13 June 2008
First Minister Alex Salmond is to commission a study into the setting up of an oil fund for Scotland.
Announcing his plan this week, Salmond demanded that some of the extra revenue generated by rising oil prices should be channelled north of the border.
He argued that because of the amount of oil extracted from the North Sea, the amount still to come and the high price of oil, a fund was 'an attractive and compelling idea for Scotland'.
He claimed that 10% of the additional £4.4bn expected to come from fuel tax should be allocated to the Scottish fund.
Salmond added: 'We're already seeing signs of a summer of discontent as people are under enormous pressure from the rising energy costs. 'I'm encouraging the chancellor to do something about it before the situation engulfs his government.'
Labour described the first minister's proposal as 'opportunistic'. Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander said: 'He's not offering to take on a share of the national debt, a share of invalidity benefit or a share of pensions.'
In a BBC television interview, Gavin McCrone, a former senior economist at the then Scottish Office, disclosed that he wrote a paper in the 1970s about setting up an oil fund for the UK.
He said: 'I did argue to a Treasury committee that there ought to be an oil fund – not just for Scotland, but for the UK – to be spent in the areas of financial decline so as to help them and give them new life.
'I think it was a pity that didn't happen because much of the benefit of North Sea oil just went into current expenditure,' McCrone added.
PFjun2008
