MSPs are demanding to know if Scottish Government ministers took account of the £150 million cost to councils of increasing public-sector pay when determining the overall local government budget.
Finance Secretary Derek Mackay set aside just under £10.4 billion for local authorities in his draft budget for 2018-19 – with Holyrood’s Local Government and Communities Committee stating this is a real terms cut of £58m from the current year.
The draft budget also contained plans to give public-sector workers earning less than £30,000 a year a three per cent pay rise.
While MSPs on the committee said local government pay was a matter for local authorities to decide, they said the Scottish Government’s public-sector pay policy “creates an expectation as to what local government workers might receive”. Councils would have to find around £150m to implement this, and the committee said it wanted “information from the Scottish Government about how its public sector pay policy aspirations are taken into account in its decision on the local government revenue budget”.
The local government body Cosla has already made clear “it did not consider that the local government settlement included funding for any local government pay award”.
The organisation added that councils have a “significant proportion” of workers earning less than £30,000 a year, stating that funding a three per cent rise for them would be a “significant pressure”.
In its report on the budget, the committee also demanded to know why councils have not been given an indication of how much cash they will receive in coming years.
Committee convener Bob Doris said: “We welcome the steps taken by the Scottish Government to improve transparency in this budget and our report makes recommendations aimed at moving the discussion on from whether funding is being provided to focus on what that funding aims to deliver for local communities across Scotland.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Discussions on the draft budget are ongoing and we welcome input from all parties. Pay and other employment issues for Local Government staff are matters for local authorities.”
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