Holyrood pledges bigger pay offer for teachers
The Scottish Budget passed this week giving an extra £123 million for a new pay offer for teachers, increasing their salaries by 11.5 per cent from April.
It is part of a £223 million package for local authority staff pay, announced by Deputy First Minister John Swinney in the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, which included £100 million for non-teaching employees.
The Highlands and Islands Green MSP Ariane Burgess said: “The additional £100 million for local councils will go a long way towards protecting services whilst ensuring council staff receive fair pay rises.”
Scotland’s largest local government trade union, Unison, also welcomed the £100 million cash injection to help settle local government pay disputes, but said it was not enough.
Johanna Baxter, Unison Scotland’s head of local government, said: “It won’t touch the sides of the £1bn gap in local government budgets and doesn’t provide councils anywhere near enough funding for a decent pay uplift for local government workers.
“While local councils struggle to balance the books, thousands of jobs and community services are facing cuts. These scraps from the top table will do little to restore confidence in the Scottish Government’s approach to local democracy or the communities our councils serve.”
Delivering the budget, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “I am very aware of the challenges faced as we manage our way through this cost crisis and this budget is designed to do as much as we possibly can to assist at this most difficult moment.
“Scottish Child Payment has already increased by 150 per cent in eight months. But to further ease the burden on low income households, we are uprating all remaining Scottish benefits by 10.1 per cent from April 2023.
“None of this is easy - this is by far the hardest Scottish budget process that I have led - with the effects of raging inflation being felt against the impact of more than a decade of austerity and Barnett funding down five per cent in real terms since 2021-22.”
Mr Swinney, SNP for Perthshire North,
MSP also promised to fund the revenue cost increases incurred by local authorities managing the inter-islands ferry network.
Emma Roddick, SNP MSP for the Highlands and Islands, welcomed the announcement, saying: “I am glad to see the Scottish Government recognise the difficulties that our island authorities face in managing the cost increases and how that impacts the inter-islands ferry network due to the effects of inflation and rising fuel prices.
“Ferries provide vital links for our island communities and this assurance will be hugely welcome for everyone.”
The new budget also includes £2.2 billion for climate and nature investment, as well as another 20,000 children on free school meals.
Scottish Greens finance spokesperson Ross Greer MSP said this new budget was the “greenest budget in the history of the Scottish Parliament”.
The money, he said, “includes record funding for walking, wheeling and cycling, a massive investment in helping people make their homes cheaper and easier to heat, new nature restoration projects and more money for our National Parks.”