers.” Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s finance spokeswoman, said she would be urging Holyrood’s finance committee to investigate. “Future generations are facing a debt mountain and we’re putting more and more on the nation’s credit card. “What the Scottish government is doing to add to public sector debt is like PFI on steroids. It is essential with the new powers coming to the Scottish parliament on tax, spending and borrowing that we have complete transparency on the nation’s finances.”

Scottish public authorities and ministers are committed to spending at least £9bn on dozens of privately financed projects overseen by the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) – the arm’s-length body overseeing infrastructure investment. That is in addition to £22bn-worth of historic private finance initiative (PFI) debts still to be paid off.

The whole horrible story is here: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/15/scotland-debt-mountain-holyrood-borrowing-could-hit-50bn-by-2020

[rob murray]

Yes I read it, but didnt post anything related to its severity as I though it pointless, the SNP are surging ahead in polls, nothing is stopping their progress, and stories like this are viewed as anti scottish etc, it wont make one jot of difference for 2016 and if wholly true wont hit by 2020, and a future SNP government will have to deal with concequences and if SNP fall away someone else will have to deal with it. 2016 and 2020 will doubtless be SNP majorities, such is the state of opposition parties. If true, though its got to put indy 2 way on the backburner as Scotland will have so much debt to deal with.

[sids]

People using services and paying tax will have to deal with it.