Meeting of the Parliament 18 March 2026 [Draft]
Many of those joint priorities, whether on tackling child poverty or providing childcare, are important to the people of Scotland. Those are important priorities that local government shares with the Scottish Government.
As a consequence of the budget, Scottish local authorities have an additional £522.4 million of funding that would not have been available had the Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill not been agreed to by the Parliament. As I said earlier, it is for local authorities to decide how to spend that money, in addition to the council tax revenues that are raised locally. We are in discussions with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and are keen to work with local government to explore imaginative ways to increase investment—whether for local roads or other priorities—given the reduced capital that is available from the UK Government. Those discussions continue.