Cash problems ‘being wished away’

The report said the manifestos were devalued by a lack of detail on how spending commitments would be met

Much of the country’s current funding difficulties are being “wished away” by politicians, according to analysis of the four main party manifestos.

Glasgow University’s Centre for Public Policy for Regions (CPPR) compares costings contained in the manifestos, against a backdrop of a falling budget.

It said the absence of detail on how spending commitments would be met devalued the documents.

One of the authors said the parties were not being up-front with voters.

John McLaren said: “Difficult decisions will have to be made after the election.”

He cited the Liberal Democrat and Conservative plans to change Scottish Water’s structure as one example of the parties releasing “substantial” funding which could be spent elsewhere.

But he said those two parties had failed to specify the level of efficiency savings it planned to make across the public sector, while Labour and the SNP had promised 2%.

The report’s conclusion said: “Serious questions have to be asked of all of the four main parties as to whether what they have outlined in their manifestos is sufficient to meet the challenges facing them in terms of the real terms cuts to their budget over the next four years.

“Voters are entitled to be highly sceptical as to whether what they are being offered in their manifestos is actually what will happen, rather than a pale imitation of the difficult choices that await post-election.”

It said the manifestos contained a “plethora of seeming commitments and pledges”.

But it added that when the proposals were broken down they were often found to have no increased funding attached to them. In some cases it points out that the funding is expected to arise from generic efficiency savings.

“The true worth of such commitments must therefore be called into question in many cases,” the report said.

It said there was no way of accommodating for inflationary pressures or no contingencies if costs rose faster than projected.

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