GEOFF Mawdsely of Reform Scotland proposed in his Agenda contribution (“Councils should have the power to levy a range of taxes, old and new”, The Herald, August 27) that local authorities raise a much higher proportion of their expenditure through local taxes, with full responsibility to set these tax levels. He encourages the Scottish Commission on Local Taxation Reform to be ambitious and to look widely at all related issues.
Mr Mawdseley sets out an important fundamental principle, that of linking responsibility for setting the level of services to be provided with the authority to raise money for them.
However, local authorities are required to deliver many services where they have no control over the required level of service or of the funds they are given to deliver them. An impossible situation - no wonder local authorities and the Scottish Government are at loggerheads.
So to link responsibility with authority, what is needed, in tandem with local tax reform, is a reform of the line of command for such services. Examples include education and social services. Since the Scottish Government defines required outcomes, as well as providing the funding, it follows that MSPs, not local councillors, should be the elected representatives responsible and accountable for such services and that these services should be managed and funded directly by appropriate departments of the Scottish Government (democratically reporting to the Scottish Parliament), not via local authorities.
Mr Mawdsley's goal would be met: locally raised taxes would become a very much higher proportion of the (reduced) local authority expenditure.
By removing from their remit issues over which they have no control, local councillors would be able to devote greater energy to management of the local services which are under their control, and, importantly, to driving forward exciting locally driven initiatives for the benefit of local communities.
Effective councillors would earn new respect from their electorates.
Mike Yendell,
Elston, Rhu,
Helensburgh.
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