Scotland to freeze funding on policing and early years education

Local government funding also to be frozen along with cuts to arts, trade and cultural funds to plug budget hole

The Scottish government is to freeze funding of policing, early years learning and local government, and slash arts, trade and cultural funding for the next five years, to plug a deep hole in its budgets.

Kate Forbes, the Scottish finance secretary, said the cuts - estimated to total about 8% in real terms - were needed to greatly increase spending on health by 7bn, social welfare by 6bn and on climate action, including investing 1.8bn in low-carbon homes.