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Scots enjoy £2,543 public spending boost each thanks to ‘Union dividend’ but English get just £91 shock report reveals
Nick Gutteridge
Apr 28 2021, 6:26 ET
SCOTS enjoy a £2,543 per person public spending boost thanks to being in the Union while the English get just £91, a shock report has revealed.
The findings by the impartial Institute for Government think tank will heap more pressure on Nicola Sturgeon to explain how she d finance independence.
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Nicola Sturgeon has spied an opportunity for a second independence referendumCredit: Reuters
Researchers discovered that Scotland is running a whopping budget deficit of more than 7%, while England s is just 0.3%.
But its finances are shored up by the controversial Barnett Formula, which calculates how taxpayers cash is spread around the UK.
Scots benefit from ‘Union dividend’ of more than £2,500 per person
Nicola Sturgeon urged to come clean about the costs of independence after figures reveal stark disparity with English residents
28 April 2021 • 12:00am
Opponents of Nicola Sturgeon have said her push for Scottish independence would result in unprecedented tax hikes and spending cuts
Credit: Russell Cheyne/Reuters
People in Scotland benefit from a union dividend of more than £2,500, almost 30 times higher than the average English resident, research by an influential think tank has found.
The Institute for Government (IfG) found that in 2018/19, the most recent year for which full UK-wide figures are available, Scotland ran a deficit of more than seven per cent while England’s was just 0.3 per cent.
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Cian Siôn, a researcher on the Wales Fiscal Analysis project, said: “Although more than a £1 billion has been provided to local authorities to aid their response to the pandemic during 2020−21, from next year, government spending is once again set to become more restrained. “Even though the block grant is set to grow in real terms over the next five years, growing demand for services, including social care, and significant post-pandemic pressures combine to create a challenging outlook for the Welsh and local authority budgets. “This challenge kicks in immediately with a substantial funding gap next year, based on current UK Government spending plans.”
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