Fairer system, higher investment in public services
Scottish council tax payers are getting the best deal in Britain, paying on average £590 a year less than they would in Tory-run England, and £423 less than in Labour-run Wales.
Meanwhile, the average increase in council tax, for 2022/23, is smaller in Scotland (3%) than it is in England (3.5%).
We’ve also introduced a fairer income tax system – so that those with the broadest shoulders pay a bit more, while the majority of Scottish taxpayers pay less income tax than they would elsewhere in the UK.
Even the Tory Scottish Secretary Alister Jack admitted it.
And under the SNP government, in every corner of Scotland, people benefit from many things that are not available to people south of the border.
Here are just some examples.
- Free tuition
- Free prescriptions
- Free bus travel for under-22s
- Free personal care to all who need it
- Expanded free early learning and childcare to 1,140 hours
- Free sanitary products
- Expanded free school meals
- The Baby Box
Click here to read our record in full.
We’re investing record amounts in our NHS
- Health funding in Scotland is at a record high – at £19 billion, with resource funding more than doubling (in cash terms) since the SNP came into power 2007.
- We have 28,800 more doctors, nurses and other health staff in Scotland’s NHS – that’s 22.7% more under the SNP.
- For over five years and counting, Scotland has had the highest number of GPs per head of population in the UK – 83 per 100,000 in Scotland, compared to 63 in England and Wales.
- After being the first country in the UK to introduce a mental health waiting times target, we’re now working to ensure that at least 10% of all frontline health spending will be on mental health.
- Scotland’s NHS staff are the highest paid anywhere in the UK.
We’re investing record amounts in education
- Since the SNP came into government, Scotland has the highest per-person level of education investment across the UK.
- We have built or upgraded over 1,000 schools right across Scotland – providing more accessible and better designed spaces for pupils and staff.
- Scotland has significantly more teachers per pupil than south of the border – and starting salaries for teachers are the highest in the UK, outside of Greater London.
- The number of Higher passes is at a record level since devolution began, and the number of Advanced Higher passes is at its highest since they were introduced in 2001.
- Scotland has some of the best universities in the world, and under the SNP, students in Scotland benefit from free tuition.
We’ve built a fairer, more compassionate social security system
- We’ve taken bold steps to set up a new social security system in 2018 – with dignity, fairness and respect at the heart of everything it does.
- Social Security Scotland now administers 13 benefits – 7 of which are new and unique within the UK, such as the ‘game-changing’ Scottish Child Payment.
- The Scottish Child Payment is the most ambitious anti-poverty measure in the UK. In 2022, we have raised it by 150% to £25 per child per week.
- We’ve rolled out the Adult Disability Payment to give disabled people more dignity, and ending the punitive DWP approach to assessments.
- We’ve introduced the Carer’s Allowance Supplement – which puts around £460 extra each year into carers’ pockets compared to carers in the rest of the UK.
Meanwhile, we’re spending around £600 million to mitigate some Westminster policies
- We’re ensuring that no one in Scotland has to pay the callous Bedroom Tax, introduced by the Tories at Westminster.
- While the Tories have cut Universal Credit by £20 a week, we’ve doubled our Scottish Child Payment to £20.
- We’re protecting the most vulnerable households from Tory welfare cuts through our Scottish Welfare Fund – helping to buy essentials such as nappies, food and cookers.
