SCOTTISH politicians must ditch “can-kicking” strategies and “be honest” about the state of Scotland’s finances in the run-up to the Holyrood elections, a leading think tank warned today.

The Fraser of Allander Institute (FAI) raised the alarm in a new report, co-authored with the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, which pointed to a range of present and looming cash crises across health, social care, justice and post-school education.

The report notes two decades of low growth in health spending had left waiting times targets routinely unmet, while spending increases in social care may actually have delivered less care since 2021.

As campuses across Scotland vote for strike action in the face of redundancy threats, FAI warned there had been real-terms cuts of 17 per cent and 8 per cent in university and college funding respectively, with the Scottish Funding Council facing another 10 per cent real-terms cut in the coming years.

FAI director, Professor Mairi Spowage, said: “Public-sector pay pressures are a source of concern, as is the muddied picture on adult social care and the falling funding of post-school education in real terms.

“The next Scottish Parliament will need to make hard choices, and the electorate needs parties to be honest about the scale of the challenges and how they plan to tackle them.”

The think tank’s deputy director Dr Joao Sousa added: “The Scottish government’s approach to pay is symptomatic of a broader can-kicking strategy.

“Its budget has only been financed in recent years on the back of windfalls, be they from better-than-expected tax forecasts or Barnett consequentials.

“The reckoning has already happened on capital, and whoever is in power after May will have to seriously grapple with implausible settlements in areas such as health and justice.”

Scottish Labour finance spokesman Michael Marra argued the report showed: “SNP ministers have recklessly mismanaged Scotland’s finances for years, leaving councils strapped for cash, our public services run down, and taxpayers picking up the tab.”

But the Scottish government insisted it had “delivered a balanced budget every year,” adding: “We value public-sector workers, who all play a vital role in delivering excellent local services for people and communities across the country.

“Thanks to the decisions the Scottish government has taken on public-sector pay, public-sector workers in Scotland are the best rewarded in the UK.”