Council warning over job losses and cuts to vital services

Councils have warned of job losses and severe cuts to vital services as Holyrood and Westminster prepare their budgets.

Picture: John Devlin

Local authority umbrella body Cosla has warned there are no “soft targets” left to find savings from, and the council tax freeze puts them in a “straitjacket” in their efforts to raise revenue.

Chancellor George Osborne will make his budget statement on Wednesday, and Scottish finance secretary John Swinney will announce his spending plans next month.

Cosla finance spokesman Kevin Keenan, a Labour councillor in Dundee, said: “I feel it is vital I make the Chancellor in London and Mr Swinney in Edinburgh fully aware of the financial pressures we in local government are up against. Scottish local government is already facing nearly half a billion pounds of spending pressures for next year.”