Labour accuses SNP of inflicting ‘turbo-charged austerity’ on Scotland’s councils

The scale of the spending cuts faced by local authorities in Scotland has been revealed, with new analysis finding councils have seen a 7.5 per cent drop in their revenue settlement over the last six years.

Finance secretary Derek Mackay

The reduction is far greater than the equivalent drop faced by Scottish Government in the same period, which saw its revenues cut by 2.8 per cent.

The local government revenue settlement as a proportion of the Scottish Government budget also decreased by 1.7 per cent between 2013-14 and 2018-19.

The analysis, carried out by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe), prompted Labour to accuse SNP ministers of imposing “turbo-charged austerity” on councils.

Local governments employ 10 per cent of Scotland’s total workforce but their budgets have faced huge pressures in recent years.

Last year COSLA, which represents the interests of Scotland’s councils, said that an extra £549m was required just so local authorities “could stand still”.

Scottish Labour finance spokesman James Kelly said: “The SNP has turbo-charged Tory austerity on councils across the country.

“Instead of using Scotland’s powers to stand up to the Tories, the SNP government has used Holyrood as a conveyer belt for cuts.

“And we know these cuts have been made amid the government sitting on almost half a billion pounds of unspent cash.

“It’s time for Derek Mackay to listen to Scottish Labour and properly fund local services.”

A spokesman for Mr Mackay, the Scottish Government’s finance secretary, said: Over the last few weeks Labour have accused the SNP Government of overspending our budget, of underspending it – and for not underspending enough. The only consistency in Labour’s position is that they don’t have any idea how public finances work.

“Despite a decade of Tory Westminster austerity, the SPICe analysis confirms that the 2019-20 Scottish Budget will provide local government with an additional £298.5 million revenue funding, a real terms increase of 1.2% for day to day services.”