It's Time for Fair Funding for Councils
This blog originally appeared in the Alloa Advertier's Political Stand column, published Wednesday 15th February
The news that Clackmannanshire Council is moving closer towards making 350 staff redundant is devastating.
For years local services have faced huge pressures as Westminster cuts to Scottish Government budgets have been handed down to councils. The Council Tax Freeze has then made it impossible for them to raise the income needed to protect frontline services from cuts.
Savings of course are always possible and some councils acted early to save millions, from switching to low energy street lighting to putting services online or selling off empty property.
This improved the bottom line, but many councils are still faced with difficult choices to make about frontline services, especially those in education and social care.
It was with that concern in mind that Green MSPs approached the recent budget negotiations at Holyrood.
I’m still a serving Councillor myself in Stirling, so I’m acutely aware of the value of local services delivered by dedicated staff. I was only prepared to support a Holyrood budget which substantially closed the funding gap for councils.
After long negotiations with the SNP we finally agreed to an extra £160m for local government. Independent analysis has confirmed that this extra money, alongside that raised by increases in the Council Tax for larger properties, means councils will have more spending power next year.
For Clacks, this means almost £1.5m extra that could be used to scrap damaging proposed cuts to schools and public transport.
That’s good news, but going forward we need proper reform to the way local government is fairly funded including scrapping the Council Tax. We also need more creative use of the Parliament’s powers on income tax. It was disappointing that Green proposals to lower tax on those earning less than the average wage, while raising tax marginally for those earning at higher levels was rejected by the SNP. We will need bolder measures going forward to stop the erosion of public services and end the spectre of compulsory redundancies in Clacks.
One tiny proposed cut is to the Safe Drive initiative. Given the vast cost of road accidents to the economy and public services, not to mention the devastating impact on families and communities this is one cut I hope all three councils will throw out.
I’m passionate about creating safer streets and in the weeks to come I will be launching a Members Bill in the Scottish Parliament to reduce the speed limit in all residential areas from 30 to 20 mph. Clacks has lead the way in achieving this already, but other areas have been slow in the uptake, the time for a national switch has come.