Councils face £530m black hole... before staff pay rises
COUNCILS are poised to raise tax bills and axe services next year to plug a funding black hole which already stands at half a billion pounds – even before extra pay rises for workers are factored in.
An investigation by The Scottish Mail on Sunday found the shortfall between income and expenditure is expected to top £530 million across the country’s 32 councils next year.
The massive financial gap has sparked fears over swingeing hikes in council tax bills for households grappling with soaring inflation and the cost of living crisis.
Meanwhile, some local authorities have signalled the need for drastic cuts to public services which will have an impact on schools, roads, libraries and leisure centres.
Staff ranging from refuse collectors to teachers are embroiled in industrial action, saying proposed pay rises are insufficient to keep up with soaring bills.
Councils and unions have blamed the SNP Government for failing to provide enough cash to fund services.
In May, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said the Scottish Government
‘cannot prioritise’ everything and the public sector needed to ‘reshape and refocus’.
The City of Edinburgh Council, which faces Scotland’s biggest shortfall of £63 million, has cited ‘pressures’ on services including ‘food and catering, home-to-school transport, and children’s and homelessness services’.
Council finance convener Mandy Watt said: ‘An update in June suggested Edinburgh faces huge cuts to its budget in the coming years.’
She said this was ‘the result of more than a decade of Scottish Government cuts and a council tax freeze which was imposed on us’.
Gary Smith, head of the GMB union, said of the Scottish Government: ‘The politics of grievance is the norm. Competence is the exception.’ Information obtained by this newspaper shows each of the 32 councils faces a shortfall running into millions of pounds next year, except Dumfries and Galloway and Orkney – which said their estimates were not yet available.
The Scottish Government insisted it was ‘treating councils fairly’.