Services are being pitted against one another now

LAST week, the Scottish Government took to the pages of the Times to effectively brief against local government.

To summarise the last few months: all 32 directors of finance in Scottish councils wrote a letter saying that local services were facing a £ 1 billion black hole.

The consequences of that were laid bare – no longer were officials discussing ‘ savings’, they were actively describing them as ‘ cuts’. It should have been a wakeup call.

The Scottish Government, weeks later, then announced its Budget.

John Swinney declared that local government was being fairly funded, and that he had found an extra £ 500 million.

Mere hours later, Cosla revealed that the actual increase was just £ 71m across the country.

And now, as councils consider how to balance their budgets, the Scottish Government sees fit to offer threats and intimidation, in place of fair funding and respect.

Preserving teacher numbers is – quite clearly – a priority for everyone. That councils have to consider these proposals to balance budgets lays bare the cost of the SNP’s decisions in government.

And, further, the Scottish Government has seen fit to delay any clear announcement until the beginning of February. Two weeks before Glasgow will set its budget for the coming year. This is detrimental to due diligence, effective and robust decision making.

But, clearly, the problem lies with the actions of the Scottish Government.

More than 80% of the net money we have to spend on services in Glasgow comes from the Scottish Government.

The only tax power available to local councillors accounts for just 17% of the net revenue in Glasgow.

While we agree with its overall aim of protecting teachers and supporting young people’s attainment in our schools, the Scottish Government is placing huge pressure on every single other service that councils deliver.

What about the protection of blue collar workers, women on low incomes?

The impact to potentially fall on blue collar workers and our female workforce the most. By their actions we shall know them.

They are pitting services against one another. Their choice to govern by soundbite has brought the sustainability of local government into question. Councillors were elected to invest in our communities, not to choose between whether to preserve teacher numbers or ensure bins are collected on time.

All councillors face difficult choices. Choices that none of us want to make. Last week, the SNP city treasurer wrote in this paper and publicly criticised his own government.

The previously disciplined SNP are now falling apart due to the actions of their government ministers. Though it appears that his plea is falling on deaf ears of his party colleagues in Holyrood.

Instead of resorting to vague threats of legislation or punitive grant reductions, the Scottish Government should use its tax powers and exhaust every lever at its disposal to raise funding for local schools, local bin collections, local nurseries and local care homes.

Once these services are gone – in whole or in part – they are gone. This year will be really bad, but it looks like future years will see further reductions.

The fault of this lies entirely with the SNP government at Holyrood, and with the Tories in Westminster.