Thursday March 6th 2025
Midlothian MP, Kirsty McNeill, writes her regular column for Midlothian View.
£14 million additional funding for Midlothian Council. That’s the difference a Labour government makes.
Midlothian is the fastest growing council in Scotland, but after 14 years of Tory austerity and 18 years of SNP financial mismanagement, investment in our local services has failed to keep pace.
That’s why, in our Labour Government’s budget, we delivered the largest funding settlement for Scotland in the history of devolution – nearly £5 billion extra for the SNP government to spend on much needed investment in Scottish communities.
As a consequence of this settlement, Midlothian Council has now received an additional £14 million of funding for 2025/26, closing the gap in the Council’s budget and hopefully staving off the need for any cuts to our local services.
But with Midlothian’s population growing by a whopping 16.1% in the past 10 years, it’s simply not enough just to protect what we already have. After years of managed decline under the SNP, we all know that Midlothian’s communities need investment so that our families get the future they deserve.
That’s why I’ll continue to call for the SNP government to spend the remaining additional funding from the UK Labour budget wisely – including by coming up with a real plan to drive down our NHS waiting lists and improve our public transport.
I’ll continue to fight for what matters to you most – real change for Midlothian.
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