Delivering the building blocks for Scotland’s future.
More than £5 billion is being invested in building a fair, green
and growing economy which creates jobs, supports businesses and
helps finance Scotland’s public services and the transition to
net zero.
Despite one of the most difficult financial climates since
devolution, the Scottish Budget 2024-25 maintains its focus on
core priorities and drives forward a government-wide approach to
economic transformation.
Measures include allocating £67 million to kickstart a five-year
commitment to develop Scotland's offshore wind supply chain and
ensure the country reaps the benefits of the global expansion in
wind power. This brings total Scottish public sector support for
offshore wind to £87 million next year.
The Budget also boosts annual investment in digital connectivity
from £93 million to £140 million in 2024-25, delivering critical
infrastructure to enable businesses to innovate and grow while
connecting more than 114,000 homes and companies in rural areas
to gigabit-capable broadband through the R100 programme.
Since entrepreneurship is at the heart of Scotland’s economic
strategy, a further £9 million investment in the Techscalers
programme will support the country’s best start-ups with
world-class mentoring. The Scottish Government is also
prioritising the implementation of Ana Stewart and Mark Logan’s
Pathways report,focused on helping more women to
start and grow businesses.
The Budget also includes:
- putting almost £2.5 billion into public transport to provide
viable alternatives to car use, and a further £220 million in
active travel to promote walking, wheeling and cycling
- providing £358 million to continue accelerating energy
efficiency upgrades and installation of clean heating systems
- increasing the education and skills budget by £128 million
- investing £49 million to promote the re-use of resources and
reduce consumption, modernise recycling and decarbonise waste
disposal as part of Scotland's transition to a circular economy
Wellbeing Economy Secretary said:
“Our focus is on creating new opportunities for a highly
productive, competitive economy, providing thousands of new jobs,
embedding innovation and boosting skills.
“We are using all the powers we have to support business and to
achieve our ambitious net zero targets. Our strategic investment
in offshore wind will stimulate and support private investment in
the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to the
growth of the sector, and we are delivering a real-terms increase
in the education budget to help boost skills and increase
productivity. As a priority, we will also consult on options for
improving the capacity of local authority planning services.
“Scotland’s finances face a worst-case scenario of
underinvestment, which means we must make the difficult choices
necessary to focus our limited resources on what will deliver
most effectively for people and businesses.
“We’ve seen an Autumn Statement that prioritised a tax cut over
investing in public services and infrastructure. The Scottish
Government cannot follow this, and has not shied away from taking
the tough decisions needed to protect and grow this country’s
economy.”
Background
Scottish Budget
2024-25.
The Budget is built on the First Minister’s three key missions of
Equality, Community and Opportunity.
The Opportunity element of the Budget includes more than £1.3
billion for the Wellbeing Economy, £1 billion for the road
network, around £2.7 billion for public transport and active
travel, almost £556 million in the Affordable Housing Supply
Programme, more than £400 million for energy efficiency upgrades
and to promote the circular economy, and an increase of £128
million to the education and skills budget
An additional £20 million of offshore wind funding is already
committed next year via enterprise agencies and the Scottish
National Investment Bank.
