Devolution Calls

Assigning tax revenues is a 'cheap substitute for change', that's according to Ben Thomson, Chairman of the Campaign for Scottish Home Rule.

He's has used an appearance before the Scottish Parliament's Finance Committee to lay out the case against possible plans to assign to Holyrood the revenues of taxes raised by Westminster. The Campaign is advocating meaningful devolution of taxes, so that Holyrood raises what it spends.
 
Whilst assigning tax revenues, like VAT, may help to artificially inflate the proportion of spending that is 'raised', the Campaign argues that it is a poor substitute for actually devolving it.
 
The Campaign for Scottish Home Rule has a steering group of 12 people including figures closely associated with Labour, the SNP, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives and the Greens, as well as people with no party affiliation. They have come together to make the case for an effective, sustainable and productive Home Rule settlement for Scotland.
 
Ben Thomson said:
 
"Assigning the revenue of a tax is a cheap substitute for the change that is needed. We should be devolving taxes not assigning them. The people of Scotland want substantive change and this is not it.
 
"For the Scottish Parliament to be truly empowered, MSPs must be given the power not just to receive annual payments from Westminster which is in effective receiving another form of block grant from Westminster, but to be able to be accountable for complete taxes.
 
"Assigning revenues means nothing, and would suggest that the Smith Commission is trying to create a false impression that the Scottish Parliament is responsible for raising far more of what it spends than is actually the case. It’s simply not good enough.
 
"Such a move would completely fail to meet our basic principle of raising what you spend, that’s why the Smith Commission should explicitly rule out that approach.
 
"We want to see the Smith Commission succeed, we want to see it reaching agreement. However, we want to see agreement on the basis that reflects the expectations of the Scottish people."