Question reference: S6W-01804
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 23 July 2021
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Current status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 20 August 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much COVID-19 relief funding it has allocated to local authorities and what information it has regarding how (a) this has been spent and (b) much remains in local authority reserves.
Answer
Scotland’s councils have been allocated an additional £1.5 billion in direct support through the local government finance settlement.
Furthermore in 2020-21, the Scottish Government replaced £972 million of Non-Domestic Rates Income for the cost of COVID-19 reliefs with additional General Revenue Grant of the same amount, effectively protecting this important income stream for local government and at the same time providing rates relief for businesses. In 2021-22 the Scottish Government replaced a further £726 million of Non-Domestic Rates Income with additional General Revenue Grant of the same amount for the same reason.
The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. Local authorities must use their resources as efficiently as possible and deliver services effectively to ensure the best possible value. Decisions on the level of reserves and how reserves are used, are also rightly the responsibility of individual councils. In light of this, how much of this additional funding local authorities have allocated and to which services is not yet available and similarly how much remains within local authority reserves is not held by the Scottish Government. All of this information will be provided in the annual Local Financial Returns (LFRs) which individual local authorities complete and return to the Scottish Government. The summary of these returns is subsequently published on the Scottish Government's website.