Meeting of the Parliament 10 March 2020
I am keen to make some progress.
The 2020-21 settlement from the Scottish Government provides local government with an increase in spending for local revenue services of £589 million, or 5.8 per cent. Taken together with the potential to raise council tax income, that means that councils had access to up to a total increase in spending power of £724 million, or 7.2 per cent, to support local authority services.
All local authorities have now set their council tax levels for next year. It should be noted that, had all councils taken up the opportunity to increase council tax revenue by 3 per cent in real terms, a further £8.3 million would have been available for local services. It is clear that those councils that have not taken up their full council tax flexibility consider that they have a fair settlement.
There remains a further £51.9 million of revenue funding that will be distributed once the necessary information becomes available, and that funding will be included for approval in the 2021 order. The amounts involved, which were agreed with local government, are as follows: £37.6 million in respect of the 2020-21 teachers induction scheme; £11.9 million in respect of the balance of the discretionary housing payments; £0.5 million in respect of mental health school counselling services; £0.4 million in respect of implementing the Barclay review of non-domestic rates; and £1.4 million in respect of the customer first top-up.
In addition to the revenue funding that is contained in today’s order, there is specific revenue funding that is paid directly by the relevant policy areas under separate legislation, which amounts to £709.7 million. That includes £120 million of pupil equity funding, £86.5 million for criminal justice social work funding, £487.3 million of funding for early years expansion, £11.5 million of additional support for northern ferries and £4.4 million of Gaelic funding.
The order also seeks approval for changes to funding allocations for 2019-20 of £327.3 million, which have been added to fund a number of agreed spending commitments. The full list of changes, which can be found in the report to the 2020 order, include the provision of £141 million for teachers’ pay; £60.1 million for teachers’ pensions; £37.5 million to support the 2019-20 teachers induction scheme; £29.5 million for free personal care for the under-65s; £15 million for additional support for learning; £12 million to provide counselling services in schools; and £2.1 million to allow free access to sanitary products in our schools.
In summary, the total funding from the Scottish Government to local government next year amounts to £11.4 billion. The funding proposals continue to deliver a fair financial settlement for our partners in local government, which will be strengthened by continued joint working to improve outcomes through first-class public services.
I move,
That the Parliament agrees that the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2020 [draft] be approved.
15:28