‘AUSTERITY BUDGET IS FAILING MORAY’ SAYS MP.

Moray’s MP Angus Robertson has said that the UK Tory Government’s budget is ‘failing Moray’.

Local MP Mr Robertson has said that while some measures such as reductions in oil industry taxation and a freeze on fuel duty are to be welcomed the overall direction is fundamentally wrong.

The SNP has set out the a balanced alternative to austerity budgeting which Angus Robertson says the Chancellor should take heed of.

Mr Robertson said:

“George Osborne’s is failing Moray, it is failing Scotland and it is failing the UK as a whole. Continued austerity budgets are simply not working. The Chancellor has continually failed to meet his own economic targets and it is simply not credible to keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome.

“Yes, I welcome the reductions in taxation of the north sea oil and gas sector, which is under pressure and needed a boost and I also welcome the freeze on fuel duty - these are measures that the SNP has campaigned vigorously for - but overall austerity budgeting is simply wrong.

“This Tory austerity is through choice, not necessity. The SNP has set out a balanced alternative to austerity, which would return the public finances to a sustainable path whilst continuing to invest in public services and supporting the most vulnerable in our society.

“An SNP Budget would increase spending on public services by 0.5% a year in real terms between 2016-17 and 2019-20. This would release over £150 billion during this period for investment in public services - while ensuring that public sector debt and borrowing fall over the current Parliament.

“This demonstrates that the UK's deficit and debt can be brought down without the need for huge spending cuts. Under our alternative fiscal plan, the UK’s current budget could be balanced from 2019-20, with public sector net investment increased to 2% of GDP over the same period.

“Our plan for investment has international support and credibility. The OECD's Economic Outlook endorsed this very plan, arguing that a commitment to raising public investment collectively would boost demand while remaining on a sustainable path.

“We have already seen thousands of families in Moray being left worse off by welfare and tax credit cuts and there seems to be no sign of that letting up, going by this week’s budget statement.”