29 April 2005
The Scottish Executive's first infrastructure plan is a welcome innovation, the Holyrood parliament's finance committee has been told.
The committee's budget adviser, Professor Arthur Midwinter, said the Infrastructure Investment Plan would make tracking and accounting for spending easier, and lead to better targeting of resources.
The plan provides for £3bn of investment in transport infrastructure over ten years. One of its aims is to improve the co-ordination of investment. Midwinter said it showed an annual increase in funding of around 7% between 2004/05 and 2007/08.
The plan allowed key objectives and capital projects to be more easily explained than was possible in the draft budget, and showed a greater importance being attached to capital expenditure since devolution, he said in a report to the committee.
Midwinter said its main weakness was that it lacked details about how resources would be best targeted towards the most disadvantaged communities.
He added: 'It's difficult to monitor its impact on employment regeneration and growth…it is more a statement of intent than a framework for action.'
Finance Minister Tom McCabe told the committee that the plan took on board public and private sector views. He said: 'We are committed to jointly engaging in… the delivery of policies that will help Scotland grow and prosper.'
PFapr2005
