First Minister Announces More Cash For NHS, Arts And More

18th October 2023

The First Minister Humza Yousaf also said his government would spend an additional £300m on tackling NHS waiting lists in the next three years and raise arts and culture funding by £100m over the next five years.

Other key announcements included plans to issue the first ever Scottish government bonds on the international bond market to raise funds for infrastructure projects, and plans to "anchor a new offshore wind supply chain" in Scotland with up to £500m in funding over five years - with the government aiming to ensure vital parts such as turbines are made at home instead of being imported from abroad.

Mr Yousaf did not set out how the government would make up the budgetary shortfall for councils who would have raised taxes.

The levy generates about 13% of local government funding, with most of their cash coming from Holyrood funding.

The first minister said his government remained committed to reforming local taxation.

Mr Yousaf said the government will commit £400,000 to the redevelopment of Union Street in Aberdeen city centre, as well as supporting the Eden Project in Dundee, the Clyde Mission in Glasgow and improvement works in the St James Quarter in Edinburgh.

He pledged ministers will invest an extra £100m in each of the next three years to cut NHS waiting lists by an estimated 100,000 patients by 2026, when the next Holyrood election is scheduled to take place.

The number of patients on hospital waiting lists in Scotland has increased to 667,746, quarterly figures to June showed. That was up from almost 625,000 in February.