Support for jobs

In these hard times, the SNP Government has stood shoulder to shoulder with Glasgow business – providing direct funding of £28m to help create 3500 jobs in Glasgow, including:

• Finance company Vertexis used £1.7m of SNP Government assistance to build a centre of excellence in Glasgow and create 368 jobs at Atlantic Quay.
• Tesco Personal Finance received £5m which helped create 880 new jobs
• Barclays continued their expansion in Scotland, supported by Govt. development funds, by creating 600 jobs in Glasgow
• A centre of Engineering Excellence for Renewable Energy is being created in Glasgow with £2.8m support from the Scottish Government, creating around 250 new high value jobs over the next three years and safe-guarding 70 more in the city
• Esure, with £1.1m of Government help, created 250 new jobs
  

Other support for the Glasgow economy includes:

• In 2009/10, the SNP provided 2638 Modern Apprenticeships in Glasgow – 25% more than Labour managed in its last year in power.
• The SNP have abolished rates for 4452 small businesses in Glasgow and drastically cut the rates for another 1631.

Capital Spending

Capital investment is vital to securing an economic recovery in Scotland – and Glasgow benefits from OVER HALF of capital spending projects in Scotland, totalling billions of pounds:

• Completion of the M74 – £700m
• Southern General Hospital - £842m
• Glasgow City Centre College campus - £300m
• Glasgow School of Art upgrade - £50m
• National Indoor Sports Arena - £116
• M80 Stepps to Haggs improvements - £320m

In all, the SNP is investing £1bn in crucial road projects in and around Glasgow – when Iain Gray was a Minister his Govt. invested a mere £139m in just 3 road projects in Glasgow.

Funding public services

The SNP spend more on local services in Glasgow than any other part of Scotland:

• Glasgow Council got £2871 per person in 2009/10 – 27% above the Scottish average.
• Glasgow Council gets 53% more funds than Aberdeen and 44% more than Edinburgh.
• With 11.5% of the population, Glasgow receives 25% of all NHS spending and 30% of all housing spending.

Improving public services

The SNP Government has vastly improved public services in Glasgow since coming to power:

• Freezing the council tax for 3 straight years saved Glasgow rate payers £322 on average.
• In Strathclyde, the SNP has delivered 588 new police officers – and as a result crime has been cut by a fifth and knife crime by a quarter.
• The SNP has established a Domestic Abuse court in Glasgow
• In housing the SNP has abolished the Right to Buy and, after years of delay, have begun second stage transfer – 20,000 homes have been moved to tenant’s organisations.
• In the NHS, the SNP have cut waiting times in Glasgow by two weeks.
• In Glasgow, 14 school building projects have been completed under the SNP.
• Prescription charges have been halved under the SNP, and will be abolished by 2011.
  
  

GARL - why this project was not able to proceed

The reason that Glasgow Airport Rail Link was scrapped was the £500m cut in the Scottish budget implemented by the UK Labour Government.

• Despite Labour claiming they will reinstate GARL, they have at no time said what they would cut to find the money for it.
• They had the chance to amend the Budget to re-instate GARL – and failed to do so.
• This was a desirable but not essential project which would have cost almost £200m and is simply not affordable due to UK cuts.
• Labour’s claim that the decision has cost 1300 jobs is an exaggeration. This was an estimate of potential jobs created over 20 years.
• Out of the 67 operational jobs (i.e. running the line) that would have been created, 61 will still go ahead.