MORE CUTS ON THE WAY
New fears for council services and jobs
West Lothian Council have warned of further cuts and job losses following the budget announcement from the Scottish Government on Monday.
The local authority have stated that unless additional resources can be found, then Monday’s draft budget for local councils will mean continued cuts to services with the council already expecting to reduce spending by £65.3million over the next five years.
And COSLA have described the current budget as “running towards a cliff edge”.
The Scottish Government’s proposed budget will provide West Lothian Council with £342.445million to spend in 2019/20 with the possibility of raising a further £2.33million through council tax increases.
But West Lothian Council have highlighted the Scottish Parliament’s own, independent SPICe report which states that the core settlement available to local authorities, specifically the nonring-fenced funding available for councils to deliver services, falls by £157.2million ( 1.7 per cent) in cash terms or £319.1million (3.4 per cent) in real terms
between 2018-19 and 2019-20. the report states:“Whilst the scottish government presents an increase to the local government settlement, there are varying ways to interpret the figures.”
a West Lothian Council spokesperson said:“if the scottish government does not increase the proposed settlement for councils, it will inevitably lead to larger cuts in much needed local services and a reduction in jobs within councils. it is essential that the scottish government listens to councils, members of the public and CosLa and improves this draft settlement for local government.
“it is disappointing that the funding has only been provided for a single year as this does not help the council with long-term plans. We are trying our best to plan for the future but the scottish government’s short-term approach and cuts do not help.”
Lawrence Fitzpatrick, West Lothian Council leader, described the scottish government’s announcement as “appalling”.
He said:“the scottish parliament’s own independent spiCe report is clear. this is a substantial real terms cut for councils in scotland and the scottish government’s draft budget is appalling news for our staff and our communities.
“the scottish government must improve this settlement or face the prospect of vital local services diminishing further. i can assure local residents that the council will continue to demand a better settlement for West Lothian from the scottish government. We hope that the scottish government will listen.”
CosLa’s resources spokesperson, Councillor gail Macgregor, said:“this is not good news for scottish Local government and without a rethink from scottish government or a parliamentary intervention it puts at risk the delivery of essential services in the coming year. Without meaningful movement on the basic settlement and proper discussions around enabling Local government to raise more locally i fear we are running towards a cliff edge.”
However, Finance secretary derek Mackay defended his budget saying it provided local authorities with an increase for day-to-day spending on essential public services in 2019-20, alongside an increase on their capital spending budget.
Mr Mackay said:“the scottish government has continued to ensure that our partners in local government receive a fair funding settlement despite further cuts to the scottish Budget from the UK government.
“after removing the health uplift the scottish government fiscal resource block grant funding goes down by £340 million or 1.3 per cent in real terms for 2019-20. despite that reduction, we have still provided a two per cent real terms uplift in the total Local government settlement for 2019-20.
“if local authorities choose to use their powers to increase Council tax by up to three per cent they can generate up to an additional £80 million to support the delivery of essential local services.”