Hunt needs to reach out to help councils

TORY chancellor Jeremy Hunt will make his much- anticipated Autumn Financial Statement on Thursday, the consequences of which will be massive for Scots households and our public services.

All the expectations are that Hunt will announce public spending cuts of £ 35 billion and will raise another £ 20bn by increasing taxes.

But while he trots out the usual platitudes about everyone shouldering the responsibility to balance the books, you can bet it will be those who have borne the brunt of austerity, the frontline workers who carried us through the pandemic, and the ordinary households already struggling under the cost- of- living crisis who will carry the burden of what’s coming.

The UK is of course facing multiple and overlapping economic challenges. Living costs continue to soar as incomes are squeezed by the massive hike in energy costs and rising food prices. In recent days, the Bank of England has warned that we are facing the longest recession since records began, which will inevitably have catastrophic consequences for jobs and businesses.

At the same time, vital public services are also buckling under the strain, with the cost of heating and powering public buildings from schools to hospitals and fuelling transport fleets having a massive impact on budgets.

And of course, with many staff across the public sector deserving decent pay rises to meet the demands of increased mortgage payments, rent rises, and all those pressures which make up this cost- of- living crisis, the money has to be found from somewhere.

Time and again we’re told that these are global issues, that the UK is caught up in a situation created by the war in Ukraine. This is only partially true.

The fact is we’ve been hit harder in the UK than other major economies because of the policy and agendas of the Westminster Government. Brexit has meant the economy hasn’t properly recovered from the pandemic and now won’t recover any time soon.

Successive Tory Prime Ministers have refused to get a grip of the energy market and the massive profits being generated energy firms. And we’ll pay the price for the madness of Liz Truss and her then chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini- budget and the market turmoil it created.

At the same time, the Scottish Government, hamstrung by what we receive from Westminster and our inability to borrow to help protect our services and citizens, has seen its budget reduced by almost £ 2bn due to the impact of inflation.

The UK Government is responsible for so much of this mess. It’s on them to ensure that frontline services are properly funded and have enough to pay staff a decent wage.

Frankly, it’s immoral to expect the public sector to meet the demands of soaring inflation and wage costs and then strip away the benefits to low paid workers of any pay rise by hitting them with hikes tax to fix failed Tory policies.

In the past couple of weeks, council officers have been forecasting what the impact of these overlapping challenges will be for our city finances. The bottom line is these extraordinary economic circumstances have created a hole in our budget unlike anything we’ve ever experienced in recent times.

In the coming months officers will put forward options for how to balance our books which political groups will use to prepare budgets and protect staff and services as best we can. Local councils across the UK provide vital life- andlimb services to society’s most vulnerable. They are a major employer in our communities. Instead of slashing public spending at this most acute time, Hunt needs to reach out to the devolved governments and make sure councils can continue to deliver for citizens. Anything else risks calamity for our communities.