All change as Yousaf abandons “progressive taxation”

So how will he fill the £2bn black hole?

Photo by Mathieu Stern on Unsplash

The Auditor-General for Scotland, Stephen Boyle, is not given to overstatement. So when he says that “urgent reform” of public sector finances we’d probably be advised to believe it. An already unsustainable budget shortfall or £1bn is likely to rise to £2billion in the next three years.

The causes aren’t hard to identify. The First Minister’s recent sector pay awards were £1.7 billion more than planned in the Scottish government’s own 2022 Spending Review. Public sector staffing has risen by more than a quarter in rhe last four years alone. It now employs a quarter of a million often rather well-paid workers.

When Humza Yousaf became SNP leader six months ago he more or less committed himself to increasing “progressive taxation” to bolster strained public services and defeat poverty. He has since executed a dramatic fiscal u-turn freezing council tax and, according to reports, abandoning planes to increase income taxes on the Scottish middle classes. So how does he balance the books?