Chamber and committees

This is an important debate, not just a technical one. I thank all those who work in our local authorities across Scotland for their hard work, especially for going the extra mile during the pandemic.

The Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2022 comes at the tail end of the budget process. Given that we have spent weeks debating the Scottish National Party and Green Government’s tax and spending choices, it might seem at this point that there is little more to add. Nevertheless, it is important that today’s parliamentary process gives us all an opportunity to highlight what needs to change.

The order allocates funding to each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities. We do not intend to oppose it, as that would simply deprive local government of much-needed resources for the coming year, but we have serious concerns about the overall allocation of resources to local councils across Scotland.

As has already been mentioned, I attended the COSLA conference on Friday, alongside other spokespeople, including Alex Cole-Hamilton. It is fair to say that SNP and Green ministers were left in no doubt about how council leaders and councillors across the country feel about the settlement.

Yet again, councils have been left in a situation in which they have to find savings or cut local services. It is a simple fact that SNP and Green ministers have cut next year’s local council budgets by £251 million in real terms. That cut to local government finance has been carried out despite Scotland receiving a record £41 billion block grant from the United Kingdom Government this year. The decision to cut budgets was taken by SNP and Green ministers.

Councils across Scotland have joined together to condemn the cuts. As the COSLA president Alison Evison said,

“It is beyond frustrating that the importance of Local Government’s role in enabling Communities to Live Well Locally across Scotland, has not been reflected in the Budget announcement.”

Scottish ministers have said that they want the £150 cost of living payment to go out before the end of April. Will the minister confirm that the software and information that councils will need if they are to deliver the payment are in place?

The minister will be acutely aware that councils have very limited options to meet the cut. That is one of the key parts of the debate, I believe.

The Scottish Government has to realise that, when it cuts budgets, that hits the most vulnerable in our communities, and it is damaging to the local government workforce, too. For example, the only options that my council here in the capital now has in trying to make up that reduction involve a tourism tax, which the SNP said it would never introduce, or the new car park tax, which will hit the lowest earners hardest. Many council leaders are concerned that, if they do not implement those changes, the Scottish Government will penalise them in future years, too. Perhaps that is why the City of Edinburgh Council is today receiving one of the lowest shares of funding from SNP and Green ministers within the budget.

I hope that SNP and Green ministers will genuinely pause and reflect following the budget process. Many of us have said that when debating previous budgets, but I really hope that they consider the point that it is not a great celebration for councils that this money is coming; there will be difficult decisions for them and they will have to cut vital public services. Again, we see a situation in which ministers put huge cuts to finances on the table, then they rethink that and come back with a slightly lower cut, and then they hope that councils and the Parliament will celebrate that. That is simply unacceptable.

We need to see the resetting of the relationship and a genuine partnership that delivers respect between the Scottish Government and local government, and gives local authorities the powers and funding that they need to deliver the vital public services on which we all rely.

Conservative members would take a different approach. It is time for the creation of a new fiscal framework for councils, which would see an automatic amount transferred each year from the Scottish Government’s budget, to help them deliver vital local services.

As I said, we will not oppose the order, because we do not want to penalise local authorities or disrupt their work. However, we need to highlight that the Scottish Government is delivering a poor funding settlement that will impact on all our communities.

It is clear that the SNP-Green budget will have a negative impact on councils across Scotland. We are already seeing councils setting budgets with an average increase in council tax of 3 per cent during a cost of living crisis, and increases in charges for local services while services are being cut. The responsibility for that rests firmly at the door of this SNP-Green Government.

I hope I that, in the future, councils will have an opportunity to have a grown-up, responsible debate with ministers about the finance that they need and receive. Councils will face many difficult decisions in the coming weeks and years. I hope that SNP and Green ministers will reset their approach and prioritise local government. That is something that we all, across the Parliament, want to see.

I disagree with that point. The real question, which many members who are clapping need to think about, is what the SNP has actually done in the past 14 years to bring prosperity to communities. The answer is nothing at all.

