The Scottish Draft Budget published on 11 September 2013 included a number of announcements on proposed infrastructure spending, including:
- £8 billion of investment in Scotland's infrastructure, building homes, schools, transport links, colleges and hospitals over the next two years
- Spending on M8/M73/M74 Motorway Improvement Project, the
Aberdeen bypass, Edinburgh to Glasgow road link Improvements
Programme, Balmedie to Tipperty Project, the Borders Railway Scheme
and wider
programme of network electrification
- Prompting a modal shift through freight grants in an attempt to encourage companies to transport more goods by rail as opposed to haulage.
- Acceleration of the £3 billion plans for the A9 between Inverness and Perth which will start in 2015-16
- £246 million for the modernisation of Glasgow's subway
- Commitment to spend £843 million on development of rail services in 2014-15, in particular funding for Glasgow's SPT Fastlink, in support of the Commonwealth Games and to support improvements to the Caledonian Sleeper Services
- Commitment to spend £350 million on housing supply through both grant and financial transaction funding
- The Scottish Government also revealed that the Queensferry Crossing remains both on course and £145 million under budget
The budget states that:
"Infrastructure investment - from both the public and private sectors - is key to increasing the momentum of the recovery."
"Investing in public sector infrastructure creates new assets, such as roads and schools, which in turn make the economy better connected and more productive, boosting Scotland's economic potential."
The £8 billion investment will be made from a combination of the capital budget, the new borrowing powers in 2015-16, revenue funded investment through the Non-Profit Distributing (NPD) programme, Regulatory Asset Base (RAB) rail enhancements, capital receipts and allocating some resource funding to capital assets.
The draft budget requires parliamentary approval before it can be passed. We will provide further details when they are known. The Scottish Budget Draft Budget 2014-15 can be accessed here.
Disclaimer
The material contained in this article is of the nature of general comment only and does not give advice on any particular matter. Recipients should not act on the basis of the information in this e-update without taking appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.