Meeting of the Parliament 27 February 2025
The Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2025 is a step in the right direction, but we should look more closely at the claim that it represents a success for the Government. It provides a modest, real-terms increase in the budget for local authorities, but that increase must be taken in context. The 2024-25 council tax freeze alone resulted in a shortfall of £417 million, according to COSLA, and that does not include shortfalls caused by unfunded freezes in previous years. COSLA has also estimated a £392 million projected budget gap for Scottish local authorities in 2025-26, rising to a cumulative gap of £780 million by 2026-27.
Within those figures, the funding gap that is most striking and alarming is the one in health and social care partnerships, which has increased by 187 per cent since 2022-23. Local government has also been given just £777 million of capital to support £55 billion-worth of assets. There are clearly gaping holes in our public estate, which will persist under the settlement.
All that is no one’s fault but the SNP Government’s. Its decisions in successive years have stripped local authorities of their financial resources, but the Government keeps using spin and sleight of hand to try to convince Scotland that others have caused the problems. The truth is that the SNP has been given a record funding agreement by the UK Government, with £5 billion more for this financial year but, because of their choices, that money—