Meeting of the Parliament 27 February 2025
I love Ross Greer’s eternal optimism about the reform of local government finance. He and I have sat through numerous working groups and consultations where absolutely nothing has happened but there has been lots of talk. I hope that one day I will share his optimism and that we will get a true reform of the system, because it is outdated—there is no doubt about that.
The minister knows that local governments have, for many years, been starved of necessary funding. He will see that in his constituency casework and in his local community. Local governments have been retreating to their statutory responsibilities. The spend-to-save element and preventative measures are increasingly put to the side as they try to meet their legal obligations, but even then they struggle to do so. We see that in relation to additional support needs, looked-after children and care-experienced children and in many other areas.
We also see it on our streets. Look at the state of Glasgow. My son is now a student in Glasgow and I see the state of Glasgow’s streets. I see the closure of libraries across the country and leisure facilities that are in desperate need of investment, with many closing, including in Perth. There are a number of different problems. The minister sees all of them.
The issue that I will raise is the age-old problem of the disparity in funding between one local authority and the next. Some councils, such as Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council and City of Edinburgh Council, have struggled for years to even reach the 85 per cent threshold that the Government promised years ago, back in 2012. When John Swinney was finance secretary, he and I had repeated discussions about that, and he went through various contortions to explain to me that the 85 per cent floor was being met when it was not. In fact, the formula was changed to include council tax and then the councils that received the most were chopped, so of course, the 85 per cent floor was possible after all of that. However, the effect is that Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and some other councils are being short-changed by the formula. I urge the finance secretary to use his charm and skill to persuade those in the Government and in COSLA to change the formula so that we have fairness in the system.