SNP cuts ‘could spell end for hundreds more jobs’

Council leader fears they will be in the firing line

Hundreds more jobs at Fife Council will be lost if the SNP repeats its assault on local authorities in the Scottish Budget.

That is the warning from David Ross, the leader of Labour-run Fife Council, as part of a desperate plea from Scotland’s local authorities for ministers to spare them another round of “devastating” cuts in next week’s budget.

Cosla, the umbrella group for most of the country’s councils, said a further 3.5% cut to the local government settlement will have “even more severe consequences” for council jobs and will hamper their efforts to help local economies grow.

Mr Ross said that will hit our “most needy communities” hardest.

“A cut of the same proportion as last year (3.5%) would result in well over 300 jobs being lost within Fife Council,” he said.

The pot of cash handed to councils by the Scottish Government fell by £349 million (3.6%) for 2016/17 – rising to more than £500m (5.2%) when inflation is taken into account, according to the Scottish Parliament Information Service.

Cosla president David O’Neill said that led to 7,000 job losses at councils alone and warned the cuts could be even more painful this year.

“The Scottish Government needs to remember that in many areas the council is the largest employer and therefore a cut in council jobs has a devastating knock-on effect for people and local economies,” he said.

Areas like economic development will suffer a “disproportionate reduction”, he said, because of the need to protect services like education and social care.

Finance secretary Derek Mackay is presenting his draft budget to MSPs next Thursday.

As a minority government, the SNP will need support from other parties in Holyrood, such as the Greens or Liberal Democrats, to push it through.

A Scottish Government spokesman said it was clear from the independent Audit Scotland that ministers had treated local government “very fairly despite the cuts to the Scottish Budget from the UK Government”.

“Taking into account the addition of the £250m to support the integration of health and social care, the overall reduction in 2016-17 funding equates to less than 1% of local government’s total estimated expenditure in 2016-17,” he added.