Budget (Scotland) (No 3) Bill: Stage 3

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 5 February 2014.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Jackie Baillie Jackie Baillie Labour

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate. Unsurprisingly, I will focus my remarks solely on the bedroom tax.

I say at the outset how much I welcome the position that the Scottish Government has now taken on the bedroom tax. In particular, I single out for praise John Swinney, whose approach to the negotiations has been positive. I very much welcome our discussions. I look forward to continuing to work with him in the future and would welcome confirmation from him that I will be involved in the discussions on shaping the mechanism that will be used, as we previously discussed.

Let us be clear: by voting for the budget today, we will, in effect, bring an end to the bedroom tax in Scotland. I can find very few people who believe that the bedroom tax is anything other than a vile and iniquitous piece of legislation. It affects almost 80,000 people in Scotland, at least 80 per cent of whom are disabled, and the majority of whom are on low fixed incomes. [Interruption.]