AS the new UK Government beds in, the first major economic set piece will be the Chancellor's Summer Budget on July 8 The tone for this has been set by last week's announcement that Whitehall's in-year budget review had identified £4.5 billion of debt reduction, made up of a £1.5bn sale of Royal Mail assets and £3bn of cuts to current year budgets across government departments.
In Scotland, this will result in an effective £107 million reduction in the budget already passed by the Scottish Parliament for 2015-16, necessitating savings of around 0.35 per cent this year.
The clear tone is one of accelerated austerity. No doubt the Chancellor is trying to get the bad news out of the way quickly to pave the way for a more populist approach nearer the time of the 2020 General Election.
In the meantime, should business be worried? Well, the Chancellor is looking for some £450m of savings from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, £70m from the Department for Energy and Climate Change and £80m from HM Revenue and Customs. Taken together with the need to achieve savings in the Scottish Government's budget, there is clearly the potential for this belt tightening to be felt.
That said, it all comes down to the decisions that our Governments take on how they spend our valuable taxes. That is why we will be poring over the detail of the Chancellor's Summer Budget Statement and examining John Swinney's plans to find savings in Scotland. In doing so, it is worth revisiting the report which the Scottish Government commissioned around the time of the 2010 General Election, when austerity was looming in the wake of the Great Recession.
The Independent Budget Review 2010, chaired by Crawford Beveridge, made a number of radical recommendations to streamline government in Scotland and to make the most out of every penny of taxpayers' money at the Scottish Government's disposal. Some of these recommendations, including progress on shared service delivery, have been taken forward but much of what the review panel suggested has gathered dust for the last five years.
As the UK Government ratchets up the austerity agenda, this is another opportunity for local, devolved and national government to reassess what they are doing and why they are doing it. Most of all, they should ensure that their services to not seek to replace or replicate what we in the private sector are already doing.
Liz Cameron is chief executive of Scottish Chambers of Commerce
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