Hard-working Scots have been hit by another SNP Budget hammer blow after ministers refused to ease the strain on their finances and introduced controversial new levies.
Finance Secretary Shona Robison yesterday rejected widespread calls to cut income tax rates and opted to freeze the threshold for paying the higher, advanced and top rates.
Figures published by the Scottish Government alongside the Budget indicate that 106,000 extra Scots will be dragged into paying the top three rates of income tax in 2026/27 as a direct result of the decisions taken. Families also face the threat of soaring council tax bills after ministers opted against imposing a cap on increases.
A new ‘mansion tax’ will also be introduced on homes worth more than £1 million following the introduction of two new council tax bands, while there will also be a new levy on thousands of private jets which land in Scotland, following demands from the Greens.
At the same time as the tax burden continues to grow, Scotland’s benefits bill will soar by another 6.5 per cent, to £7.2 billion in 2026/27, while spending on foreign aid and international relations – including the network of ‘foreign embassies’ set up by SNP ministers – will also rise.
Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Craig Hoy said: ‘This cynical and predictable SNP budget yet again hammers striving Scots, who already pay the highest taxes in the UK.
‘Shona Robison’s tinkering with the lower rate tax bands produces paltry and insulting savings for some, while middle-earners will be clobbered harder than ever before.
‘Businesses are on the brink after years of being deprived the rates relief available down south, and now they face catastrophic bill rises in April. Yet Shona Robison is still ploughing ahead with a revaluation which will destroy businesses.
‘Hard-working Scots are paying the price for the SNP’s skewed priorities – with the out-of-control benefits bill continuing to grow and a huge rise in overseas development spending.’
Despite freezing the higher, intermediate and top rates of income tax, the basic and intermediate rate thresholds will both increase by 7.4 per cent.
Scots have been hit by another SNP Budget hammer blow
Tory finance spokesman Craig Hoy said ‘middle-earners will be clobbered harder than ever before’ by the SNP’s budget
During her final Budget speech before the Holyrood elections, Ms Robison claimed that families will be better off because Scotland is led by an SNP Government – and suggested that the wealthiest are paying more to help those with less money.
But the maximum benefit for the increases to tax thresholds at the lower end will be £32 a year – or just 61p per week.
In other key developments in the SNP Budget:
*Total spending on social security will rise from £6.79 billion in the 2025/26 Budget to £7.23 billion in 2026/27, including an inflationary increase in the Scottish child payment, currently set at £27.15 per child.
*Business leaders condemned the failure to postpone a business rates revaluation which will cause soaring bills, while reliefs for hard-pressed firms were dismissed as ‘way short’ of what is needed.
*Hundreds of millions of pounds of capital projects face the axe, including a long-promised series of NHS national treatment centres which were supposed to help tackle the waiting times crisis.
*Ministers appeared to downgrade a promise to fully dual the A96 between Aberdeen and Inverness by saying only that ‘key sections’ will be upgraded.
*The Scottish child payment, a weekly payment to low-income families north of the Border, will rise to £40 a week from next year for children under the age of one.
*Scotland’s councils will receive a two per cent real terms increase in funding.
Ms Robison said: ‘My message to the people of this country is clear: thanks to our cost of living commitments, you will be better off in so many ways because you live in Scotland, and better off because Scotland is led by the SNP.’
David Phillips, head of devolved and local government finance at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said: ‘In this pre-election Budget the Scottish Government has found money for several measures to support families with children, to reduce business rates for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, and to increase the basic and intermediate income tax rate thresholds by double the rate of inflation.
‘But the overall outlook for Scottish public finances and services is far less rosy than these ‘toplines’ would suggest. A tight overall funding environment, money for aforementioned giveaways and a focus on the NHS – at least from 2027–28 onwards – means many public services in Scotland are set to see a reduction in their budgets.
‘On tax, while the Finance Minister emphasised the giveaways – including the increases to the basic and intermediate income tax thresholds and new business rates reliefs – the biggest policy announced was a tax rise: freezing the top three income tax thresholds until April 2029, which will drag more taxpayers into higher rates of tax.’
Scottish Labour finance spokesman Michael Marra said: ‘This Budget does not meet the aspirations of the people of Scotland or recognise their need for real change. What this budget represents is a 19th John Swinney Budget – more of the same.’
