Two candidates in the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections have given their view on a report which said every person would have been £1,800 fiscally worse off in an Independent Scotland as a result of the oil price decline.
Two candidates in the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections have given their view on a report which said every person would have been £1,800 fiscally worse off in an Independent Scotland as a result of the oil price decline.
Scotland would have had to raise taxes or cut spending if it was wrestling with its estimated £10 billion budget deficit as an independent country, an economic think tank has calculated.
Scotland’s Deputy First Minister has warned the Chancellor against continuing to pursue “unnecessarily stringent fiscal targets” ahead of the Budget on Wednesday. John Swinney urged George Osborne to instead use limited borrowing to stimulate economic growth, after the Chancellor paved the way for fresh spending cuts, stating that savings equivalent to 50p in every £100 the Government spends need to be found by 2020.
As the Budget is announced this week, Derek Leith, UK head of oil and gas taxation at EY, has taken up the role of Energy Voice’s guest editor. Follow along each day as he spells out the challenges and triumphs the industry faces. Following the Chancellor’s final Budget for this Parliament much of the commentary focuses on the further welfare cuts apparently implicit in his fiscal projections. Although those of us in the North East of Scotland are interested in these matters, our more likely pre-occupation is trying to understand the likely impact of the changes to the North Sea fiscal regime. On balance, I think the changes announced yesterday were at the top end of realistic expectations of what the Chancellor might do.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said greater fiscal control over the oil and gas sector would not be “the right thing to do.” Mr Alexander said he welcomed the Smith Commission report next year, but said the oil and gas industry needed stability and certainty. He was speaking in Aberdeen on a visit to the headquarters of Archer, the global oilfield service company.