UNIONS and poverty campaigners demanded stronger action from Holyrood yesterday to reverse inequality and pay cuts following Thursday's publication of the draft Scottish Budget.

And though Finance Secretary John Swinney won headlines with a so-called mansion tax — in reality a replacement for Stamp Duty — Shelter branded his Budget as a “missed opportunity” for social housing.

Scottish TUC general secretary Grahame Smith said the draft provided “little relief for hard-pressed public service workers” whose real-terms income has been falling.

“These real-terms wage cuts are a disaster for our members and a disaster for the Scottish economy which desperately needs a boost in demand,” he said.

PCS Scottish secretary Lynn Henderson expressed “disappointment at an opportunity missed to create a Fair Pay Scotland” and said there is “a very real anger across Scottish public sector workers that UK austerity pay must end.”

The union is consulting on co-ordinating industrial action with Unison Scotland local government workers who have voted to strike over pay.

Shelter Scotland director Graeme Brown said: “The commitment to deliver only 4,000 social rented homes is a missed opportunity and shows the Scottish government’s ambition falls well short of meeting the expectations of 150,500 people stuck on council house waiting lists.

“To bring real hope to these families and individuals, we need to deliver at least 10,000 social rented homes a year.”

Scottish Poverty Alliance directo Peter Kelly welcomed some increased funding to tackle child poverty and to mitigate against the impact of welfare reform. 

But he said the measures were “only the beginning … tackling poverty requires a real redistribution of resources to those in need.”