Union boss urges Scottish Government to focus on tax, not 'London blame game'

Writing in the new issue of the Scottish Left Review, Ms Dallling sets out a series of tax changes to raise more money for public services, including a local inheritance tax. 

She says the ideas are “a sincere proposal” to work in partnership with the Government.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney last week announced more than £500million of spending cuts to the Holyrood budget for the current financial year, 2022/23.

He also warned of more “hard choices” ahead given the dramatic increase in inflation to more than 10 per cent and an unforeseen bill of £700m for public sector wage hikes.

He and Ms Sturgeon both insisted there was no spare money and so if the picture deteriorated, it would mean money taken away from existing commitments. 

They said it showed the “harsh reality” of Holyrood having limited tax and borrowing powers under devolution, and that far more was possible with independence

However, Ms Dalling said SNP and Green ministers had yet to “deploy every available tool” and it was “not accurate or helpful… point to devolution constraints and blame London”.

She said: “There are many things union members simply won’t be buying this winter and the London blame-game is one of them. 

“Of course, there are constraints but the effectiveness of this Scottish Government must be gauged by how creatively it plays the hand it has been dealt.”

She said that after the Covid pandemics, public sector workers were “angry” at the prospect of more austerity with the cost of living and were saying “enough is enough”. 

But, as in the pandemic, the Scottish Government could take a better, more enlightened path than the UK Government, and work with others to alleviate hardship.

She said: “What we propose is something similar to the recent dialogue with anti-poverty agencies and the proposed summit meeting with energy companies, building alliances with the social partners and responding to the plight of workers who have repeatedly faced up to a crisis they did not cause.”

She lists 11 different measures “suggestions of where and how the Scottish Government could find more money for public services and those who provide them. 

Unison’s indicative proposals include ending or cutting the £300m-a-year Small Business Bonus Scheme, which has never been proven to make a difference; raising the land and business transaction tax (LBTT) to raise £40m; a bigger surcharge on second home sales to raise £56m; cutting the threshold for higher rate of income tax to raise £700m; council tax changes to raise £70m; and a new local inheritance tax to give councils £200m more a year.

Ms Dalling said: “These are offered not to suggest they form a complete solution to spending issues, but as an indication of the kind of thinking that needs to be done to rescue public services from their current overlapping crises. 

“Many of them relate to local rather than Scottish Government. This is deliberate. 

“Giving councils more freedom would improve public finances, diversify the funding base and shift the focus from earned income to excess wealth.”

She concluded: “Not all of the measures can be taken immediately, but they show the nature and the scale of what could be done if the political will exists to make it happen. 

“Unison Scotland offers them up for discussion. Not because we are keen to stand over every dot and comma of every suggestion – this is clearly only a preliminary sketch. 

“They are, however, a sincere proposal to rekindle a partnership response to crisis, a willingness to stand together against the crisis, and a willingness to stand together against the dogma of Westminster and a further, fatal wave of public sector austerity and poverty in Scotland.”

Ms Dalling became Unison Scotland’s first female general secretary in March, heading up an organisation with 150,000 members north of the border.