Scottish Labour shares the concerns of people across the country about the impact of long-term funding cuts on local government staff and service provision – the budget for local councils is set by the Scottish Government, and SNP-inflicted austerity has left Scotland’s local services under threat.
John Swinney and Kate Forbes slashed council funding year after year when they served as Finance Secretary. Now as First Minister and Deputy First Minister, they are doing nothing to resolve the funding crisis they helped create.
This SNP Government has failed hard-pressed staff like refuse workers, janitors, and catering staff by starving Councils of the funds to run our essential services.
Over the last decade the Scottish Government handed down proportionately deeper cuts to local government than had been made to their own budget. Between 2013/14 and 2022/23 and over £6bn was cut from core local government budgets.
The constant raiding of local government funding has left bins overflowing, roads crumbling, libraries and public spaces closing, and social work struggling to cope. The road repair backlog across Scotland has risen to over £2.2 billion, teacher numbers have fallen below 2007 levels, and councils are having to find savings from essential services like waste management, park maintenance, street cleaning and libraries.
The Scottish Accounts Commission highlighted that councils faced a collective gap of up to £585 million when setting their budgets this year, and the cumulative gap is estimated to rise to £780 million by 2026/27.
Scottish Labour have repeatedly made the case that the raids on local government budgets need to end. That is why have called on the SNP to come to the negotiating table now and fix the mess they have made, and in the long term, Scottish Labour are committed to delivering fair funding for local government so they can continue to deliver the vital frontline services on which we all rely.