MORE CASH FOR LOCAL SERVICES THANKS TO PROGRESSIVE REFORMS
North Lanarkshire Council is set to receive a significant funding boost as a result of this year’s SNP Scottish Government budget – with local services in North Lanarkshire benefiting from an extra £13.5 million.
The SNP’s progressive reforms – which will see 55% of taxpayers pay less in income tax than if they lived in the rest of the UK – guarantee a 2.19% rise in North Lanarkshire Council’s resource budget, providing extra funding for schools, roads and housing. The budget will also see NL schools benefit from £8.8 million as part of the Pupil Equity Fund, helping to tackle the attainment gap.
The Scottish Budget also provides additional spending on our NHS – which will see an extra £400 million in funding to help protect our health service from Tory austerity – a 3.4% uplift.
As part of this uplift, our frontline NHS Boards will receive £354.5 million (3.7%) of direct additional funding in 2018-19, of which £179.5 million for a general allocation uplift and a further £175 million increase for investment in reform.
Commenting, SNP MSP Fulton MacGregor said:
“This extra funding for North Lanarkshire council – an additional £13.5 million for the coming year – is a great settlement for our communities.
“The SNP’s progressive reforms on income tax, seeing 70% of people pay less than they did last year, and 55% pay less than they would if they lived south of the border, are vital for allowing this funding increase despite continued austerity being imposed by the Tories at Westminster.
“And it takes the total resource budget for our council’s services – such as schools, roads and housing – to £616 million for the coming year, an increase of 2.19% when compared with last year.
“This progressive budget also provides extra funding for our NHS – NHS Lanarkshire will see a total increase of 1.8% with an additional £20.7 million being spent.
“In addition to this we see more investment in education and broadband, and more money for our economy, research and our environment too – as well as protecting free university tuition, free personal care for the elderly, free school meals and free prescriptions.
“While the Tories propose cutting over £556 million from public services in order to pay for their tax cuts for the wealthiest – the SNP Government delivers for our councils and protects the vital local services in North Lanarkshire that we all hold dear.”
Fulton MacGregor 