FAIRER FOR ALL

Finance Secretary Robison lifts tax bands at bottom end to put extra cash in pockets, She slaps extra levy on rich folk living in £1m mansions and hikes cash for hard-up families

- PAUL HUTCHEON

WORKERS have been given a £50million tax boost in the SNP's Scottish Budget - with extra cash for babies in poorer households also announced.

But wealthy £1million-plus homeowners will have to shell out more in council tax to fund the £40-a-week Scottish Child Payment for the tots.

Tax changes will see a £50million giveaway from the government to workers on low pay.

Other Budget measures include breakfast clubs in every primary school and income tax relief for Scots on modest earnings.

The policies were announced by Finance Secretary Shona Robison in the government's final Budget before the election.

Tackling the cost-of-living crisis, cutting child poverty and protecting the NHS were the priorities cited by Robison in her tax and spending plans.

She also announced a small number of tax-raising measures to pay for the giveaways.

She promised to introduce two new council tax bands for homes worth more than £1million, a move which requires a revaluation of the bands at the top.

She said: "That measure will bring greater fairness as well as increased revenues to councils." But Scottish Labour's Michael Marra claimed the Budget "does not meet the aspirations of the people of Scotland and it does not recognise their need for real change".

Claiming the Budget simply offers "more of the same" from the SNP, he added: "Everyone in Scotland knows what that means hundreds of thousands in pain on NHS waiting lists, a justice system past breaking point, an education system going backwards day by day, over 10,000 kids waking up each day in temporary accommodation with no home to call their own." Rates relief for shooting estates will also be scrapped and a private jet tax will be introduced to hit the super-rich.