Thread by @theSNP

📣 Finance Secretary @KateForbesMSP: "This is a Budget for the nation, reflecting the challenges facing each family and business."

💷 £275m to support Covid pressures and lost income in Local Gov't.

"Councils will have freedom and flexibility to decide how it is deployed to support the range of COVID pressures they are facing, ensuring continuity for the critical services they provide."

🏫 £40 million for local government to support the ongoing deployment of safety mitigations in our schools - building on the £50m previously committed. #ScotBudget

🎓 £60 million for Further and Higher Education, including £40m resource funding to help colleges and universities maintain research activity, protect jobs and help students.

🔬 £20m additional capital to boost research and knowledge exchange. #ScotBudget

🔎 £25 million to tackle poverty and inequality, allowing two key investments:

🍎 £100 COVID Hardship Payment for children and young people receiving Free School Meals on the basis of low income...

..extended to children who receive free lunches within Early Learning and Childcare settings.

💷 Increasing the funding available to councils to tackle financial insecurity in their local areas by an additional £20 million.

🛍 100% non-domestic rates relief, for properties in the retail, hospitality, leisure and aviation sectors, has been extended to the whole of 2021-22.

📚 £60m to support and accelerate a longer-term programme to enable children to catch-up on education missed due to the pandemic - including extending the contracts of staff recruited to meet the needs of children and young people.

🔎 £100 million in 2021-22 to help low-income households in the year ahead.

📣 "I want to ensure UK Gov't will not claw back any support we provide, for example through reduced benefit payments, and will ask them to help us help people in hardship during this difficult time. "

👤 £120 million for a Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, taking our total spend on mental health next year to in excess of £1.2 billion.

🗓 Nearly £10 million will be allocated to speed up treatment in psychological therapies waiting lists for adults.

🏥 £60 million investment in waiting times recovery, to enable NHS boards to start to address the pandemic induced backlog, remobilise our services and improve access to hospital-based services.

🏡 A further £100m grant and £20m Financial Transactions for housing in 2021/22.

📈 This means we will now invest over £3.5 billion in housing over the next 5 years, delivering more social and affordable homes in communities across Scotland.

🌍 To support a green recovery and help us meet our climate ambitions, we are allocating an additional £45 million capital to heat decarbonisation, energy efficiency and fuel poverty for 2021-22.

This brings the total for heat and energy efficiency to over £258 million capital.

🏘 An additional £50 million capital for town and city centres and 20-Minute Neighbourhoods for 2021, taking this year’s investment to £105 million - essential measures in supporting a sustainable economic recovery.

⛰ A further £10 million in capital funding for tourism infrastructure for rural communities for 2021-22 - separate to the doubling of the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund in the Budget.

🧱 £32m for local bridges maintenance, to rebuild and maintain key lifeline bridges like the Bernera Bridge.