Council leaders have reacted furiously to details of their Budget allocation for the coming year, warning it risks damaging the country’s social fabric.
The umbrella group Cosla said the local government settlement for 2019/20 could throw people out of work and “put the final nail” into communities and essential services.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon defends Scottish Budget income tax rates at First Minister's Questions
Cosla president Alison Evison said that, after years of cuts exacerbated by increased demand, “we have now reached a point where there is simply nowhere left to go”.
In a call to opposition parties, she said that if Finance Secretary Derek Mackay did not rethink his position before a crunch Holyrood vote in February, there should be a “parliamentary intervention” to force him.
The scathing attack followed Mr Mackay issuing the detailed local government settlement for 2019/20, setting out the money for every local authority.
It assumed every council would raise council tax by the maximum 3 per cent, meaning the average bill for a Band D home will rise from £1,208 to £1,245 from April.
In his draft Budget last week, the Finance Secretary claimed
Scotland’s 32 councils would enjoy a real terms boost of £210 million, taking their overall settlement to £11.1 billion.
But analysis by the Scottish Parliament said the true figure was about £500m less, because so much of the headline total was ring-fenced for central government priorities, and so off-limits to councils.
Holyrood officials estimated there had been a real terms cut of around £300m.
Cosla uses a cash figure of £240m cut from its core budget.
Mr Mackay last night insisted it was “fair funding” despite more Westminster cuts to his budget.
He said: “We have still provided a 2% real terms uplift in the total Local Government settlement for 2019/20.
“If local authorities choose to use their powers to increase Council Tax by up to 3% they can generate up to an additional £80m to support the delivery of essential local services.”
However Cosla said it continued a pattern of aggressive cuts in council budgets.
Resources spokesperson Councillor Gail Macgregor said: “This is not good news for Scottish Local Government and without a rethink from Scottish Government or a Parliamentary intervention it puts at risk the delivery of essential services in the coming year.
“I stand ready to work with Scottish Government and all parliamentary parties to discuss how we can mitigate or reverse cuts that will have a direct impact on crucial services.
“Without meaningful movement on the basic settlement and proper discussions around enabling local government to raise more locally, I fear we are running towards a cliff edge.
“The issuing of the circular confirms this is a severe cut to the core budget that provides the vast majority of our essential services. If this settlement is not changed it will mean substantial job losses in places where local government is the main employer.
“Scottish Government need to look at the bigger picture and really start to think again about the economic impact of such a challenging settlement for Scottish Local Government.”
The Scottish Greens, who helped the minority SNP administration pass its last two budgets, but who are now playing hardball over local tax reform and budgets, were also unimpressed.
Green MSP Patrick Harvie said: “It’s increasingly clear that the Scottish Government’s proposed budget cuts will force local councils to slash front line services. Ministers cannot continue to spin their spending plans as fair when the impact on jobs, care services and schools will be profound.
“The Scottish Greens have set out a better way forward. If SNP ministers commit to scrap the unfair, outdated Council Tax and indicate support for giving councils the power to raise more of their own funds, we can at least begin to talk about the coming year’s budget. But of course that budget must protect our public services, and the time for those talks is fast running out.”
READ MORE: Cosla President: This budget could put the final nail into our communities
Since 2010, the Scottish Government has seen its budget fall by 6% in real terms, but it has passed on real terms cuts of around 10% to local government.
Councils, who employ around 1 in 10 of the Scottish workforce, have seen the biggest relative decline in jobs in the Scottish public sector as a result.
At the same time, the country’s ageing population has increased demand for care services, adding to the strain on budgets.
The spending watchdog Audit Scotland warned last month that three-quarters of councils were forced to raid their reserves to shore up spending last year, and the unrelenting pressure on budgets means “difficult decisions” lay ahead.
Labour MSP James Kelly said: “Rather than insult people with spin, Derek MacKay should be delivering a budget that delivers the radical investment local services need.”
Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said: “Once again local government is getting the short end of the stick. Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP have passed down cut after cut to local funds and expected councils to deal with it. Something has got to give.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel