The Scottish Conservatives have today called on the SNP to reverse “devastating” local Government funding cuts.
The party used one of their business slots in Parliament to call for the SNP to abandon the real-terms funding cut in their 2022-23 Budget, which would see local councils facing a £371million shortfall.
Shadow Local Government Secretary Miles Briggs MSP said that the SNP Government was “passing the buck” to local councils, by leaving them with an impossible choice between delivering essential services on the cheap or implementing steep Council Tax hikes.
The Scottish Conservatives also outlined their own plans to bring forward a Bill guaranteeing fair funding for local councils in law, by ensuring a fixed percentage of the Scottish Budget is automatically passed on to local authorities each year.
Miles Briggs described the proposed Bill as the only way to tackle the SNP’s “systematic underfunding” of local councils.
Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Local Government Miles Briggs MSP, said: “Despite receiving record funding from the UK Government this year, the SNP has failed to deliver for local councils and essential services.
“The SNP has underfunded Scotland’s local Government for years, and councils can no longer cope with these devastating cuts.
“Instead of providing the fair and adequate funding we have called for, the SNP has once again passed the buck to local councils. They now face an awful choice between scaling back essential services or imposing swingeing Council Tax rises on hard-pressed residents.
“The Scottish Conservatives now intend to bring forward a Bill to enshrine fair local Government funding in law, as the only way to finally put an end to the SNP’s systematic underfunding.
“We are only a few months away from crucial local elections and there is now a clear choice for voters; further cuts to local services under the SNP-Green coalition or a fair alternative with the Scottish Conservatives, who support local councils and the essential public services they deliver.”
Notes:
COSLA has identified a real-terms funding cut of £371million in the Scottish Government’s 2022-23 Budget (link).