Councils face significant challenges amid funding cuts
Scotland's councils face "significant" financial challenges amid funding cuts handed down by SNP ministers, a public spending watchdog has said.
The Accounts Commission found local government funding has been reduced by 4.2 per cent in real terms since 2013/14, once Covid cash was excluded.
Meanwhile, an increasing amount of money is now ringfenced to meet Scottish Government priorities.
Conservative MSP Miles Briggs said the report was a "damning critique of how the SNP Government have undermined Scotland’s councils due to chronic, long-term underfunding".
He said: "It paints a stark picture of the huge pressures they face to deliver basic services.
“A 4.2 per cent real-terms cut is completely unsustainable – and when increasing areas of funding are ring-fenced by the SNP, councils are being forced to slash spending in other areas.
"This explains, for instance, why one in eight libraries have shut for good under the SNP.
“The Snp-green coalition have cynically passed the buck to local authorities to either cut services or raise council tax to make ends meet because they are unwilling to give them the resources they need."
In its financial overview of local government in 2020/21, the Accounts Commission said councils would have to face the impacts of the pandemic as well as issues which pre-date it, such as poverty.
Local government funding is announced annually, which the watchdog said “makes it challenging for councils to plan and budget effectively for the medium and longer term and creates uncertainty over future funding”.
Its report said: "Excluding the effect of Covid-19 funding, the underlying cumulative funding position for councils has fallen by 4.2 per cent in real terms since 2013/14.
"This demonstrates that local government funding has been reduced by proportionately more than the rest of the Scottish Government budget over this period."
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottishgovernmentiscommitted to protecting the Health Budget which has a direct impact on all other areas of the Scottish Budget, including local government.”