Figures reveal cuts in council funding

COUNCIL funding has been slashed by up to £100 a head in Tayside and Fife in five years, according to Holyrood researchers.

The Scottish Parliament information service found that core funds for local authorities have decreased at a “much faster rate” than for the Scottish budget as a whole.

The biggest funding drop in Tayside and Fife was in Perth and Kinross, where the real-terms reduction was £130 per person between 2013-14 and 2018-19.

That compares with Fife (-£106), Dundee (-£78) and Angus (-£105).

Mid Scotland and Fife Conservatiuve MSP Alexander Stewart said: “These figures prove that despite all their protestations, the SNP has comprehensively under-resourced local government.

“As Spice (the Scottish Parliament Information Centre) has laid bare, the SNP destruction of local government funding has taken place despite their own increasing budget.”

The report stressed that changes to funding per head “represent both changes to population and changes to funding, so should not be attributed solely to one or the other”.

In the five years since 2013-14 the local government grant for day-to-day spending from Scottish ministers has fallen £745 million in real terms, or 7.1%.

Over the same period the Scottish Government’s revenue budget has fallen by £547m, which amounts to 1.8%.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “These figures exclude a number of important, additional funding sources, including £355 million for health and social care and £150 million of funding that is provided outwith the core settlement, but which benefits local government.”

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