FURTHER cuts to council budgets would be “disastrous” for jobs and services, the head of the umbrella body for Scottish local authorities has warned.
David O’Neill, president of Cosla, last night fired the latest salvo in what has become an increasingly bitter war of words with the Scottish Government ahead of this week’s budget.
Finance secretary Derek Mackay is expected to announce a further squeeze on local authority spending when he sets out his plans for the coming year on Thursday.
Mr Mackay is due to announce the local government revenue settlement funding for councils alongside the budget.
Speaking ahead of a special meeting of council leaders at which the budget will be discussed, Councillor O’Neill warned that local authorities could not take any more cuts.
He declared that “a cut of the magnitude of last year’s £349 million would have a disastrous impact on both communities and services”.
And he added: “All too often when we talk of cuts to local government these are seen in the abstract. The reality is that we are talking about real cuts to services and jobs.
“The simple truth is that a cut to local government means a cut in teaching assistants, a cut in levels of care for all our elderly relatives, cuts for the homeless as a freezing winter starts to bite and cuts to gritting of the roads at a time of freezing temperatures when trains and the wider transport network is struggling to cope.
“Make no mistake, the Scottish Government has a political choice here and, with additional cash of £418 million for next year, there should be no cut to local government.”
Cllr O’Neill’s warning represents the latest in a series of disagreements between local government and the SNP administration.
There has been simmering discontent in councils across Scotland over Holyrood’s decision to force authorities to impose a council tax freeze, restricting the money they can raise locally – a freeze which has just been lifted after nine years.
Councils are also worried about the SNP administration’s move to hand more money and control to head teachers, which some councils fear will reduce the influence of local education authorities.
And there have been concerns expressed over the Scottish Government’s plan to pool income from some council tax rises and invest that in the most deprived areas – a move which many councillors believe will break the link between local taxation and local services.
However, a Scottish Government spokesman insisted that councils had been treated “very fairly” by the SNP government.
He said: “Local government has experienced the same reduction in funding as was imposed on the Scottish Government by Westminster – as outlined last week in an independent report from Audit Scotland. It is therefore clear that local government has been treated fairly despite the cuts to the Scottish Budget from the UK Government.”
The spokesman added: “Local government finance settlements were maintained on a like-for-like basis over the period 2012-16, with extra money for new responsibilities resulting in total settlements of £10.8 billion in 2014-15 and of over £10.85 billion in 2015-16.
“Taking into account the addition of the £250 million to support the integration of health and social care, the overall reduction in 2016-17 funding equates to less than one per cent of local government’s total estimated expenditure in 2016-17.
“We remain committed to engaging Cosla in further dialogue on a range of issues.”
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