Fagan’s fury at Scots Budget
Lanarkshire’s council leaders say the Scottish budget “does next to nothing to help” the authorities balance their books as they face multi-million pound deficits.
South Lanarkshire leader Joe Fagan insists the sum announced at Holyrood will cover less than half the cost of the council tax freeze for next year and “will mean overall cuts in funding”, while North Lanarkshire counterpart Jim Logue believes his council may be reaching a “tipping point in terms of our ability to deliver services”.
The pair were set to attend a special meeting of Cosla to consider the budget statement by finance minister Shona Robison, with the local government organisation saying this year’s settlement of £14 billion leaves Scotland’s councils £251 million short of the sum needed to meet existing and policy commitments.
Councillor Fagan called it “another rotten budget for communities” and said: “[It] offers less than half the funding needed to pay for the proposed freeze of the equivalent of five per cent because there is a shortfall in core funding to local authorities.
“Humza Yousaf and Shona Robison need to take this back to the drawing board or they will be responsible for millions of pounds worth of devastating and socially harmful cuts to local services, having not only butchered funding but taken away the option of a council tax rise to mitigate the impact of their decisions.
“This does not provide anything like full funding for a council tax freeze. I hope MSPs of all parties in Lanarkshire will hold the government to account for their grossly misleading budget spin – we all have to take on the Scottish Government and demand better.”
South Lanarkshire has to plug a £20m budget gap next year and the council leader says the authority “faces similar pressures every year for the foreseeable future due to the twin terrors of rampant inflation and chronic underfunding by the Scottish Government”.
The authority last month carried out a public consultation on some of the potential proposals relating to its “unprecedented financial challenges”, including seeking views on council tax rises of up to 10 per cent ahead of the First Minister’s surprise freeze announcement.
Councillor Fagan added: “Local authorities are already struggling to deliver for local people – I’d urge everyone to remember the reality of the council funding crisis when they think of the tough options councillors will have to consider as we seek to balance our budget for next year.”
South Lanarkshire chief executive Paul Manning said: “We are considering the contents of the Scottish Government’s budget statement. We still await details of the council’s settlement for next year.
“However, we note the points made by Cosla that £144m has been provided for the council tax freeze, compared with their estimated £300m cost. Taking into account all factors, Cosla estimates the budget represents a £251m cut in funding for local government, even before considering the impact of inflation.”
North Lanarkshire leader Councillor Logue agreed that “difficult decisions will still need to be made” and said that while there had been an announced increase to the overall local government grant, it would need to cover both the council tax freeze plus “the nationallyagreed staff pay increase awarded last year”.
He said: “The budget announcement appears to do little to bridge our estimated £60m budget gap over the next three years; the devil is always in the detail and until we are able to interrogate all the information over the coming days and weeks we will be unable to say with certainty what the impacts are.
“We may be witnessing the tipping point in terms of our ability to deliver vital services that matter so much to people and communities – the reality is that we are required to deliver more services than we did 10 years ago, yet [our] budget has been cut by more than £209m in that decade.
“Continued ring-fencing of funding, the impact of inflation and real-terms reductions mean some of the most valued local services are under threat.”
Deputy First Minister Ms Robison told the Scottish Parliament: “This government will fully fund the council tax freeze. I want to help support services, so I will fund an aboveinflation five per cent freeze, delivering over £140m of additional investment for local services.
“Combined with the other support being provided to local government, this will increase their overall funding by six per cent since the last budget, taking funding to a new record high of over £14bn, helping household budgets during tough times and supporting our local authorities to deliver services.”
She added that the budget was being set in “turbulent” economic circumstances with the Scottish Government saying “difficult decisions have been required to prioritise funding for the services people rely on in the face of a deeply challenging financial situation”, and Ms Robison telling MSPs: “We choose investment in our people and public services.”