Budget is an ‘insult’ to our communities
South Lanarkshire Council’s leader called out the Scottish Government’s draft budget after Cosla described it as a missed opportunity for local communities.
Following the release of the Scottish draft budget in December, Cosla, the all-party umbrella body for Scottish local government, said that councils will be disproportionately impacted by cuts to capital funding.
Now council leader Joe Fagan has criticised the Scottish Government, stating that other areas of the Scottish budget are being prioritised over councils. He said: “While capital funding for prisons, police and many other services is going up, yet again the Scottish Government are targeting councils for excessive and disproportionate cuts.
“Our council’s capital programme – covering all sorts from investment in roads and transport to our ageing leisure centres and buildings – has already been squeezed for years. We hoped that this year the government would deliver some respite, but these new capital funding cuts make the situation even worse.
“I am calling on our MSPS to reject the Scottish budget in its current form and force the Deputy First Minister to come back with proposals to treat our communities fairly.
“I frankly think this is an insulting budget to the people of South Lanarkshire. What these capital allocations tell us is that we are not a priority for the Scottish Government. Members of the Scottish Parliament who advocate investment in our town centres, in new housing and regeneration projects or in new leisure facilities and amenities for the area should put their money where their mouth is and reject plans to starve South Lanarkshire and its people of vital capital investment.”
Cosla stated that council leaders, councillors, the local government workforce and communities should be treated with the respect they deserve through investment, not cuts.
They said: “As the budget currently stands, communities will see and feel a range of negative impacts.
“Cosla’s ‘Councils are Key’ budget lobbying campaign set out the case for fair funding that would allow local government to deliver for the people of Scotland, particularly around delivering sustainable person-centred public servicest.
“The response from the Scottish Government to our budget ask is extremely disappointing and will mean that the potential that councils have to prevent problems occurring will be limited severely.
“The budget as it stands leaves not a single penny for transformational public service reform. The 2024/25 budget shows a clear difference between the treatment of local government and other public bodies, with local government disproportionately impacted by cuts to capital funding.
“The impact of this move is to re-allocate capital funding away from preventative ‘upstream’ services carried out by local government to ‘downstream’ services carried out by our public sector partners, services that are more costly. While we recognise that the fire and rescue service, the police authority, and prison service are of the utmost importance to our communities, it is crucial that the Scottish Government recognises the clear long-term benefits associated with investment in local government and the buildings used every day by our communities like schools, libraries, community and sports centres.”
They pointed out that the Scottish Government has increased funding for a range of other public services, yet local councils are planned to experience a loss.
COSLA added: “The draft budget also shows that the Scottish Government’s internal costs have risen significantly from 23/24 to 24/25, equalling an increase of over £40 million in fiscal resource and capital. For example, internal budgets relating to ‘Response and Readiness’ and ‘Corporate Running Costs’ have gone up by 42.5 per cent and 12.2 per cent respectively.
“This increase in internally-allocated Scottish Government funding comes at a time when the growth of the Scottish Government workforce has regularly outstripped that of local government.”
The organisation said: “A person-centred reform agenda based on prevention needs to be driven locally, where people are closest to and can take part in the decisions that affect them the most. Forcing change from the centre denies local people and communities the opportunity to shape the services in a way that best meet their needs and it disempowers those across our workforce to not what they do but how they do it.”
In response, the Scottish Government have said that they are working with the public sector to ensure services are sustainable.
A government spokesperson said: “This analysis is misleading and does not align with Cosla’s current assessment of the budget in its updated Budget Reality document.
“The Scottish budget targets funding to people and public services following a ‘worst case scenario’ UK Government Autumn Statement, as described by the Deputy First Minister, which failed to provide the investment needed in services and infrastructure.
“It includes record funding of over £14 billion for councils in 2024-25 – a real-terms increase of 4.3 per cent compared with the 2023-24 Budget – should they agree to freeze council tax. Creating financially sustainable person-centred public services is one of our key priorities. That’s why we are working in partnership across the public sector, including local government, to reform services ensuring they are sustainable, efficient and meet the needs of the people of Scotland.”