Hansard

The Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2024, which is before Parliament today, seeks approval for the guaranteed payment of almost £12.8 billion in revenue support to Scotland’s 32 local authorities. Next year, the Scottish Government will provide local authorities with a total funding package that is worth more than £14 billion, delivering an increase of more than £574.6 million, or 4 per cent. That is a real-terms increase of 2.5 per cent despite the challenging circumstances that I outlined in my opening speech.

There is also further Scottish Government support of almost £629 million to be paid outwith the local government finance settlement. That includes the attainment Scotland fund, the schools for the future programme, the home energy efficiency programmes and the city deals funding that is paid to local authorities. That brings the Scottish Government’s total investment to almost £14.7 billion.

The settlement also provides continued fiscal certainty through our policy of guaranteeing the combined general revenue grant plus non-domestic rates funding, as is set out in the order. That means that any lost non-domestic rates income will be compensated for by an increased general revenue grant, thereby effectively underwriting that critically important revenue stream.

The Scottish Government will continue to work in partnership with COSLA to empower councils through a new fiscal framework and by increasing discretion to determine and set fees and charges locally in the coming year. We are also committed to finalising, in the coming months, an accountabilities and monitoring framework to underpin the Verity house agreement.

The Scottish Government is committed to a fairer, more inclusive and fiscally sustainable form of local taxation. We have convened a joint working group on council tax reform, which is co-chaired by Scottish ministers and COSLA. Together, we are exploring proposals for meaningful changes to council tax to be introduced. The joint working group is considering exploring a broad range of potential measures, including citizens’ engagement on long-term reforms to the system. Those reforms will have a core aim of providing fairness in the system and support to those who need it the most.

Bearing in mind that the overall quantum was confirmed when the Budget (Scotland) (No 3) Bill was agreed to, Opposition members should note that a failure to approve the order would result in Scotland’s local authorities and, as a consequence, all our communities being deprived of more than £403 million of additional funding in the current financial year and almost £575 million of additional Scottish Government investment next year.

I say to any member in the chamber who does not vote for the order that that means local authorities and local communities being deprived of more than £403 million of additional funding in this financial year and £575 million of additional Scottish Government investment next year.

I listened closely to Pam Gosal’s remarks earlier, and I will be checking the Official Report to see exactly what she said and what remarks and statements she is attributing to chief executives of local authorities. I think that that will make for very interesting reading in the Official Report.

As for Mr Griffin, I find it remarkable that, as his party’s local government spokesperson, he has no opinion whatsoever on whether the UK Government should be directly funding local authorities and on whether this Parliament’s role should simply be cut out—[Interruption.]

I am sorry, but it is a bit much for Mr Rennie to come to the chamber and start criticising austerity when his party was the midwife of austerity and given the cuts that it has inflicted on communities across these islands and the butchery of public services. I wonder whether he now thinks that the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 and the alternative vote referendum made it all worthwhile. What a shameful contribution from Mr Rennie.

The order provides additional funding for local government this year and next year, and I urge members to back it at decision time.