THE Scottish Budget is a budget of stimulus and stability, writes Finance Secretary Derek Mackay:

IT delivers for today and invests in tomorrow and does so with fairness, equality and inclusiveness at its heart.

It includes a significant cash injection for Scotland’s health and care services, alongside funding to help prepare our economy for Brexit.

As a result of our income tax decisions, we have been able to invest in essential public services, particularly the NHS, while ensuring 55 per cent of income taxpayers in Scotland pay less tax than those earning the same income in the rest of the UK.

Taken together with the personal allowance 99 per cent of taxpayers will pay less income tax next year on the same income.

These decisions will deliver an additional investment of £730 million for health and care services to mitigate the shortfall in NHS funding promised by the UK Government.

NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde will see its budget increase by more than £76m, to £2.231 billion in 2019-20, and we are investing in a new NHS elective care centre in Clydebank.

The budget will invest £180m to help raise attainment in our schools.

It will help prepare our economy for Brexit with more than £5bn of capital investment to grow and modernise Scotland’s infrastructure.

This includes £207m in our major rail electrification programme - including the line between Glasgow and Edinburgh via Shotts - and continue the redevelopment of Queen Street Station, creating a bigger and brighter, modern station with additional platform capacity to accommodate longer electric trains and an expanded concourse.

The budget provides £187m funding for City Deals, including Glasgow.

Each deal is tailored to maximise the value from regional economic strengths and opportunities: in Glasgow, significant investment in Sighthill will see a whole new community become far better connected to jobs and opportunities across the city.

We will continue to support local authorities to develop their regions. Glasgow will continue to pilot the Tax Incremental Financing scheme, under which councils retain future tax revenue to fund current infrastructure investment and unlock private sector development. And we will work with local authorities to support the implementation of the Glasgow Low Emission Zones.

The budget delivers real terms increases in funding for local government, education, health and the police to support the transformation of our public services, including an innovative community-based custody unit in Glasgow in 2020-21.

These decisions will help us meet new challenges, while investment in skills, social security and training will help to ensure that we deliver opportunity for all.

We will continue to deliver on our commitments to end homelessness and tackle child poverty, and protect investment in culture.

This budget delivers the public services, social contract and economic investment people expect while mitigating, where we can, from the UK Government’s policies of austerity and Brexit that are causing so much harm.