By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 12 November 2012
The Scottish Government has come under fire for its slow progress in funding capital projects aimed at offsetting the impact of recession.
Finance Secretary John Swinney has referred repeatedly over the past two years to a £2.5bn ‘pipeline’ of major infrastructure projects to be financed by a mix of public and private sector capital under the Non-Profit Distribution funding model.
But official figures secured by Swinney’s Scottish Conservative shadow, Gavin Brown, show that the most recent projections are that just £20m of the £353m originally earmarked for NPD projects in the current year, and £338m of the £686m scheduled for next year, is now expected to be spent.
Brown called the plans ‘a dismal failure’ and said: ‘Despite regular boasts to the contrary, the SNP’s flagship NPD capital programme has delivered precious little so far for the construction industry. To make matters worse, the Scottish Government has failed to be transparent and upfront about its sloth-like performance.’
His criticism was echoed by Labour’s Richard Baker, who said: ‘Only last month at the Scottish National Party conference, [Infrastructure Secretary] Nicola Sturgeon waxed lyrical about Scotland building our way out of the slump, but these figures show that this is all talk and no action from this SNP government.’
But the claims were rejected by the Scottish Government, which admitted that some NPD projects were taking longer than anticipated to come to the procurement and construction stage, but insisted that there had been no cut to the overall sum identified for infrastructure spending.
The SNP also pointed to recent UK Treasury figures, which suggested that investment in housebuilding had risen from £1.621bn to £1.719bn in Scotland between 2010/11 and 2011/12, against an equivalent fall from £10.015bn to £7.046bn in England. Transport investment also rose in Scotland and fell in England over the same period.
SNP MSP Jamie Hepburn, a member of the Holyrood Finance Committee, claimed: ‘While the SNP government is protecting and investing in the key areas that will get our economy moving again, the Tories’ ideological determination to slash spending no matter the cost is hitting these key areas south of the border.’
Meanwhile, Sturgeon today confirmed plans for a high-speed rail link between Edinburgh and Glasgow, due for completion in 2014. Ministers have decided to go ahead with the upgrade, which will cut journey times by around 20 minutes to under half an hour, without waiting for the outcome of negotiations on a possible eventual extension to Scotland of the HS2 project in England.
The Scottish Government has come under fire for its slow progress in funding capital projects aimed at offsetting the impact of recession.
Finance Secretary John Swinney has referred repeatedly over the past two years to a £2.5bn ‘pipeline’ of major infrastructure projects to be financed by a mix of public and private sector capital under the Non-Profit Distribution funding model.
But official figures secured by Swinney’s Scottish Conservative shadow, Gavin Brown, show that the most recent projections are that just £20m of the £353m originally earmarked for NPD projects in the current year, and £338m of the £686m scheduled for next year, is now expected to be spent.
Brown called the plans ‘a dismal failure’ and said: ‘Despite regular boasts to the contrary, the SNP’s flagship NPD capital programme has delivered precious little so far for the construction industry. To make matters worse, the Scottish Government has failed to be transparent and upfront about its sloth-like performance.’
His criticism was echoed by Labour’s Richard Baker, who said: ‘Only last month at the Scottish National Party conference, [Infrastructure Secretary] Nicola Sturgeon waxed lyrical about Scotland building our way out of the slump, but these figures show that this is all talk and no action from this SNP government.’
But the claims were rejected by the Scottish Government, which admitted that some NPD projects were taking longer than anticipated to come to the procurement and construction stage, but insisted that there had been no cut to the overall sum identified for infrastructure spending.
The SNP also pointed to recent UK Treasury figures, which suggested that investment in housebuilding had risen from £1.621bn to £1.719bn in Scotland between 2010/11 and 2011/12, against an equivalent fall from £10.015bn to £7.046bn in England. Transport investment also rose in Scotland and fell in England over the same period.
SNP MSP Jamie Hepburn, a member of the Holyrood Finance Committee, claimed: ‘While the SNP government is protecting and investing in the key areas that will get our economy moving again, the Tories’ ideological determination to slash spending no matter the cost is hitting these key areas south of the border.’
Meanwhile, Sturgeon today confirmed plans for a high-speed rail link between Edinburgh and Glasgow, due for completion in 2014. Ministers have decided to go ahead with the upgrade, which will cut journey times by around 20 minutes to under half an hour, without waiting for the outcome of negotiations on a possible eventual extension to Scotland of the HS2 project in England.
