How SNP's £7.8 billion austerity drive helped create Scotland's social care crisis

This month, millions of Scots will receive letters telling them that their council tax is going to rise, in some cases by more than 10 per cent. And many will be wondering what exactly they get in return.

The bins are getting collected less often, schools are struggling, leisure centres are closing, and vulnerable people are not getting the support they need. Sooner or later, crumbling council services affect everyone.

This is particularly true in health and social care. Queues build at A&E and ambulances are stuck on the hospital forecourt because the wards are occupied by patients who are well enough to leave but cannot get the care package they need.

Councils already spend roughly 30 per cent of their budget on social care and, as the population ages, that proportion is only likely to grow. At the same time, the SNP has slashed funding for councils and clawed back money from health and social care partnerships.

Too many people are stuck in hospital beds because they cannot get the social care they need at home (Picture: Matt Cardy) | Getty Images

Council tax freezes

While council tax might make headlines, in fact it only represents a small proportion of local authorities’ income. A far bigger proportion comes from the SNP government – and over the past decade, that money has dried up.

New analysis by Scottish Labour has shown that the SNP government cut a cumulative total of £7.8 billion from core council budgets between 2013-14 and 2025-26. This includes an eyewatering £1.5 billion in Glasgow City Council alone.

At the same time, the SNP froze council tax – giving councils no room to manoeuvre or mitigate the cuts. The tax bombshell working families are now about to experience is the result of years of pent-up SNP austerity on the sly.

Rather than level with the public, the SNP government outsourced difficult spending decisions to councils which then had to make the agonising choices that affect us all. It’s clear that this model isn’t sustainable, either for local authorities or the families now picking up the tab.

That’s why Scottish Labour will end SNP mismanagement and deliver fair funding for local government so working people don’t have to plug the gaps of government cuts. We will push power out from the centre rather than hoarding it in Holyrood like the SNP.

‘Holyrood knows best’ culture

It was this centralising instinct that scuppered the SNP’s discredited National Care Service Bill after council leaders walked away. Local leaders know better than Edinburgh-based quangos what their residents need – they just don’t have the money to deliver it. Instead, the SNP wasted nearly £30 million on the Bill, enough to pay for a million hours of social care.

Scottish Labour will end the ‘Holyrood knows best’ culture and begin the next stage of Scotland’s devolution story. Rather than paying more and getting less, Scottish taxpayers will get councils in the service of working people.

Councils may be one of the biggest problems facing social care, but they can also be part of the solution. And if we can fix social care, we can also clean up our high streets, improve our schools and keep our libraries open.

Then it will be clear what taxpayers are getting in return.

Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health