22 August 2013
Budget evidence submitted to Parliament's economy committee
Transform Scotland have published the evidence submitted to the Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee on the Draft Budget for 2014-2015.
Transform Scotland believes that the Scottish Government's current expenditure priorities are not well-directed in terms of traffic congestion, reducing climate emissions or increasing expenditure on sustainable transport modes.
The construction of new roads will as a rule generate new, higher levels of traffic. There has been a continuing failure by Scottish Government administrations to tackle the widely acknowledged road maintenance backlog. Making road maintenance rather than road-building the focus of the Government's roads policy would have a greater impact in supporting Scottish companies and public bodies.
Transform Scotland believe that the Government's approach should focus public expenditure on assisting investment by small-scale, local, Scottish companies and public bodies and we are not convinced by the case the Government presents regarding the benefit to the construction industry - or, rather, the benefit to the
Scottish construction industry - of the focus on infrastructure 'mega-projects'. We note that
none of the four companies that comprise the consortium of the unnecessary and unsuitable 'Forth Replacement Crossing' project - Scotland's largest construction project - are headquartered in Scotland.
See the right hand column for the full evidence report