Chamber and committees

Our third panel of witnesses to discuss the local governance review this morning joins us in person. I welcome John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery; and, from the Scottish Government, Brian Logan, who is the local governance review policy manager, and Robin Haynes, who is head of the council tax unit.

I will start the questions. First, what is the Scottish Government’s understanding of how the local governance review has progressed since May’s election? When will the review conclude?

Local government has long been calling for a fiscal framework that could bring greater clarity, certainty and transparency to local government finance. It has been very encouraging that a fiscal framework is being developed by the Scottish Government and COSLA, but the notice of potential strike action by up to 200,000 council workers across Scotland emphasises that change is needed urgently. I ask the Deputy First Minister and Mr Haynes for a progress update on the fiscal framework. I would also welcome a reassurance that the framework will deliver new or enhanced revenue-raising powers for councils.

We have a question from Meghan Gallacher, who is joining us virtually.

We will move on to a couple of questions from Elena Whitham. Witnesses might be glad to hear that they are our final questions. Thank you so much for the in-depth answers that you have given so far.

Speaking about ring fencing, Councillor Evison said that her approach would be to try to agree outcomes, achieve a level of trust and move away from ring fencing. Will you comment on that?

Give it a go—I am sure that it will be fine.

I will pick up on the theme of workload issues. Assessors and valuation committees are facing 40,000-plus Covid-related MCC appeals at a time when they have limited capacity for processing appeals. Due to the pandemic, a smaller proportion of appeals have been resolved at this stage in the revaluation cycle compared with the previous cycle. While assessors try to catch up, they also need to spend time on the initial stages of the next valuation, which is due in 2023. If they were to grant many of the Covid-related MCC appeals, that would likely lead to further appeals being lodged, and successful appeals would need to be reviewed regularly as Covid legislation and guidance change. Given all that, is it feasible for assessors and valuation committees to assess coronavirus-related MCC appeals with the time and resources that they currently have?

Thank you for that.

I am sorry Willie, did you want to pick up on something?

A couple of folk want to come in but, in the interests of time, I will see whether Elena Whitham wants to ask any more questions.