Cost of living front and centre of agenda, says Sturgeon

Tackling the cost of living crisis will be "front and centre" of the Scottish government's plans for next year, the first minister has said.

Nicola Sturgeon will set out her agenda for the year when Holyrood returns from summer recess on Tuesday.

Scottish Labour has called on the government to introduce a law to protect people in financial hardship.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives said Ms Sturgeon had failed to deliver on last year's promises.

The Programme for Government will be published on Tuesday, the same day the new prime minister takes office.

Ms Sturgeon said the steps she will outline will build on measures to support household budgets, including the Scottish Child Payment, the Carers Allowance Supplement and the Council Tax Reduction Scheme.

Speaking on Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme, the first minister said the Scottish government would set out an emergency budget within two weeks of "whatever budget or fiscal event the new prime minster has".

She said the Scottish government was working on the assumption that this would happen at the end of September.

The first minister told Sky News she was "profoundly concerned" about the impact a new UK government budget would have on Scotland and the other devolved nations.

"Right now we are working within budgets that are effectively fixed and finite. They are not rising in line with inflation but the inflationary pressures are bearing down on our budget as they are on the household budgets of families across the country," she said.

"Any move - and this is a real risk - that would cut our budget within this financial year would obviously be of profound concern because it would have big implications for the National Health Service, for local authority budgets, for every aspect of our spending."

Ms Sturgeon said she did not agree with tax cuts as relief for families as they targeted those who were best off, and set out what she would like to see from Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak once the new Conservative leader is announced on Monday.

"Freeze energy prices first and foremost, come to an agreement then between government and the energy companies about how that is paid back over a longer period of time," she said.

"Effectively spread and share the burden of the soaring gas prices. Help businesses because businesses don't even have the limited protection of an energy price cap."

Any new prime minister should also work to get more cash into the pockets of those who need it most and "free up more spending ability" for the devolved governments so they could protect public services, the first minister said.

"There's a package that a new prime minister could bring to bear and it would deliver real help and relief to millions across the UK," she added.

The first minister has also said she would seek to work constructively with the next prime minister, despite having traded attacks with both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak throughout the campaign.

And she claimed an independent Scotland could have already passed an emergency budget, adding: "Instead we are left wrestling with meeting the challenges of fair pay, household hardship and rising costs for public services without the tools we need to tackle them."

Scottish Labour has called on the government to introduce an emergency Cost of Living Act.

The legal changes the party wants to see include a temporary rent freeze, a ban on winter evictions and changes to laws on debt including fairer rules on earnings, arrestment and bankruptcy fees.

Scottish Labour's Neil Bibby said every party had a "moral duty" to back the plans.

He added: "Scots expect their Parliaments to be focused on the issues that matter and their governments to use every power they have - but both the SNP and the Tories are asleep at the wheel.

Scottish Conservative Chairman Craig Hoy MSP said Ms Sturgeon had failed on a number of commitments including drug deaths, police funding and free school meals.

He said: "The Scottish people want and deserve a government that focuses on their priorities. Instead, Scotland has to suffer an SNP administration which is obsessed with its own self-serving goal of breaking up the UK."