By Keith Aitken in
Edinburgh
The scheme would turn Scottish Water into a public benefit corporation. The LibDems claim that sale of its debt through bond issues would raise a one-off capital receipt of up to £1.5bn, while still stopping short of outright privatisation.
These revenues would be ploughed into an Investing in Scotland’s Future Fund, which would support 100,000 new jobs by channelling investment into early intervention programmes, energy saving, the digital economy, scientific innovation and the financial sector.
Launching the manifesto today at Innerleithen, in the key LibDem electoral battleground of the Scottish Borders, party leader Tavish Scott countered sceptical media questions by insisting that the plan followed a lead set by the Welsh Assembly.
Welsh Water was privatised along with the English water authorities in 1989, but its parent company got into difficulties and sold the water business to Glas Cymru, a not-for-profit limited company chaired by former British Airways chief executive Bob Ayling.
But the plan also came under fire from the Scottish National Party, who pointed out that the Treasury would be entitled to claw back proceeds from such a sale. One senior LibDem privately acknowledged the point, but said the party was confident Holyrood could negotiate a deal to hold on to the bulk of the money.
LibDems hope the manifesto will revive their campaign fortunes, currently at a low ebb with percentage support polling in single figures. Recent days have seen several candidates resign in protest at the party’s role in the UK coalition, while outgoing MSP John Farquhar Munro dismayed colleagues by backing the current first minister, SNP leader Alex Salmond, as the best candidate to run the government.
The LibDem scheme came a day after publication of the Scottish Conservative manifesto, which also proposed reform of Scottish Water by creating a mutualised company. The Tories, who estimate their plans would release £560m of funds over four years, immediately challenged the LibDems to justify their figures.
Alone among the Scottish parties, the Conservatives are prepared to countenance university tuition fees – capped at £4,000 – to bridge a funding gap with English universities variously estimated at between £93m and £360m. Labour has ruled out tuition fees for the next four years, with the SNP and LibDems ruling them out indefinitely.
Labour’s manifesto promises to abolish youth unemployment in Scotland over the term of the next Parliament, financed in part by major structural reforms in the public sector. These include cutting the number of health boards and replacing the eight regional police and fire authorities with a single national service in each case.
The manifesto says that this would be achieved 'with delegated authority and local accountability mechanisms'. But it could run into trouble with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, whose own ‘manifesto’ warned Holyrood politicians against funding election pledges by centralising power away from local government.
'Reform should be based on robust evidence and deliver community benefit – that implies local service integration, not centralisation,' the Cosla manifesto says.
5 April 2011
A plan to create 100,000 new jobs by selling off the debt of Scottish Water is among the ‘practical solutions’ promised by the Scottish Liberal Democrats in their manifesto for the May parliamentary elections.
The scheme would turn Scottish Water into a public benefit corporation. The LibDems claim that sale of its debt through bond issues would raise a one-off capital receipt of up to £1.5bn, while still stopping short of outright privatisation.
These revenues would be ploughed into an Investing in Scotland’s Future Fund, which would support 100,000 new jobs by channelling investment into early intervention programmes, energy saving, the digital economy, scientific innovation and the financial sector.
Launching the manifesto today at Innerleithen, in the key LibDem electoral battleground of the Scottish Borders, party leader Tavish Scott countered sceptical media questions by insisting that the plan followed a lead set by the Welsh Assembly.
Welsh Water was privatised along with the English water authorities in 1989, but its parent company got into difficulties and sold the water business to Glas Cymru, a not-for-profit limited company chaired by former British Airways chief executive Bob Ayling.
But the plan also came under fire from the Scottish National Party, who pointed out that the Treasury would be entitled to claw back proceeds from such a sale. One senior LibDem privately acknowledged the point, but said the party was confident Holyrood could negotiate a deal to hold on to the bulk of the money.
LibDems hope the manifesto will revive their campaign fortunes, currently at a low ebb with percentage support polling in single figures. Recent days have seen several candidates resign in protest at the party’s role in the UK coalition, while outgoing MSP John Farquhar Munro dismayed colleagues by backing the current first minister, SNP leader Alex Salmond, as the best candidate to run the government.
The LibDem scheme came a day after publication of the Scottish Conservative manifesto, which also proposed reform of Scottish Water by creating a mutualised company. The Tories, who estimate their plans would release £560m of funds over four years, immediately challenged the LibDems to justify their figures.
Alone among the Scottish parties, the Conservatives are prepared to countenance university tuition fees – capped at £4,000 – to bridge a funding gap with English universities variously estimated at between £93m and £360m. Labour has ruled out tuition fees for the next four years, with the SNP and LibDems ruling them out indefinitely.
Labour’s manifesto promises to abolish youth unemployment in Scotland over the term of the next Parliament, financed in part by major structural reforms in the public sector. These include cutting the number of health boards and replacing the eight regional police and fire authorities with a single national service in each case.
The manifesto says that this would be achieved 'with delegated authority and local accountability mechanisms'. But it could run into trouble with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, whose own ‘manifesto’ warned Holyrood politicians against funding election pledges by centralising power away from local government.
'Reform should be based on robust evidence and deliver community benefit – that implies local service integration, not centralisation,' the Cosla manifesto says.
