Scotland has lost £1bn in council funds under SNP
Massive cuts made to local authority funding over past decade New calls for urgent action on issues such as potholes and bin collections
SCOTLAND’S local authorities have been short-changed by nearly £1 billion over the last eight years, according to critics. Councils have been “undervalued, underfunded and under-appreciated” by the Government while responsibilities have risen and funding has been slashed, it is claimed.
THE SNP has been accused of having “neglected and mistreated” Scotland’s local councils – amid a warning local authorities have faced real-term cuts to their non-ringfenced budgets of approaching £1 billion over an eight-year period.
Scottish Labour’s new local government spokesperson has appealed for the relationship between Holyrood and councils to be “reset”, while Cosla, the umbrella organisation for Scottish councils, has demanded work on a new proposed funding arrangement to be restarted as the country emerges from the pandemic.
Cosla has also warned some authorities could be left out of pocket and need even deeper cuts following the council tax freeze – with alarm raised that some councils were anticipating raising the charge by more than 3 per cent next year, with no funding from the Scottish Government to cover such an increase.
Pauline McNeill, Scottish Labour’s local government spokesperson, has pointed to research by her party that shows the Scottish Government has cut councils’ non-ringfenced revenue funding by £937.3 million in real terms between 2013/14 and 2021/22.
The stark figure is revealed despite a nine-year council tax freeze ending in 2017 – a policy reintroduced for the next financial year after Finance Secretary Kate Forbes added an extra £90m to local government’s settlement on condition of the charge being kept at the same level next year.
McNeill said that the Budget passed this week has failed to deliver a fair deal for councils and local government services have been “undervalued, underfunded and under-appreciated”.
Forbes has insisted that councils have been given a fair deal for the coming year.
McNeill has also demanded that local government is “respected” by the Scottish
Government and has insisted that the rising responsibilities and falling funding faced by councils is “symptomatic” of the SNP’s relationship with local government.
She said: “Throughout its 14 years in Government, the SNP has systematically undervalued, underfunded and underappreciated Scotland’s local authorities.
“The damage done by SNP cuts can be seen across Scotland as potholes go unfilled, bins go unemptied and whole swathes of our towns, villages and cities go without new investment.
“At this Budget, the SNP had the chance to do right by the councils that have gone above and beyond throughout the pandemic. Instead, the Budget was more of the same SNP neglect and mistreatment of Scotland’s councils.”
‘Failure’
MCNEILL added: “Throughout the SNP’s time in power, local government’s responsibilities have grown even as council funding has been slashed. The SNP’s failure to match new responsibilities for local government with new funding is symptomatic of the disregard it holds for a whole layer of government.
“It’s clear that this disrespectful relationship between local and devolved government requires a reset, and Scottish Labour will fight, not only for a fair funding deal for our councils, but for local government to be treated with the respect that it deserves.”
In Glasgow, the city council’s budget has been cut by 11% since 2013/14 while, during the same period, the Scottish Government’s funding has increased by more than 3%.
Glasgow City Council identified a £12.2m funding gap for next year.
In the capital, council officials have revealed £113m of savings will have to be found up to 2025/26.
The funding pressures are not isolated to Scotland’s cities with the Highland Council pointing out a £51m budget gap until 2024, Angus Council highlighting an £11.3m budget gap next year, and Argyll and Bute Council having to deal with a £6.7m gap.
Gail Macgregor, Cosla’s resources spokesperson, has warned that councils are having to deliver Scottish Government commitments such as the expansion of early learning childcare with ringfencing funding pots – impacting on core budgets that deliver crucial frontline services.
Cuts ‘more severe’
MACGREGOR said although savings have had to made in every one of her 14 years as a councillor, “the cuts have become more severe”. She said: “Early on in the cuts, it was probably impacting backroom staff, but in the last three or four years, the impact has become more apparent to members of the public where those cuts are going.
“Councils started to take redundancies in things like environmental health officers and then during Covid they have needed loads of environmental health officers – it’s the longer-term implication.”
Macgregor added: “It’s not for the public to understand where our budgets come from. All they see is their potholes are not getting filled or their bins are not getting picked up properly. It’s that real impact on the individual people in the community.
“The pandemic has put a real spotlight on services councils deliver and there’s not a real awareness until it hits people
The damage done by SNP cuts can be seen across Scotland as potholes go unfilled, bins go unemptied and swathes of our towns, villages and cities go without investment
Early on in the cuts, it was probably impacting backroom staff, but in the last three or four years, the impact has become more apparent to members of the public where those cuts are going. Councils started to take redundancies in things like environmental health officers
very personally, as it has done to many during Covid.”
The Scottish Government has given councils a shared £90m fund to mitigate the impact of a council tax freeze – which all 32 local authorities have agreed to for next year.
Forbes has also confirmed the £90m will be baselined in the following year’s settlement, which she said was “providing additional certainty to local government”, following lobbying by Cosla. That means the council tax freeze will not have a cumulative impact on council’s settlement from the Scottish Government. But some councils were planning on hiking council tax by more than 3% – leaving officials short-changed next year.
Tax freeze
MACGREGOR said that while the council tax freeze “is the right thing to do in this financial climate”, she warned “it does not actually help councils”. She added: “Many councils were going to put their council tax up by more than 3%. That shortfall for many councils is not funded and now has to be found from other services. That could mean reductions in services or even result in job losses in some cases.”
But council tax only accounts for about 17% of councils’ net expenditure, leaving authorities heavily reliant on Holyrood ministers.
Calls have been made by parties across the political spectrum for a new funding arrangement, a fiscal framework, to be drawn up to deliver a fairer deal for councils. Macgregor said she expects the new Parliament following May’s election to focus on the plans that were put on hold during the pandemic, warning “it’s absolutely essential”.
But she stressed that the services councils provide in a post-Covid Scotland will need be be investigated alongside the new funding model.
She said: “That fiscal framework needs to pick up very quickly. We need to then look at what council services will look like in a year’s time. Public confidence and a change in the way people are living their lives, they are maybe going to continue to buy things online – parking revenues will go down, for example. There could be real income generation changes once we are out of the pandemic.
“We need a blueprint to see what kind of services we need and what are the new priorities in a new local government model that’s fit for purpose.
“We need to make sure the services we are expected to deliver are what our communities need.”
Rejection
THE Scottish Conservatives had proposed that a set percentage of the Scottish Government’s Budget should be allocated to local councils. But MSPs rejected the idea, pointing to the intention to draw up a new fiscal framework and fears over the impact on other funding needs such as the NHS.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Scotland’s local authorities will receive an increase in revenue funding in 2021/22 of £335.6m or 3.1%.
“The Scottish Government is committed to protecting funding for the NHS. Once health funding is discounted, the Scottish Government’s resource budget has reduced by 3.1% in real terms for the remainder of the Scottish fiscal resource budget.
“Despite this, local government has been treated very fairly with councils’ revenue funding having increased in cash terms by £1.3bn or 12.1% between 2013/14 and 2021/22.
“In addition to the annual local government finance settlements, the Scottish Government is providing local authorities with a further almost £1.5bn Covid-19 funding over this year and next.”