What lies ahead for Scottish local government?
With the dust now settled on the Scottish Parliament election, the thoughts of those of us in local government have turned to what type of relationship we are going to have with the ‘new’ Government and to next year’s Council elections.
I say new Government, but with exception of a few new ministers, it very much the same Government led by the same First Minister. Even the most optimistic of Labour Councillors didn’t expect a different outcome from the election.
It is fair to say that the relationship between local government and successive SNP Governments since 2007 has not been an easy one. I don’t expect this one to be any different, particularly since John Swinney has been a central figure in all the previous Governments.
The First Minister seeks to give the impression that he respects the role of local government, but when we stand our ground on contentious policy issues, he has regularly resorted to the threat of financial penalties to force us into acquiescing. I don’t see that changing.
Our relationship with some of his cabinet secretaries has been uneasy too. There can’t have been too many Council Leaders jumping for joy when they heard Jenny Gilruth had taken on Finance and Local Government.
One of the legacy issues we are dealing with from the previous Government is Ms Gilruth’s deal with the EIS on reduced class contact time for teachers. While this may have avoided strikes in the run up to the election, it has left a huge bill of up to £300m to be met at a time when we are told there is a £5billion black hole in the public finances.
Another legacy issue is social care. The national care service may have been abandoned but the crisis in care hasn’t gone away. As a country we are still trying to deliver care on the cheap via low paid workers. Would the £300m for reduced class contact time for teachers not been better spent on improving the quality of social care?
Then of course, there is the Council Tax. Successive SNP Governments, including the previous one, have kicked the can down the road for far too long.
Will this new Government, led by the architect of the Council Tax freeze, finally deliver the long-awaited fundamental reform or replacement?
John Swinney doesn’t have any excuses this time. His allies in the Scottish Greens have said they will work with him to deliver a replacement for Council Tax, giving him a parliamentary majority. Will he use it?
The big unknown is what the Government actually means by public service reform. The fear for local government is that this will lead to yet more centralisation and cuts to jobs and services rather than greater influence.
Council Leaders in Scotland currently watch on with envy at the powers devolved to the English City Regions. We firmly believe that to get the Scottish economy growing so that it can deliver the increased tax income we need to fund public services, local government needs to be empowered to drive forward our regional economies.
There is much trepidation in local government following the recent election at the very real prospect that Reform UK will have a significant presence in every Council in Scotland following next year’s Council elections. You only need to look to England to realise why.
This could force national parties in Scotland to reconsider their stances on coalitions, which prevented councillors at a local level from forming stable governing arrangements after the last Council elections in 2022.
In 2024 the independent Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) recommended to the Scottish Government that they should bring in a severance scheme for councillors modelled on the one for MSPs. The Government kicked this into the long grass until after the Scottish Parliament election.
Discussions have started again with the prospect that some sort of scheme could be in place before next year’s election.
This could lead to a haemorrhage of experienced councillors from local government, fearful at losing their seat to Reform or of the prospect of Reform bringing chaos to their council.
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The next 12 months will not be dull in Scottish local government.
Stephen McCabe is a Labour councillor.