This year, Scotland’s councils face their hardest spending choices in years to make up for budget shortfalls. Not the words of the Scottish Conservatives’ Housing and Local Government spokesperson, but those of William Moyes – Chair of the independent and highly respected Accounts Commission.
Recently, our local authorities have really felt the pinch. In December, when John Swinney was promising an additional £60.9 million for Ferguson Marine to finish ferries 801 and 802 whilst protecting £1.3 billion for their National Care Service vanity project, councils across Scotland were preparing to tighten their belts.
COSLA, who describe themselves as the voice of Local Government in Scotland, were so incensed by the recent budget they released a statement saying the Scottish Government had “failed to respond in its Budget in any meaningful way to their SOS calls” leaving Councils “at real financial risk for the coming year”. At a special meeting just before Christmas they unanimously agreed that this settlement meant a real terms cut to Councils’ core funding.
Of course, this is not a new phenomenon. The Accounts Commission found that the revenue awarded to local government in 2021/22 represented the first real-term increase in funding for six years. The SNP’s assault on council budgets has been long-running.
Now, communities across Scotland are facing the effects. In my own constituency this has become apparent in recent weeks.
SNP-run Falkirk Council are considering the closure of four high school swimming pools and one public swimming pool within the next three years. This is necessary, they say, to offset a £60 million gap in their funding. Clearly, when it comes to council cuts, the Scottish Government don’t pick favourites.
In North Lanarkshire, where the Council face making cuts totalling £67 million over three years, schemes like pothole compensation have already been scaled back – with just a quarter of requests for damage payments made by local residents paid for since 2021.
In December John Swinney said he wanted to create economically “sustainable public services”. I fear, if his Government continue on this destructive path, there could be very few public services left.
