Funding worth £33 million that was ring-fenced for the agriculture sector in the Scottish budget has been used to help mitigate the cost-of-living crisis.
Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, updated the Scottish Parliament yesterday (Wednesday September 7) on steps being taken to meet increased government costs, i.e. fair public-sector pay settlements and doubling the Fuel Insecurity Fund.
One of these steps included reallocating money that was allocated for the agriculture sector. However, this money will be “returned in future years” he said.
This change is funding allocation is because the current levels of inflation were unexpected and according to the Deputy First Minister, reserve funding has already been fully allocated.
“Our budget was based on a UK Spending Review that simply did not foresee the levels of inflation that are now a reality,” Minister Swinney said.
“In times of crisis the job of the finance secretary is not simply to balance the books. It is to find the money to help families, to back business and to fund the priority projects that improve lives for the long term.”
He then explained that the Scottish Government has limited ability in tackling inflation as it has a fixed budget and limited powers.
“The Scottish Government simply does not have access to many of the levers which would provide the greatest support in this crisis,” he said.
“We will do everything we can. We will make the hard choices. But only the UK Government can act to end this crisis.”
The Deputy First Minister has committed to setting out an Emergency Budget Review within two weeks of the UK Government budget update, expected later this month.
‘A blow to the farming sector’
National Farmers’ Union (NFU) Scotland president Martin Kennedy has said that this cut to ag-sector funding is a “blow to a food and farming sector already devoid of confidence”.
“Farmers and crofters want to play their part in tackling the nation’s cost-of-living crisis but at a time when Scottish Government should be looking to prioritise home food production in order to secure an affordable, domestic food supply, the headline that there is a cut in agricultural support risks eroding confidence, reducing production further and raising the cost of food,” he said.
The president added that the organisation will be writing to the Finance secretary to ensure that the money will “truly…return to the farming budget”.
Notably, while describing the other steps taken by government thus far to mitigate inflation, Minister Swinney did not always say the money would to be returned.
He did for the funds taken from the agriculture budget (as mentioned above) and for funding generated by the Scotwind clearing process, however with the temporary change in budget in the employability scheme he simply described “a reduction of £53 million in the budget for employability schemes” – with no mention of the money returning.
