Forth Bridge £2bn funding squabble builds up steam

The Scots are keeping up pressure to jump the queue with their call for £2bn to fund the planned replacement Forth bridge.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) government gave the go-ahead for the crossing last month, triggered by reports that corrosion to the existing suspension bridge could result in it being closed to commercial traffic by 2013.

The SNP wants Westminster to give the green light to the £2bn being paid off over 20 years. But London isn’t playing ball.

Today’s Financial Times reports Scottish ministers warning that they “would not take no for an answer”.

Yvette Cooper, secretary to the Treasury, is quoted in the FT as saying that the funding request is not a credible option.

Her suggestion is that the Scots should build up a capital under-spend or use public-private partnership funding.

John Swinney, Scottish finance secretary, wants to operate outside those options, telling the FT: “The implication of refusing this common sense request is that other projects must take their place in the queue, which is ridiculous and totally unnecessary.

Chancellor Alistair Darling, said he was sorry that for “ideological reasons” the Scottish government had ruled out using public-private partnerships.

Swinney counters by saying that the notion of under-spending Scotland’s capital budget in order to build up funds “runs totally counter to the government policy of accelerating capital spending to help get us out of the economic downturn”.