A ONE-OFF £750m windfall from the sale of Scotland’s offshore wind potential has been spent “to support the budget”, the finance secretary has admitted.
This means the SNP has broken their pledge to set aside and reinvest in the energy sector the proceeds from the sale of Scotland’s offshore wind potential to private firms.
The so-called “ScotWind” auction cash was plugged into the wider budget for public spending including services like health and welfare – though Shona Robison pointed out it would also support spend on green policy areas.
Nats ministers were accused earlier this month of blowing the cash in an echo of how they accused the UK Government of wasting North Sea oil cash.
The Scottish Sun revealed last month how the SNP Government raided the money from selling offshore wind plots to help plug a £1.5billion Budget gap caused by spending pledges they couldn’t afford.
Scottish Government documents show £550million of the ScotWind cash has already been committed, with £310million of that earmarked for the current financial year alone.
Experts said the cash from the 2022 ScotWind auctions should have been treated like the “sovereign wealth fund” idea long floated by the Nats.
The SNP has argued for decades a Norway-style pot should have been set up using oil revenues, amid claims North Sea cash has been wasted and should have been saved and invested.
Scottish Government sources insisted the equivalent amount would be spent on renewable infrastructure in the future, and that the cash was being used as a reserve.
But now Ms Robison said such a “sovereign wealth fund” was not possible due to budget constraints.
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She said: “My dilemma is in an ideal world with funding not being so constrained, would we want to create a different fund that is able to either pay almost like a sovereign wealth fund or something that would be very specifically geared to future action on climate, in an ideal world yes.
“But when you’re facing budget constraint, I think I would be facing questions across parliament if I was sitting with £350m either unallocated or being kept for tough times.
“I think these times are the toughest and I’m having to use that to support the budget.”
She admitted the cash was “not aligned to a particular part of the budget” but claimed that meant it was being used to support climate spending.
Ms Robison added that using the cash allowed the government to avoid “even more difficult decisions” such as cuts or higher taxes across the budget.