Communities across Scotland have a proud record of coming together to pioneer innovative work to deliver community regeneration projects. That is what we need to help to achieve. It is vital that we realise the potential of all our communities, and the shared prosperity fund will help to achieve that. I support the amendment in Liz Smith’s name.

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to local authorities to ensure that disabled and partially sighted people are able to participate in the 2022 local government elections. (S6O-00794)

Will local authorities be asked to publicise ahead of the elections the order in which candidates will appear on the ballot paper? Blind and partially sighted people are often looking for that key piece of information, which has not previously been provided.

Given that, at its elections, the Northern Ireland Assembly is providing voter kits, including audio devices, to blind and partially sighted members of the community, what plans does the Scottish Government have to review the position and look at trialling voter kits in Scotland?

Does the minister believe that local government should also play a role in this and, if so, why is it not mentioned in his motion for the debate?

It was perhaps a mistake of the Minister for Parliamentary Business to timetable the two debates that we have had this afternoon together, the first one being on the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2022, with SNP and Green ministers cutting £250 million from local authorities, and the second being this debate on measures that will give local authorities powers and resources, with an additional £2.6 billion of funding.

The shared prosperity fund is a central pillar of the UK Government’s ambitious levelling-up agenda and a significant component of its support for communities across Britain. The fund will provide £2.6 billion in new local investment by March 2025, with all areas of the UK receiving an allocation from the fund via a funding formula rather than a competition.

The purpose of the shared prosperity fund and the UK Government’s levelling-up agenda is to reduce inequalities where they occur anywhere in Britain. I would have thought that all of us would agree about that. That applies equally to Scotland as to any other nation or region of the United Kingdom. I hope that SNP and Green ministers and MSPs agree with many of the principles that the UK shared prosperity fund focuses on—for example, investment and resources being targeted to areas of Scotland that are less prosperous, and working to build stronger, safer and more prosperous communities for all of us.

Projects such as the restoration of the B-listed Granton gas holder in my region, for example, are designed to spread opportunities and improve public services and to restore a sense of community, local pride and belonging as well as to empower local leaders and our communities. At the very time when SNP and Green ministers are cutting local budgets, the UK Government is looking to inject finances directly into areas around the country that need them the most.

I have already outlined this, but I note that the Scottish Government’s motion does not even mention local government and the important role that councils must play in helping to improve and empower communities across our country. Perhaps that is at the heart of what SNP and Green ministers and MSPs are complaining about today—that what we are actually seeing is powers going to local authorities, not to SNP and Green ministers.

The Scottish Conservatives support initiatives that move towards greater local empowerment, and I believe that the shared prosperity fund can help to deliver that very outcome. Scottish local authorities are receptive to making bids to the shared prosperity fund as well as to the levelling up agenda. I know that COSLA has already had many positive engagements with Michael Gove on how that can best be achieved.

The UK Government has made it very clear that it wants to work with the Scottish Government to make the best possible use of the funding across Scotland. I hope that members’ attitudes change so that we can see that happen. As has been stated, local authorities across Scotland are receiving their share of the £172 million in the first tranche of investment. I sincerely hope that SNP and Green ministers will start to get on board with the delivery of the UK shared prosperity fund and will start a positive engagement with all our communities and our councillors who are elected after May’s elections, to get the best possible outcome for all our communities.

Communities across Scotland have a proud record of coming together—[Interruption.] Sorry, but does Christine Grahame want to intervene?

Thank you for that. I have a final question. What plans does the Scottish Government have to carry out a fundamental review of the charter in the next five years? There has been quite a gap between 2012 and 2021. What are the plans for potentially updating the charter in the future?

I want to ask a few questions about some of the outcomes, starting with outcome 5, on repairs, maintenance and improvements. I am sure that every MSP meets tenants to discuss, and knows of concerns around, the timescales for works taking place. How will those be properly monitored? I am always shocked not by the work of the teams that deliver the improvements but by the length of time that people face for those improvements being made. I have a case in which people have been waiting up to five years to get a problem resolved. What difference do you hope that the charter will make?