McMillan Speaks in Budget Debate

Stuart McMillan MSP, (SNP) has today (Wednesday) spoken in the Scottish Parliament Stage 3 - Budget Bill debate.

Mr McMillan said;

"I welcome the Scottish Government budget and was happy to take part in the final stage this afternoon.

"This budget will see the provision of funds to, yet again, freeze the Council Tax and introduce a boiler scrappage scheme.

"Added to this, the Scottish Government is maintaining the high level of Modern Apprenticeship (MA) opportunities, making available 15,000 MA places.

"The Scottish Government will, also, add an additional £31m to the housing budget, which is on top of the record £1.6bn over the 3 years of the spending period. This funding comes alongside the news that the Scottish Government is providing 10 million pounds of funding in 2010-11 to help support 7,500 more students in further and higher education and will result in additional college places being created.

"This Scottish Budget aims to tackle the cuts, being imposed by Westminster, to the best of its ability but with more powers this Scottish Government could do even more to assist Scotland’s economic recovery."