Council leaders across Scotland have called on Holyrood to find a ‘meaningful solution’ to the half a billion pound shortfall faced by local government north of the border.
The Accounts Commission today reported that Scottish councils faced a collective gap of up to £585m between the money they need to deliver services and the money available. The watchdog also estimated this gap would widen to £780m by 2026/27.
The Scottish Government has increased revenue funding to councils by 6% – or £13.25bn in total – and made £147m available to mitigate the impacts of a council tax freeze.
However, the commission warned this ‘masks significant underlying financial challenges and strain’ because the extra funding has been ring-fenced for policies and to cover the costs of pay increases.
A third of councils also said the Government funding does not fully-fund the council tax freeze.
Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, Shona Robison, said that the UK Government had failed to deliver the funding Scotland needs for public services.
‘When more support is desperately needed for public services and infrastructure, Scotland’s Block Grant from the UK Government is still less in real terms in 2024-25 than in 2022-23 by around £0.4bn,’ she said.
COSLA’s Resources spokesperson Cllr Katie Hagmann commented: ‘The reality right now for councils has never been more challenging. The effect of years of real-terms cuts to core budgets have been compounded by additional policy commitments and less flexibility in how we allocate increasingly directed budgets. This makes the ability to take local decisions on most of our budget, almost impossible.’
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