TALKS have broken down between ministers and councils over the funding of the SNP’s manifesto pledge of an extra £100m a year for education.
Cosla, the umbrella group representing 28 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, has formally withdrawn all co-operation with the Scottish Government on the issue, it has emerged.
The dispute is over government plans to fund the education system from council tax rises.
Read more: SNP criticised for leaving welfare powers with Whitehall
The SNP manifesto promised to allocate “the additional £100m that will be raised each year from our local tax reforms directly to schools”, helping to narrow the attainment gap.
But councils say it breaks a fundamental link between local taxation and local accountability.
They are furious that, although they will raise the cash, it will not stay with them locally, but will instead be redistributed by ministers according to educational need across Scotland.
It means that relatively affluent councils with large numbers of Band E to H houses, which are often the councils with the best schools, will subsidise poorer councils with poorer schools.
Read more: SNP criticised for leaving welfare powers with Whitehall
The Sunday Herald, The Herald’s sister paper, reported council leaders in Colsa have now written to the government boycotting all discussion of the £100m plan.
A Yes-supporting Independent councillor who holds the balance of power in Midlothian, has also hit out at the SNP for raiding £1.2m of the £1.7m being raised by higher council tax there.
Financier Peter de Vink, a friend of Alex Salmond who kept the SNP in power in Midlothian since 2012, split with the party last week, ostensibly over redundancy policy.
However in an interview yesterday, he said: “We face the most savage cuts local councils have ever encountered. I strongly disapproved of the £1.2m raid by the Scottish Government on the £1.7m raised from the increase in Midlothian’s council tax.
“I felt all of the £1.7m should be used for education in Midlothian, not elsewhere.”
Read more: SNP criticised for leaving welfare powers with Whitehall
Relations between local and central government are already under strain over recent SNP plans to bypass councils on the running of schools and childcare provision.
It also emerged this weekend that SNP ministers plan to push councils to merge services across boundaries and devolve many of their services down to local communities.
The power squeeze comes as the SNP are predicted to win power in most councils next May.
A Cosla spokesman said that at their monthly meeting in September, leaders expressed disappointment at Government failure to address their concerns and that Cosla remained “totally opposed” to ending the link between local taxation and local service accountability.
The Government spokeswoman said it remained committed to engaging with Cosla “in further dialogue on a range of issues, including the question of the treatment of the additional £100m.”
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