Scottish councils have attempted to protect their poorest residents from the impact of cuts, but lower income groups will feel the brunt of future savings.
A new study assessing the social impact of the 2016-17 local government budget has found the bulk of Scottish local government funding is ‘pro-poor’.
Researchers from Glasgow and Heriot-Watt universities and the Scottish Parliament Information Centre analysed how council savings plans are distributed between ‘pro-poor’, ‘neutral’ and ‘pro-rich’ services.
They discovered 41% of expenditure could be classed as pro-poor, whereas only 2% was pro-rich. 10% was neutral and a further 18% was defined as neutral-poor.
The report noted the pattern of spending was similar across all groups of councils, whether they are grouped by deprivation, population density and population size.
One of the conclusions drawn by the researchers was when dealing with budget reductions, councils will have little option but to find most of their savings from services which are used by lower income groups.
