First Minister Alex Salmond has urged Westminster to give the go-ahead to infrastructure projects worth £300m to stimulate the economy.

A list of more than 30 projects that are "shovel ready" and would benefit communities across Scotland was provided to Westminster by the Scottish Government in March, but the Scottish Government is still waiting for funding to allow these projects to get underway.

The Government claims that if these go ahead now, they would provide a vital support to employment with every additional £100 million of capital spending estimated to support around 1,400 jobs across the Scottish economy.


The First Minister also highlighted that the Scottish Government is focused on attracting overseas investment and widening export markets for Scottish produce.

His comments on Friday came as he began a trade mission to the US to attract inward investment to Scotland - he said his trip would show Scotland is "open for business".

Mr Salmond said: "The Prime Minister asked that we provide a list of projects which were shovel ready back in March, and despite us providing this list, and repeated requests, no funding has yet been provided for these. Given the ever more urgent need to protect the economy from the financial turmoil in Europe, it is vital that Westminster provides the funding to allow these projects to start now. The Scottish Government will go on doing what we can, but we need the UK Government to release these funds to get these projects built as soon as possible. This highlights the limitations of the current constitutional arrangements. Our inability to borrow means work is delayed while we await the green light from Westminster, and this is completely unacceptable."