Chamber and committees

Thank you very much. That will help us in considering what questions we direct to you. We will try to direct questions to one or other of you initially, but if you would like to come in, type R in the chat function and the clerks can let me know and I will bring you in. We have about 90 minutes for this discussion.

The point of the session is to understand what has happened to some English local authorities and to hear about the lessons learned as regards financial sustainability for Scotland.

Jonathan Carr-West, are the drivers of financial weakness that have been identified for Scotland similar to those for councils in England and Wales, and are there differences between the Scottish and English local government finance environments that could impact on financial sustainability?

Thank you for that.

I want to continue on the differences between Scotland and England. I will start with Jonathan Carr-West, then Abdool Kara can come in. The lack of a general power of competence for Scottish councils is often cited as a weakness, and we have had a number of councillors in the room saying that giving councils in Scotland such a power would be a helpful next step with regard to raising revenue.

However, the LGIU has stated that the current position might be a reason why Scottish local authorities are not exposed to commercial risk. I am interested to hear—from you initially, Jonathan—what the benefits are in having a general power of competence, and whether they outweigh the risks.

Abdool Kara, do you have any inspiration on what could be in the basket of measures?

I will dig into that a little, while being mindful not to get too much into the weeds and the detail. Both of you have talked about reducing demand, and Abdool Kara identified three particular issues in England. Where should we start in reducing demand? It is difficult. How do we begin to do that? Which aspect should we start with?

You might not have anything further to add, but I want to point out that we talk about net zero with regard to emissions reduction, but we also have the situation in which many councils that are coastal—and even those that are not coastal—are facing flooding and that kind of thing, which is more about the climate adaptation part of the net zero mix that councils need to address. Do you look at that?

We are now joined online by our second panel this morning: Dr Jonathan Carr-West is chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit, otherwise known as LGIU; and Abdool Kara is executive director at the National Audit Office. I welcome the witnesses to our meeting, and I invite Jonathan and Abdool to begin by making brief opening statements. We will start with Jonathan.

Thank you very much. I will bring in Willie Coffey.

Good morning and welcome to the 25th meeting in 2024 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I remind all members and witnesses to ensure that their devices are on silent. Fulton McGregor MSP joins us online.

The first item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items 3 and 4 in private. Do members agree?

Members indicated agreement.

Thanks very much. We will direct our questions to initially to Jo Armstrong, and you can bring others in. If anyone wants to come in, please indicate that to the clerks. As usual, there is no need to turn your microphones on and off; we will do that for you. We have about 90 minutes for this discussion.

I have a big-picture question. In your opening statement you said that local authorities must engage with local communities. How could the forthcoming budget process and local government settlement do more to empower local democracy and ensure that communities get the services that they need?

There is certainly something in that. We have been hearing a lot about the need for data that is joined up across local authorities. For example, in housing, that could be data on how houses are built, where people are living and all kinds of other things. That is just one area that we hear about. There are also issues in planning. That could be part of the transformation.