D-day for £2bn Forth Bridge

Crunch talks will be held in London this afternoon between the UK and Scottish governments in a bid to break the deadlock over funding for the new £2bn Forth road bridge.

Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Yvette Cooper are due to meet according to the BBC.

Westminster has rejected SNP plans to borrow money from future budgets and pay it back over 20 years.

Holyrood ministers said they would pay for it from the £30bn annual block grant from Westminster, but it also asked the Treasury to advance it cash to spread the cost of the bridge.

The UK government said it was impossible to advance cash from a budget which did not yet exist, but has offered a potential compromise, allowing Scots ministers to keep savings made over the next three years to build up a cash reserve to help pay for the bridge.

The Scottish government has argued the new bridge is a "generational" project, and must be allowed to go ahead without delaying other capital spending proposals.

A Westminster source said: "We are very keen to engage constructively regarding the building of a new Forth Road Bridge.

"At this afternoon's meeting the UK government will offer some real and new financial flexibility to the Scottish government."