Writing For You

North Lanarkshire’s economy is at a crossroads.

After years of government cuts to council budgets, local services are in crisis.

But the Scottish Government now have the power to make different choices.

It could invest in North Lanarkshire’s services, such as schools and care for the elderly.

Instead, SNP ministers in Edinburgh have decided to carry on the cuts.

Earlier this month we saw the first draft of the Scottish budget.

It’s one a Tory chancellor would have been proud of.

It means a £327million cut across Scotland for the valued services that councils such as North Lanarkshire deliver.

Labour councils are now the last bulwark against SNP austerity.

Labour in North Lanarkshire is showing the kind of ambition which the SNP government lacks in Edinburgh, with plans to build 1800 new homes in the next decade.

This programme of housebuilding will do more than deliver a roof over the head of families; it will stimulate the local economy at a time it is really needed.

The price of the SNP cuts in North Lanarkshire is £35 million next year.

That follows on from a £31 million cut last year.

North Lanarkshire Council have tried, like so many other Labour councils across the country, to mitigate the