Commenting on the budget SSP national joint spokesperson Colin Fox said:
“Hammond’s budget underlines that austerity remains in force and put his opponents in Labour and the SNP calling for its end on the spot.
If the crisis of poverty pay, insecure work, chronic housing shortages and attacks on people on benefits is to end then action, not words, is essential.
That’s why we have called on both the SNP and Labour to adopt a fighting response to austerity by using the powers at their disposal.
The Scottish Government and Labour councils now face the acid test of turning words against austerity into action which can challenge it.
That’s why we have put forward a real alternative budget to that outlined today which includes;
[x_pullquote type=”right”]We have called on both the SNP and Labour to adopt a fighting response to austerity by using the powers at their disposal.[/x_pullquote]- Introduce a £10/hour living wage to end poverty pay and boost consumer spending,
- Replace the Council tax with an income based alternative lifting the burden of payment off the shoulders of those least able to pay
- Introduce free public transport to combat climate change and give people a more attractive alternative to their cars
- Return our railways to public hands
- Return our energy industry to public hands to end the scourge of fuel poverty once and for all
- Provide free access to the internet for all under 25
- Provide residential elderly care free [to add to Scotland’s free personal care]
- Implement a massive programme of publicly owned affordable house building for rent
- To be paid for in part by closing down the tax havens protected by UK law exposed by the Paradise Papers to ensure the wealthy can no longer escape their obligations to society
- And by cancelling the £100bn due to be spent on a second generation of Trident nuclear missiles stationed on the Clyde.”