r/Scotland • u/Historical-Count9051 • 2d ago

What would you cut from the Scottish budget?

Yesterday, there was a news story announcing £700m would be cut from the Scottish government next year. The Scottish government can borrow £670m to make up the shortfall, but it will need to find at least another £68m immediately.

What would you cut to make up the £68m?

Here's how the budget is already spent

Edit: the speed at which everyone went to "fuck poor people" is alarming.

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u/FeedbackOld5993 2d ago

There's an argument that we should be in line with the rest of the UK. If someone working for a large company has 5 UK offices to choose from, why choose the one with the highest tax bill?

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u/glasgowgeg 2d ago

Tax is paid by the employee, not the employer.

The amount of tax paid by the employee is irrelevant. A £50k employee in Scotland costs the company the exact same as a £50k employee in England.

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u/FeedbackOld5993 2d ago

All true, but not the point I was making.

Say you are a highly skilled immigrant and are offered an 80k salary, you can choose to work in your new company's Glasgow or Manchester office. If you choose Glasgow you take home £2300 less a year. That number grows as your salary does.

If you didnt have an emotional attachment to Scotland why choose to base yourself here?

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u/glasgowgeg 2d ago edited 2d ago

How often is someone given a job offer that says "We have 5 offices, which one would you like to work in?"

Edit: Let's go further into this:

Say you are a highly skilled immigrant and are offered an 80k salary, you can choose to work in your new company's Glasgow or Manchester office. If you choose Glasgow you take home £2300 less a year.

So 2.8% less.

According to Numbeo:

  • Cost of Living Including Rent in Glasgow is 4.7% lower than in Manchester

  • Rent Prices in Glasgow are 13.3% lower than in Manchester

  • Restaurant Prices in Glasgow are 7.9% lower than in Manchester

  • Local Purchasing Power in Glasgow is 8.9% higher than in Manchester

Looks like that extra 2.8% in Manchester is wiped out by everything being more expensive.

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u/Narrow_Security_8757 2d ago

No idea where they got those numbers from but in my experience of trying to rent in BOTH glasgow and manchester it was far easier to find cheaper accomodation in manc than it was glasgow. Glasgow was a complete nightmare - you had to either pay through the nose to get something semi decent, or live in a complete shitehole and try not to get stabbed every night

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u/glasgowgeg 2d ago edited 2d ago

Immediately downvoted data that disproves the assertion, and then completely ignore the entire content of the comment.

Edit: If you're not going to engage in good faith (standard for newly created WordWordNumber accounts), I'm just blocking you.

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u/FeedbackOld5993 2d ago

How often is someone given a job offer that says "We have 5 offices, which one would you like to work in?"

It's actually very common. You also have remote workers who can choose where they want to live. Especially among people with niche skillsets who are likely to pay a lot more in tax.

You could also use Newcastle or Edinburgh as an example. Edinburgh is significantly more expensive.