SAJID Javid will today highlight a multi-billion pound boost for schools, hospitals and the police to deliver on the “people’s priorities,” that will result in a knock-on £1 billion windfall for the Scottish Government.
The Chancellor in his one-year spending review is set to deliver the biggest increases for some Government departments since the 2008 financial crash.
He has already said his plan will be about “clearing the decks to allow us to focus on Brexit”.
However, the largesse will be constrained as Mr Javid has made clear he would stick to the current borrowing rules - to keep underlying public borrowing at less than 2 per cent of national income and debt falling in 2020/21 - which will limit the scope for extensive widespread spending increases.
“Any departments expecting a blank cheque will be sorely disappointed,” the Chancellor has declared. He is due to make a Commons statement this afternoon but could end up delivering it in a written form depending on the parliamentary circumstances, officials said.
Last month, Boris Johnson announced £1.8 billion to improve patient care with £800 million of that going to the 20 hospitals in the most urgent need.
Yesterday, as he held a No 10 reception for NHS staff, the Prime Minister revealed a further £210m of funding to help offer training opportunities to frontline staff.
The Government has already announced spending plans south of the border of £1.1bn to recruit an extra 20,000 police officers, £2.5bn to create 10,000 more prison places, and £14bn over three years for schools together with an extra £400m for sixth forms and further education colleges.
Under the Barnett Formula, this is likely to produce a windfall of up to £1bn for Edinburgh.
But the leading economic think-tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has warned Mr Javid will need to find an extra £5bn to pay for all his promises.
It said making major announcements to Parliament without up-to-date projections from the Government’s independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, meant he risked “a return to the bad old days when Chancellors could make fiscal claims not based on the best available independent forecasts”.
The IFS noted how the spending pledges were based on a multi-billion pound fiscal headroom which would be wiped out if the Treasury used up-to-date forecasts.
Labour’s John McDonnell, who has branded the spending review a “one-off pre-election panic driven stunt Budget,” challenged the Chancellor to rule out tax cuts and light-touch regulation for the finance sector.
"I am staggered bankers are lobbying Javid for tax cuts and deregulation,” declared the Shadow Chancellor.
"Obviously, with Johnson as Prime Minister they know they have a friend willing to line their pockets. They have a real front after our people suffered more than nine years of austerity as a result of the financial crash, caused by the irresponsibility and greed of the bankers.
"I am calling on Sajid Javid to send them packing and to prevent them getting their noses in the trough," he added.
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