Meeting of the Parliament 25 February 2016
One SNP MSP who was meeting representatives was me, in St Andrew’s house on Monday. Ken Macintosh should not give me the baseless rubbish that he comes out with.
Let us look at the substance of the offer that I made to local government. What issues are at stake? First, there is £250 million-worth of investment in health and social care integration, including investment to pay for the living wage for social care workers. What is there about that proposition that local authorities and the Labour Party could disagree with?
Secondly, we have argued for a settlement that will protect teacher numbers in our schools, so that we do not have any further erosion of their numbers and so that we preserve the pupil teacher ratio. What is there about that that Labour and local authorities could object to?
Finally, we come to the council tax freeze. I remind the Labour Party that many of the authorities that it controls were elected in 2012 on a commitment to a five-year council tax freeze. What on earth is there to object to about all that?
Over our term of government, we have put in place a set of arrangements with local government that began with the removal of ring fencing, to give local authorities much more freedom to act. Over many years of budget settlements, we protected local government from reductions in public expenditure that we as a Government faced. Local government therefore starts this difficult period with a baseline that is at a much higher level than it could have anticipated and which is at a significantly higher level than that for local government south of the border, which has been decimated by reductions in public expenditure.
I encourage members to think about the point that I made in my opening remarks. When the investment that the Government is making in integrating health and social care is taken into account, the budget reduction in resource terms amounts to less than 1 per cent of local authority expenditure. That is why the claims that the Labour Party is putting around are exaggerated.
I am surprised that Jackie Baillie returned to the territory that she returned to, because it was comprehensively debunked by the First Minister at question time, just a few hours ago, when the accusations and suggestions that the Labour Party has made were exposed for what they are.
I will make a couple of specific concluding remarks to address points that members have made. Mr Fraser asked about the distribution formula. That formula is kept under constant review by the settlement and distribution group. If there were to be a more fundamental review of distribution, we would need local government’s agreement, and local government has not signalled its willingness in that respect.
I am familiar with the issues in Aberdeen; indeed, I am the first finance minister to give the city a specific additional funding settlement. If it had not been for my actions, Aberdeen City Council would be getting £14 million less in its settlement than it is getting today.