THE Chancellor is expected to unleash a knock-on windfall for Scotland’s public sector of hundreds of millions of pounds in today’s Budget, while praising the new group of Scottish Conservative MPs for exerting pressure on him.

Philip Hammond will use his first Autumn Budget to “invest to secure a bright future for Britain”, with Scotland set to benefit as a result of the Barnett consequentials.

He is also widely expected to make a political point that it was the pressure exerted by his Scottish Conservative colleagues that persuaded him to “deliver for Scotland” rather than what he regards as the grievance-led complaints of the SNP.

This is believed to refer to the exemption he is poised to announce for the Scottish police and fire services from future VAT payments. It is likely to be claimed as a victory for Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson.

He is also set to announce plans to help oil and gas decommissioning in the North Sea and complete the City Deals programme in Scotland, including one covering the border with England.

In what is likely to signal the start of the end of the age of austerity, he will respond to the intense pressure for more Government spending to boost industrial productivity and ease the housing crisis as he promises to build “a Britain fit for the future”.

In his Commons set-piece speech, he will say: “In this Budget, we express our resolve to look forwards, to embrace change, to meet our challenges head on and to seize the opportunities for Britain.”

The Chancellor will paint an optimistic vision of a future “global Britain”, saying it holds out the prospect of “a prosperous and inclusive economy where everybody has the opportunity to shine wherever in the UK they live, whatever their background...An outward looking, free-trading nation, a force for good in the world, a country fit for the future”.

However, his room for manoeuvre has been limited by surprise figures showing that state borrowing jumped to £8 billion last month, adding to pressure from the Office for Budget Responsibility’s expected downgrade of productivity projections.

Paul Johnson, director of the respected think-tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, described the Chancellor as being caught “between a rock and a hard place”, so that he might be forced to abandon his target of balancing the nation’s books by the middle of the next decade.

Already, the Treasury has pre-announced a new £1.7bn pot of investment to improve transport links across city regions in England and today an extra £220m will be unveiled to improve the quality of teaching in schools south of the Border, which are set to produce a financial boost for the Scottish Government through so-called Barnett consequentials.

Mr Hammond is widely expected to unveil more spending on housing in England and Wales; already he has set a target of 300,000 new homes per year. Extra spending here would also see a knock-on cash boost for Scotland.

Jeremy Corbyn, who visited the Aston Martin’s car factory near Warwickshire plantin the run-up to today’s Budget, said it was time for the Tory Government to support business by spending to invest.

“The Chancellor must use the Budget to invest in infrastructure to give our economy the boost it so badly needs, invest in our public services and the people who provide them, halt the disastrous rollout of Universal Credit and begin a major new house-building programme,” said the Labour leader.

Today, Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, will call for a “Budget for people and prosperity” rather than for failed Tory dogma.

He will urge Mr Hammond to end the “unnecessary, ideological austerity,” pause the roll-out of Universal Credit and not only scrap the VAT Scotland’s emergency services are charged but also refund the £140m they have paid during the last four years.

The Highland MP will also say the Chancellor “must take the chance to provide clarity for business and central to that is keeping the UK in the single market”.

Derek Mackay, the Scottish Government’s Finance Secretary, also urged Mr Hammond to reverse plans for additional £3.5bn cuts to Edinburgh’s budget and provide certainty over the future of EU funding.

Expressing the SNP administration’s resolute opposition to austerity, he said: “The Chancellor must meet key tests in his Autumn Budget to repair some of this damage, to recognise the serious challenges we are facing as a result of Brexit and to bring forward substantial measures to boost the economy and ease the pressure on the public sector and those who work in it.”