Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 24 February 2021
During the pandemic, local communities have come to help people who need support. We have relied on councils to get schools and pupils geared up to learn and to get them their school meals. They have very quickly got money to businesses in need.
Of course, the idea of a fair deal for local government is a good one, and the idea that we should know that local government will be treated fairly is a good one, too, but local government has been on the rough end of the SNP Government’s priorities. We get the usual conjurer’s trick from ministers, who send ring-fenced parcels of money to local councils for new tasks, and claim that it is money for old tasks. The money goes up, but the costs of the new responsibilities go even higher, which leaves councils to cut other services. That is just not fair.
Why can the SNP not leave local taxes to local councils? There have been 10 years of interfering with and freezing council tax, followed by more years of capping it, because—apparently—the SNP knows best. It has been that way for years, so we are sceptical of the Government’s claims that it has new plans for local government. We have had 14 years of this Government, and it has not got it right for local government over that time.
The Conservatives have not got it right today, either. We all remember that, in the past, when the UK Government has allocated Barnett consequentials for health, the Scottish Conservatives have wanted it to be guaranteed for health. Well, not any more. In 2018, the then Prime Minister, Theresa May, said that she would increase national health service funding, which would mean £2 billion of consequentials for the Scottish Government by 2023. Back then, the Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell, said:
“I urge the Scottish government to invest this extra money in improving health services”.
With today’s motion, that is now all completely out of the window. Under the Conservatives’ plan, between 2018 and 2023, more than £600 million would be automatically removed from the NHS Scotland annual budget. People in Scotland expect their Parliament to judge the different needs, and not just delete £600 million of health spending because the Conservative computer told them to do exactly that. Such a crude formula is something that local government simply does not need.
The Conservative motion would cut NHS funding using a crude formula, and we should not support it. We need a fair funding settlement that involves local government in its creation and creates the transparency and fairness that we want. That would allow us to deal with difficult problems, such as integrating health and social care, without being saddled with an inflexible funding system.
Just as Holyrood does, I want councils to be able to raise the majority of the money that they spend. If they control the purse strings, they are free to determine their own future in partnership with the communities that they serve. If the councils or the voters do not like the decisions on tax and spend, they can vote them out. We need a framework that nurtures such a relationship, and that is why we cannot support the Conservatives today.
16:28