Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 01 March 2023 [Draft]
01 Mar 2023 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2023
I appreciate the impact of the timing of the allocation from the UK Government, but this is a recurring theme. It is a pattern every year in local government budgets: the Government comes to the chamber, tells members that there is no more money left, asks us to identify cuts and, at the very last minute, announces extra money from the back of the sofa or out of a hat. That is treating local council colleagues with contempt.
We will vote for the order to allow councils to get the money that has been allocated to them, but it is clear that it will result in more pain and misery for local communities.
15:09In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Liam McArthur)
LD
The next item of business is a debate on motion S6M-08007, in the name of Tom Arthur, on the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2023. 14:51
The Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth (Tom Arthur)
SNP
Today’s debate on the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2023 seeks Parliament’s approval for the guaranteed allocations of revenue funding to individ...
Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Con)
Con
Across the world, Governments are meeting, as we are today, to discuss and approve budgets. I was disappointed that the minister did not touch on what has de...
Mark Griffin (Central Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
We will not oppose the order today, because we know that it is necessary to get funding allocated to councils. However, as we indicated during stages 1 and 3...
Tom Arthur
SNP
Will Mark Griffin give way?
The Deputy Presiding Officer
LD
Please be as brief as possible, minister.
Tom Arthur
SNP
I recognise that the timing can sometimes be suboptimal, to put it mildly, but does Mark Griffin recognise that, ultimately, we have to operate in the wider ...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
LD
You should be winding up now, Mr Griffin.
Mark Griffin
Lab
I appreciate the impact of the timing of the allocation from the UK Government, but this is a recurring theme. It is a pattern every year in local government...
Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (LD)
LD
I apologise to members for my late arrival. I was caught up in a broadcast interview that overran. The tone of Tom Arthur’s remarks is striking. It is compl...
Tom Arthur
SNP
What I am inferring—and what I think the member is implying—is that there has to be strategic realignment of funding priorities in Government to give local g...
Alex Cole-Hamilton
LD
I told you exactly where I would take that money from; for a start, I would get rid of the vast and unnecessary bureaucracy that is the ministerial takeover ...
Tom Arthur
SNP
I thank colleagues for their contributions. On Alex Cole-Hamilton’s final remark, I appreciate that he might disagree with the distribution and the allocatio...
Alex Cole-Hamilton
LD
If I have misrepresented the minister, I apologise. Will he clarify for the chamber—I will correct the record if this is the case—whether council tax will be...
Tom Arthur
SNP
If the member had listened to what I was saying before he intervened, he would understand that the pace of council tax reform is not a matter for Government ...
Miles Briggs
Con
Will the member take an intervention?
Tom Arthur
SNP
I am afraid that I am out of time, Mr Briggs. I am happy to have those conversations, but they have to be serious, grown-up conversations. If we are talking...