- Accounts Commission report shows councils face “titanic gulf”
- Welsh Lib Dems Respond to Bevan Foundation Report on Impact of Disability Benefit Reforms on Wales
Accounts Commission report shows councils face “titanic gulf”
Responding to the embargoed Accounts Commission report into Scotland’s council finances, which warns that despite the average council tax rising by 9.6%, local government continues to face recurring pressures in excess of funding uplifts, with councils identifying a difference of £647 million between anticipated expenditure and the funding and income they receive, Scottish Liberal Democrat finance spokesperson Jamie Greene said:
Local authorities have had a raw deal from the SNP over many years and that has had a knock-on impact on the provision of vital local functions.
This report shows there is a titanic gulf between what the SNP have provided and what councils say they actually need to maintain basic local functions.
The SNP have demanded councils do more with less. As a result, we have ended up with school strikes, bin strikes and shortages of elderly care packages.
All the while people are seeing their council taxes rocket as councils desperately try to fill black holes in their finances.
Local government deserves long-term central government funding deals which adequately meet its needs and provide locally delivered public services. That is what people rightly expect.
Welsh Lib Dems Respond to Bevan Foundation Report on Impact of Disability Benefit Reforms on Wales
Responding to the publication of a report by the Bevan Foundation on the impact of disability benefit reforms on Wales, Welsh Liberal Democrat Westminster Spokesperson David Chadwick MP said:
The implications of this report are truly shocking. Unless Labour changes course, they will be pushing hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable people in Wales into further poverty. We already have some of the highest poverty rates in Western Europe here in Wales.
We have to bring the welfare bill down and support more people into work, but cutting support for someone who needs help getting dressed and washed in the morning isn’t just morally wrong; it does absolutely nothing to support that person into work.
If Labour really wanted to get more people into work in Wales, it would focus on tackling our sky-high NHS waiting lists, where people are left languishing for months and even years unable to get back to work.
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2 Comments
Increasing Council Tax by 9.6% makes little difference when the Council Tax funds just 20% of Councils’ net expenditure.
I would suggest that a worthwhile change would be to take education out of Council control and have it funded directly by the Scottish government. Since this accounts for well over half of Council expenditure, it would mean that the CouncilTax would be paying for almost 50% of net spending. This would mean that increasing the Council Tax would make more difference to Councils, it would remove wasteful duplication – like 32 Directors of Education – and would prevent a postcode lottery of education provision depending on which Council you live under. A win all round – let’s make it party policy for the 2026 elections.
No no no. After years of campaigning against centralising Police Scotland and then Social Care it would be politically bonkers to now campaign to centralised Education. There clearly needs to a re-balancing between central and local government but it needs to strengthen the ability of local Govt to be responsible and accountable for meeting local needs. Not handing even more to manifestly out of touch bureaucrats in Edinburgh.