A fair deal lies with government
It seems that every other day we are told that an important local service is under threat of being scaled back or totally removed due to a lack of sustainable funding.
These are SNP cuts being imposed on our communities.
This is not a new story. It has been 15 years in the making with the SNP’s agenda of centralising power in Edinburgh whilst slashing our vital local services.
At the end of 2021, COSLA, the umbrella body for Scottish councils, declared that the Scottish Budget Kate Forbes presented to parliament was one that “barely allows local government to survive”.
One year on, COSLA warned again the current budget deals for local authorities were not good enough and stated that
“the Scottish Government’s spending plans will see council services either significantly reduced, cut or stopped altogether”.
This week in parliament, Anas Sarwar laid some of the latest challenges facing councils at the feet of Nicola Sturgeon.
Aberdeen City Council potentially outsourcing all social work and children’s services; Falkirk Council selling off over 100 council buildings, including swimming pools and theatres, and Glasgow City Council facing the prospect of slashing care placements for children.
Locally, East Renfrewshire Council was very clear that it was being asked to make impossible choices and Renfrewshire Council have warned of there being a £35 million shortfall in its budget for the next three years.
Sturgeon’s response, just like every other response someone from her government has given, revolves around the idea that it’s not on the SNP government to come up with solutions to save council budgets, rather it’s on everyone else.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney on multiple occasions this week, proclaimed in the Holyrood chamber that every penny of government spending is allocated and fixed.
This is the same SNP government who promised to remove council tax but then decided to kick the possibility of ever doing so into the long grass. This is the same SNP government who have wasted a staggering £3 billon of taxpayers’ money on botched ferry plans and on overdue hospitals.
They’ve been happy to spend and spend when it suited them but now, arrogantly, they tell local authorities that the purse is closed.
They must start listening to the voices of concerned local authorities about the real terms cuts that have been inflicted on their budgets.
They must listen to COSLA and other bodies who have expressed their concerns about the lack of clarity around the plans for a national care service.
The services that local authorities provide are not abstract things, they are most important parts of what a local community is all about: teachers, schools, sport and leisure facilities, social care for our elderly and vulnerable, to name just a few.
It’s time the Scottish Government realise that it’s on them, not anyone else, to offer a fair deal to our local authorities.