Meeting of the Parliament 19 February 2026 [Draft]
That is exactly what he said. I think that COSLA would have something to say about that.
Under the two existing formulas, the additional cost of providing services in rural and remote areas is a key component in determining funding allocations. In the 2026-27 provisional settlement, Aberdeenshire Council will receive more than £20 million in additional allocation based on rurality indicators, making it the authority with the sixth-highest such allocation per person.
I will turn to some of the members’ speeches. There was no change in the typical approach from Alexander Burnett, Tim Eagle and other Conservative members. On the one hand, they call for £1 billion in tax cuts—Alexander Burnett opened his speech with a comment about Scottish tax rates. At the same time, they argue for increased resources to be provided to public services. It fell to Maggie Chapman to give the Tories a lesson in basic arithmetic and economics, and I am glad that she did. That shows the state that the Conservative Party is in. Given that it has no chance of being in a position to make decisions in Government, it has the luxury of being able to call for contradictory things in debates.
Karen Adam clearly laid out the reality of the situation at the national and local levels. In that regard, we were entertained by a bit of a dispute between Opposition parties on the position of seagulls—that was a piece of brief entertainment in the debate that broke up the monotony of the hypocrisy from the Tory party. [Interruption.] I already answered Liam Kerr’s question—perhaps he was not listening, or perhaps he was too excited about the speech that he made.
With regard to non-domestic rates, in Aberdeen city, the total increase in rateable value is 7 per cent compared with a total increase of 12 per cent across Scotland. The Scottish Government is putting £870 million into reliefs this year to support business with those increases. Rather than being in the situation that was indicated by Liam Kerr earlier, we are giving the hospitality sector more support in percentage terms than it is getting south of the border.
As I outlined, the Government remains committed to ensuring that funding is distributed fairly and that it supports sustainable and high-quality services across Scotland, including in remote and rural communities. We will continue to work collaboratively with local authorities and NHS boards, and we will drive the reforms that are needed to improve outcomes for all our communities.