The reality of cutbacks

An independent report has shown that North Lanarkshire’s budget has been cut by the £149 per resident in the last six years.

The figures from the Sc o t t i s h Parliament Information Centre also shows that since 2013 the settlement given to councils has decreased by 7.5 per cent – three times the decline in the Scottish Government Revenue budget which fell by just 2.8 per cent.

Council leader Jim Logue said: “This independent report is the clearest evidence yet of the devastating impact that the SNP have had on local services.

“Time and time again, we have heard Nicola Sturgeon, Derek Mackay and others say that the austerity agenda imposed on local government has nothing to do with them, yet this report clearly shows that the austerity passed down to local councils like North Lanarkshire has been turbocharged by the the SNP when compared with the block grant they have received from Westminster.

“The cut to the council equates to £149 for every person in North Lanarkshire; that’s money that could have been used to protect our jobs, improve our schools, repair our roads and further improve the life chances of our young people.

“Despite this, our Labour administration has been able to undertake the biggest council house building programme in Scotland, feed our hungriest children with the award- winning Club 365 programme across North Lanarkshire and have ambitious plans for a Community I n v e s t m e n t Fu n d , which will see new new facilities for every community in Nor th Lanarkshire including brand new schools to replace all of those built before 1996.

“Just think what we could have achieved had the SNP not taken over £260 million from our budget since their time in government?”

However, Councillor Tom Johnston, leader of the opposition SNP group, commented: “In just a few weeks the Labour party has accused the SNP of overspending our budget, for underspending it - and then not underspending enough.

“The only clear message on Labour’s budget position is that they don’t have a clue.

“In the face of Tory austerity and cuts to Scotland’s block grant of £ 2billion over the last decade, they simply have lost all sense of reality.

“If Labour are to be taken seriously they need to start telling us what their budget in government would look like and what services they would choose to cut instead as 80 per cent of NLC budget comes directly from the Scottish Government.

“While Jim Logue will continue to blame anyone but himself for Labour’s failings in North Lanarkshire – the SNP remain focused on the day job.”