As part of its inquiry on pre-budget scrutiny for 2025-26, the Committee wrote to relevant stakeholders inviting responses to the following questions:

Financial sustainability of Scotland’s local authorities

• What are the main challenges facing local government finance over the next five years?
• Have councils assessed how much revenue funding they need from the Scottish Government in 2025-26 to deliver their statutory and discretionary services to an adequate standard?
• Has the Verity House Agreement impacted on the financial sustainability of local government since it was signed last June and if so, how?
• What would you like to see in the forthcoming fiscal framework to help improve financial sustainability?
• Is there a risk that Scottish local authorities might face similar financial difficulties to those faced by some English councils such as Nottingham, Croydon, Thurrock and Slough? If so, how can this risk best be mitigated?

Capital funding

• Do councils have enough capital funding to provide and maintain the infrastructure communities expect?
• What level of capital grants do local authorities need in 2025-26 to ensure their capital priorities and pre-existing commitments are met?
• How have local authority debt and reserves levels changed over the past ten years?
• Why are councils borrowing more now and how will this impact resource budgets in future years?
• Why have reserve levels changed over recent years?
• What criteria and definitions are used to determine whether reserves are “committed” of “uncommitted”?

Impacts of capital spending decisions on communities

• In a time of restricted capital resources, how do councils prioritise their capital spending?
• What impacts have recent capital spending decisions had on various service users and communities?
• How do councils involve service users in their capital spending decisions?
• How do councils communicate the likely impacts of capital spending decisions to their communities?

The call for views closed on Friday 23 August 2024.

You can read the responses in the Correspondence section.