SPOKES have done their usual excellent job of crunching the numbers on the Scottish Budget.
One thing that seems to have flown under the radar is that the budget for the Low Carbon Transport Loan Fund, which is used to fund interest free loans for e-bikes, has been reduced from £10.5m in 2022-23 to zero in 2023-24. The Scottish Government states "Recycled loan funds will be utilised to maintain the Low Carbon Transport interest free loan scheme." However, I can't see how that will work in practice. Loan repayments in 2023-24 were predicted to be £0.5m, knock off administration costs and the scheme will have almost no funds to lend.
Also worth remembering that the Scottish Government took £28.5m out of this years budget for active travel and green buses. The headline figures bandied about on budget day may not represent what actually ends up being spent.
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