Hansard

I thank Annie Wells for bringing the debate to the chamber. Like Patrick Harvie, I believe that the motion on fair funding for local government is very important, and I wish that our debating time could be longer.

I agree with Willie Rennie’s points on subsidiarity and having more locality in local government. Having been a councillor many years ago, in an earlier life, I can say that it is a great job. As other members have mentioned, it brings you close to people, you get to know exactly what is wanted on the ground and often you are able to carry that out. The debate gives me the opportunity to thank all those who work in local government. They have done a fantastic job, particularly throughout the pandemic. I would like to show my appreciation by thanking them in the debate.

Annie Wells mentioned local government finance, but perhaps she and the Tories should be reminded that, through giving contracts to their cronies—those are not my words but those of the High Court—they have wasted billions of pounds. That is money from taxpayers throughout the UK, including Scotland. The court has said that the Tories have acted unlawfully, so I will take no lessons from them.

Another aspect that I think will have a massive impact on local government and our communities is that, as we are no longer in the European Union, we cannot access the share of European funding that formerly went to local authorities and which was very much appreciated. We now have funding from Westminster, which is called the UK shared prosperity fund. It has been said that that will be a UK project, so rather than subsidiarity and the funding going to local authorities, it will come from Westminster. Perhaps we should also be debating that issue.

Turning to the motion that we are debating, we all recognise that the past 11 months or so has been like no other time. Not only Scotland and the UK but the whole world has had to face the pandemic, whose impact on the Scottish economy has been palpable. I believe that the Scottish Government has responded across all areas, especially with the substantial funding package for councils that it has introduced. At the beginning of this month it announced its draft budget proposals which, if the budget passes, will provide increases across all Scottish council budgets. Local authorities across Scotland are set to receive £11.6 billion, with £259 million having been added in one-off funding support for on-going Covid-19 pressures on local services. It has not been mentioned in the debate so far but, in addition, £90 million has been set aside to scrap rises in council tax and compensate local authorities that had planned to increase charges by up to 3 per cent—so allowing hard-pressed householders to keep more of their money to spend on other essentials.

It is important to note that, right now, under UK Government rules, Scotland cannot borrow money to respond to the pandemic, so we need the powers and fiscal flexibilities that are necessary to maintain and expand the tax base, raise devolved tax revenues and support the delivery of a green recovery. As the cabinet secretary has said previously, we are working with one hand tied behind our backs because of the lack of real control over our finances. If we were independent, we would have the same power to borrow as every other country across the globe and we could remain part of the European Union and, as I have mentioned, have access to the €750 billion recovery fund. However, because of Brexit, which we, in Scotland, did not vote for, we are now denied access to those vital funds.

The Scottish Government is—