Meeting of the Parliament 06 February 2014
I am glad that Cameron Buchanan is on the Conservative front bench today, because we heard an eminently more sensible contribution and stance than usual. I hope that that does not destroy Mr Buchanan’s recently developed career in Parliament. I welcome the Conservatives coming to support the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2014, even if they were unable to support the budget yesterday, which is a matter of deep regret. I agree with Mr Buchanan about the importance of transparency around the information on local authority spending, and it is important that that spending be properly and fully scrutinised.
I am not going to try to rehearse all the arguments to Mr Rennie. We have been round the houses a couple of times about Aberdeen. However I will correct one thing that he said, by informing him that Mr Stewart, the member for Aberdeen Central, stands up for Aberdeen city on every possible occasion, as he did in what I thought was a spirited and emphatic contribution to the debate this afternoon.
On the funding floor of 85 per cent of the average and Aberdeen, let me tell Mr Rennie and Mr Baker that, because of this Government’s decisions, Aberdeen City Council is receiving £7 million over three years that it would not be receiving had the needs-based formula been applied.