Local authority leaders in Scotland have accused the Scottish government of ‘confusing’ the public over local government spending and called for ‘clarity and consistency’.
The local government body COSLA estimates that councils in Scotland require £1bn extra in real terms but instead have ended up with £38m from Holyrood.
In a recent report by the Accounts Commission, the Scottish government was quoted as saying there had been both real and cash terms increases of £2.2bn between 2013-14 and 2022-23.
In 2013-14, the local government funding settlement was worth £10.3bn. A decade later it was £12.5bn.
COSLA said that while this does equate to a £2.2bn cash increase, it is money that is ‘heavily ring fenced’ that cannot be spent on core services.
According to a COSLA spokesperson, this represents ‘a real terms cut’ as directed funding for core services and local priorities has stayed the same over the last decade while pressures on council budgets have increased.
COSLA’s resources spokesperson Cllr Katie Hagmann commented: ‘The reality of having the same amount of money this year as 10 years ago for core services is a real terms cut. As well as increasing costs, this money is also now required to deliver more services than it was 10 years ago – Scotland’s population has increased, the number of households has gone up, COVID has left a legacy of support needs for the most vulnerable and as people live longer, their care needs have become more complex. This is just a snapshot of the demands being faced by councils, not to mention inflation and energy costs.’
‘We owe it to our communities to be clear, consistent and transparent about the starting point and how much less, in reality, councils have to spend year on year on the services that our communities rely on,’ she added.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: 'The Scottish government’s settlements from the UK Government have suffered a decade of austerity with average real terms cuts of over 5%, equating to a loss of £18bn.
'Despite this, we have listened to councils and are increasing the resources available to local government by over £570m, a real terms increase of £160.6m or 1.3%.'
However, Cllr Hagmann said: 'For 2023-24, Scottish government has stated that councils have seen a "£570m increase in their budgets” but the reality is, that only £38m of this can go towards pressures such as inflation, pay and service demand with the rest for policy commitments that are already in the system, for example £100m to meet Real Living Wage commitments in social care.
'To put this into perspective, a 1% increase in pay across the Local Government workforces equates to around £100m. £38m will not go very far, especially when combined with energy price hikes, supporting the most vulnerable and our commitments to tackle the climate emergency.'
