Scotland 'is being killed' by free services

THE rising demand for public services is "killing" Scotland, and dwindling resources should be directed at those in greatest need, according to the leader of the country's local authorities.

Rory Mair, chief executive of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), raised the spectre of ending universal public services and instead concentrating on the poorest 20 per cent of society.

He accused the Scottish Government of making a wilful decision not to have a difficult debate about the emergence of a growing gap between public sector finances and demand for services - a gap that could be as high as 3 billion by 2016-17 from a total budget of 12bn.

"That is a 25 per cent gap between what we need to spend and the resources we have. The gap is not growing slowly or far in the future - it is there and expanding now," said Mr Mair, speaking at The Scotsman Conferences event "What Does The New Parliament Mean for Scotland?"

He added: "There is an almost wilful avoidance of discussing what we need to discuss - and if we don't discuss it, we will be letting Scotland down. If we carry on providing services the way we do now, we will need to build a new general hospital every 18 months and a new nursing home every six weeks.

"It's demand (for public services] that is killing us here, not simply the loss of resources."

Mr Mair, who heads the organisation that represents all Scotland's 32 councils, told delegates there was a massive disparity in terms of reliance on public services between the most deprived and least deprived areas of Scotland.

"For the top 20 per cent, we almost do not need to make any provision of public services at all," he said. "And we aren't smart and successful Scotland for people living in communities in that bottom 20 per cent.

"To what extent then do we target those in the bottom 20 per cent? What does that mean for the possibility and distribution of universal services?"

He added: "The bottom 20 per cent need and deserve a specific, co-ordinated and effective response from the public sector. Even if you do not agree with this in terms of social justice, the cost of maintaining the bottom 20 per cent under the current position will overwhelm us if not addressed.

"A combination of belt-tightening, efficiencie s and symbolic reorganisation will not solve the problem. No-one should pretend that further rounds of 2 per cent per year cuts will solve the problem.

"We must design a whole new era for public services, not just let it creep up on us. But these issues are complex and politically unattractive, and have not thus far been properly debated.

"If we do not get the debate going now, we will have a new era of public services - but one designed for yesterday trying to keep up with next year, that is not up to the job."

Mr Mair even raised the prospect of closing a hospital if it was the right thing to do in terms of targeting resources more effectively, but conceded that would not be possible politically.

He also criticised plans for a single police force, saying: "Public services should be more local and integrated, with a closer relationship with communities - we need integration and decentralisation, not centralisation."

Earlier, Professor John McLaren voiced concern about the lack of innovation around public spending. He described the future of public finances as "a very bad acid trip" and outlined a similar scenario of fewer resources and greater demand.

Prof McLaren, of the Centre for Public Policy for Regions, said: "Something has to change or current services will get poorer and poorer."

He said public revenues had declined to a historical low of 37 per cent of GDP, while public spending had risen to a historical high of 48 per cent. This had pushed net borrowing up to a high of 11 per cent, compared with the previous worst scenario of 7-8 per cent in the mid-1970s and early 1990s.

He said he found it bizarre that there was a debate about education and health but not about how Scotland moved forward in the current economic climate.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman yesterday pointed to the "swingeing cuts" to Scotland's budget from Westminster. "We are acutely aware of the spending pressures facing the public sector," she added.

"This administration protected the local government budget this year to a greater extent than any other part of the public sector, apart from health, and the Christie Commission on the future of public services, which will publish soon, will give us a real opportunity to address the issues of public sector reform while protecting the services the people of Scotland rely on."

Conservative chief whip David Mundell said there had to be a "real debate" about the future of public services.

"It's why we have been prepared to make tough choices in opposing free prescriptions for those who can afford to pay and calling for graduates earning a certain salary to contribute to the cost of their higher education," he said. "We desperately need the SNP government to stop living in fantasyland, take a brave pill and face up to the challenges ahead."

Labour finance spokesman Richard Baker said the council tax freeze left councils underfunded."The SNP government cannot duck its responsibility for placing councils in a situation where they are forced to cut key services that people in our communities, especially the most vulnerable, depend on," he said.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie added; 'The SNP must stop ducking and diving on their plans. They'll blame everyone else for their problems but must come clean now."