Last night’s Policy and Resources
Committee considered the local government financial settlement for 2016/2017
and the financial implications for the city council.
I supported an amendment that
would have resulted in the chief executive writing to the deputy first minister
to express concern at the funding allocations for 2016/17 and requesting that
he review the position with a view to increasing local government revenue and capital
funding allocations.
The report in front of the committee
from the council’s director of corporate services noted that the Scottish budget
shows that for 2016/17 the year-on-year cash increase is £0.5 billion (1.7%),
which represents a standstill budget in real terms, yet the local government grant
settlement for 2016/17 reflects an overall cash cut at national level of £350
million or 3.5% and for Dundee City Council this means that to achieve a balanced
budget, £23 million of savings need to be identified. It is clear that the SNP run
government is underfunding local government.
Interestingly, an amendment which
was tabled by the Labour Group but not selected by the SNP convenor for consideration
expressed concern about the impact on services and made the point that: ‘this is all because of policy choices from Scottish
Government and not as a result of cuts from Westminster’.
There are always efficiencies
that can be made and better ways of delivering services that generate a saving without
impacting negatively on service users, but the scale of the saving that has to
be made by the council in a single year is monumental.
The SNP mantra of blaming Westminster
for cuts no longer stands up to scrutiny. If the Scottish Government is not
satisfied with the outcome of the Westminster spending review it now has the
ability to increase the resources available to it by levying additional taxes
but the SNP chose not to. Some councillors argued last night for an increase in
taxation but I don't support that view as I don’t think people living in Scotland
should pay higher taxes than those living elsewhere in the UK. The Scottish Government
ought to be able to properly fund local government from its existing resources.
