19 October 2012
EET Budget Evidence
The Economy, Energy, and Tourism Committee of the Scottish Government have called for evidence on the Draft Budget for 2013-14.
Transform Scotland believes that the spending decisions are not well directed in regards to the goals for sustainable economic growth, and instead encourages the government to focus expenditure on on assisting investment in small-scale, local, Scottish companies and public bodies, and prioritise preventative spend measures and cross-cutting initiatives.
Furthermore, Transform Scotland welcomes the National Performance Framework's identification of desired outcomes, and hopes that this would lead to a shift in priorities relating to infrastructure and transport issues. However, there is a lack of evidence that the NPF has been influential in practice.
Finally, Transform Scotland notes concern that the recent increase in fares on public transport has particularly disadvantaged those on low incomes, who are the primary users of public transportation. This is while the cost of motoring has dropped 7%.
See the right hand column for the full evidence report.