COUNCIL leaders will today step up demands for more money ahead of the UK and Scottish budgets, saying they must no longer be “the poor relation of the public sector”.
Chancellor Philip Hammond is due to give his budget next Wednesday, while SNP Finance Secretary Derek Mackay will outline funding for councils on December 14 in his draft budget for 2018-19.
The council umbrella group Cosla is publishing a 10-page case for “Fair Funding for Essential Services”, such as education, social work, roads, and refuse collection.
Scotland's 32 local authorities say they need a £545m increase next year to cope with inflation and increased demand for services, a budget hike of 5.7 per cent.
Between 2010-11 and 2017-18, councils have suffered a real term cut of 8 per cent, with 30,000 staff lost in five years.
Councils are also asking SNP ministers for the 3 per cent cap on council tax rises to be lifted next year, and to be given the power to introduce new taxes of their own, such a tourist tax.
Cosla resources spokesperson, Tory Councillor Gail Macgregor, said: “Enough is enough, Scottish local government can no longer be the poor relation of the Scottish public sector.
“Local Government is democratically elected and provides a breadth of essential services to Scotland’s communities which support and protect all in our society.
“Councils employ 10 per cent of Scotland’s workforce and procure £6.3bn of goods. “Investment in local government is vital to stimulate and develop inclusive economic growth.”
Cosla President Alison Evison added: “Recent settlements for local government have put huge pressures on services and jobs. Year on year challenges have forced councils to make difficult choices and cut services.
"We need a fair settlement for the year ahead.
“There really is no more room for manoeuvre and we must be treated fairly in the upcoming Budget so that local government can continue to provide essential services.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We continue to treat local government very fairly despite the cuts to the Scottish budget from the UK Government.
“Councils are receiving funding through the local government finance settlement of more than £10.4 billion for 2017-18.
“Taken together with a range of other measures this amounts to £383 million in additional support compared to 2016-17.
“Local council budgets for 2018-19 will be confirmed later this year.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel