Meeting of the Parliament 01 March 2023 [Draft]
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 or this Parliament alone; it is about reaching consensus and agreement with local government and communities, through a deliberative process. Mr Cole-Hamilton might think that the job of the Parliament is to impose a form of local taxation on local government, but we respect local government and will work with it in partnership to ensure that we deliver a kind of reform for which there is consensus.
Mr Briggs touched on the issue of Ukraine. I agree whole-heartedly with him that Russia’s illegal and barbaric invasion has had a significant impact on not only the Scottish and UK economy but the global economy. I recognise that other members take that view, too. However, I note that, when my colleague Jenny Gilruth was highlighting the need for the reconsideration of timetables around the dualling of the arterial trunk roads—clearly a major capital project—and cited the war in Ukraine as one of a range of reasons for that, one of Mr Briggs’s colleagues said that she had a nerve to blame Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. It is important that, if we are going to be adducing the invasion of Ukraine and the impact that it has had on the global economy as a consideration in relation to the UK Government’s funding of the Scottish Government, which has knock-on effects for our capacity to fund public services in Scotland, we have to apply that approach with some consistency.
We are in straitened financial circumstances. We have seen inflation at rates that are certainly unprecedented in my lifetime. This is not an ideal circumstance in which to be delivering a budget, but we have set out key priorities around the just transition to net zero, sustainable public services and the eradication of child poverty. What this local government finance settlement does is provide a real-terms increase to local government for the next financial year. However, I reiterate the point that I have made to Alex Cole-Hamilton and others: if there is a desire for a significant and strategic shift in the Scottish budget to significantly increase the resources that are available to local government, it is incumbent on members to identify where that resource should come from. We can go round in circles every year in these debates, but unless there is a willingness to engage—