Scotland is expected to miss its infrastructure targets and will be forced to pause several of its schedule projects despite “significant” need, the public spending watchdog has said. 

The latest Audit Scotland report has found that the Scottish government is faced with a combination of reduced capital budgets, higher costs and increased maintenance requirements that would make it unable to afford the cost of delivering its public sector infrastructure plan. 

As a result, plans for improving and building roads, railways and hospitals might be paused. 

The auditor said it expects a cost increase for the 45 infrastructure projects of at least £55m between December 2022 and June 2023, while ministers expect a 7 per cent real-terms reduction in the capital block grant it receives from the UK government between 2023/24 and 2027/28.

The report predicted that the ambition to double maintenance spending will be missed and stressed the £1.1bn worth of works needed...