Minister’s war of words over local authority fat cats
A SCOTTISH Government minister last night told councils to rein in the number of fat cats earning more than £100,000 as a war of words erupted between the SNP and town hall chiefs.
Humza Yousaf, touted as a future party leader, said councils can afford to make savings and hard-pressed families do not need to be hit with tax rises.
The Scottish Daily Mail has repeatedly exposed the number of massive public sector pay packets and Mr Yousaf ’ s intervention signals the SNP has finally acknowledged the growing scandal.
Tomorrow, Scotland’s local authorities are all expected reluctantly to give in to the Government and accept sweeping cuts, rather than go ahead with plans to raise council tax by up to 18 per cent.
A Labour attempt to put up income tax by 1p to offset the cuts is also doomed to fail later this month.
Finance Secretary John Swinney has threatened sanctions against any local authority which breaks the eight-year council tax freeze and will today be accused of ‘draconian’ punishment by furious town hall bosses.
But l ast month the Mail revealed there has been an 18 per cent increase in the number of taxpayer-funded pay and pension deals worth more than £100,000 awarded to senior council officials.
In 2014, the Mail also reported that Scotland’s largest local authority, Glasgow City Council, had 32 employees receiving a six-figure sum in 2012-13 – partly due to retirement and redundancy programmes.
Yesterday, Minister f or Europe and Glasgow MSP Mr Yousaf was involved in a verbal spat with Glasgow Pollok MSP and former Scottish Labour l eader Johann Lamont on the issue.
He told her on Twitter: ‘Give me Glasgow City Council (GCC) books and I’ll show you plenty of wastage in GCC where a 1 per cent reduction can be made.’
Miss Lamont sarcastically hit back and mockingly said there were ‘care workers living off the fat of the land and school staff sitting with feet up’.
Mr Yousaf replied: ‘ Astonished you think of care workers/school staff when I talk of wastage in Glasgow City Council. Try top salary earners.’
He alerted her to the figure of 32 workers receiving more than £100,000 and added: ‘ Johann Lamont saying Glasgow City Council can’t find 1 per cent reduction in budget – maybe try looking harder.’
As the row continued, Miss Lamont said: ‘This not student debating. It is the real world.’
Frank McAveety, the Labour leader of Glasgow City Council, said: ‘We could invite the minister to spend some time with our finance director to hone his remarkable skills in l ocal government finance.’
As part of Mr Swinney’s Budget, councils will see their total grant slashed by £774million in 2016-17, or 7.2 per cent, when inflation is taken into account. However, this falls to an average of 3.5 per cent due to extra money diverted from the health budget.
Moray Council, led by a Tory/ independent administration, had proposed an 18 per cent council tax rise in a bid to offset the cutbacks, while other authorities were also planning big increases. But as the standoff comes to an end, most are now expected to continue with the freeze after Mr Swinney threatened huge financial penalties – branded ‘blackmail’ by council insiders.
Today, David O’Neill, president of council umbrella body Cosla, will say: ‘These are cuts that, collectively through Cosla, we have said that we are unwilling to inflict on our communities– but that from tomorrow will be forced upon individual councils. The Scottish Government should be endeavouring to empower local democracy, not going out of their way to subvert it.
‘All we are expecting for local government is the same level of respect that the Scottish Government demand from Westminster in areas such as discussions on the [Scotland Bill] fiscal framework, where they would rightly find it unacceptable if Westminster was to impose a deal with sanctions and cut across the collective democratic view of t he Scottish Cabinet.
‘It is hypocritical for them to demand that, as they hold the power, everyone else has to accept it or be punished in the most draconian of fashions.’
But a Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We recognise the pressures on budgets across the whole of the public sector, and in households throughout Scotland, which is why it is important to maintain the council tax freeze while we consider ways to replace it – as well as reimbursing local authorities to ensure they can continue to provide essential services.’
‘Plenty of wastage’