Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 23 March 2021
First, I acknowledge and congratulate Andy Wightman on introducing this member’s bill and getting it to this stage. I hope that it will be passed today. I also acknowledge the role of the cabinet secretary and the Government in working with Mr Wightman. I know that the Government has worked with the members on the two members’ bills that we are considering today to ensure that we get the legislation through, which is good.
The bill is important, because it places a duty on the Scottish Government to act compatibly with the charter and to promote local self-government. If enacted, it should protect councils from centralisation and unfair cuts or central control over their finances. I listened to Keith Brown earlier, and I think that he needs to come out of denial. The fact is that we have seen a centralisation under different political parties since the establishment of the Parliament, which is not right. We need to consider how to get power further down, rather than centralising it. Mr Brown should wake up to the fact that every party that has had power here has tended to centralise local government.
Scottish Labour fully supports the bill. Power has been centralised in Edinburgh for far too long and the incorporation of the charter will lead to a reinvigoration of the role of local government in Scottish public life. I also noticed the comments from Annie Wells, and the example that she gave about the centralisation of planning was a poor one. With the Planning (Scotland) Bill, the Tories had the opportunity to give more power to the people and they voted against it, so there is no point in their coming here today and pretending that they are suddenly interested in giving communities planning powers or a greater say in planning.
There has been a creeping dilution of the power of local authorities over the past half century, which means that decisions on services that affect people’s daily lives—on things such as housing, planning, economic development, education, caring for people, water and sewage, and environmental protection—are taken further and further away from locally elected people. Councils have become administrators of central Government policy rather than drivers of local initiatives. I was lucky enough and proud to be elected as a local councillor, and I know from my years of experience in local government that that is the area in which you can make such a big difference, when you have the resources and engage with local communities. That is true across Scotland’s 32 local authorities—you can find good and best practice in every one.
If we want to tackle poverty and some of the social ills in our community, we will not do so simply by bringing in policy here; we will do so by empowering local authorities to do their job and by encouraging local officials in councils to be innovative, consider the issues on the ground and come up with local solutions to local problems. If we are serious about tackling the big issues in communities across Scotland, we cannot do it from this Parliament alone, but we can do so by empowering local government. Labour will support the bill, which is a welcome step on the way to empowering local authorities.
17:30