Chamber and committees

Good morning. It is the Mercat group’s view that the Scottish Government’s decision to freeze council tax had an impact on the financial sustainability of councils. I ask the witnesses to explain that statement. Local authority executives expressed concerns to me—I have met with 31 councils—that the freeze pushed their budgets to the limit. What would be the impact on local government finances if a similar policy were to be pursued next year?

I thank the witnesses for their responses. I have one more question. Last week, the Local Government Information Unit told us that ring fencing is a particular issue for Scottish local government. Should the Scottish Government continue with ring fencing in this year’s local government settlement?

Abdool Kara, I will touch on pay in England. Last week, we had evidence that councillor pay can be a barrier in Scotland, especially to ethnic minorities, women and people who have a disability. That means that they cannot be councillors and that we, unfortunately, sometimes do not have representation from all backgrounds.

Is there anything in England that can help? Should councillor pay be agreed yearly, three yearly or five yearly? Are you able to give us an example that we can work from? I mean a good example, obviously.

Last week, the committee took evidence about the fact that lower pay for councillors is a barrier to many people, including people from ethnic minorities, disabled people and women. Budgets are tight, so how do we balance high levels of public service and adequate council pay? Do you have a view on that, Jo Armstrong?

Good morning. Every year, we see local government and central Government scrabble to find enough money to meet the pay demands of the local government workforce. Given that employment costs are around 70 per cent of local authority revenue budgets, how can pay deals be managed more sustainably and strategically?

Does the rise of £1 billion in council debt between 2021-22 and 2022-23 give rise to sustainability concerns for council finances? At what point does council borrowing become a problem?

Good morning. Dr Carr-West, from the survey that you carried out with local authorities, you mentioned that the picture in Scotland is very bleak on local government finances. Could you suggest any possible next steps to improve the financial sustainability of councils in Scotland? How can potential financial risks be mitigated?

It would be great to hear from Abdool, too, about any experience that he has seen somewhere else.

Can I just probe a bit more into that? Obviously, you have seen how councils in England work; in a past life, I worked with local authorities in England. Have you seen any good practice in relation to shared resources, such as software systems? My colleague Miles Briggs mentioned the sharing of bin services. I do not know whether local enterprise partnerships are still around, but they worked together—in the southeast and other areas—to look at where savings could be made and how development and services could be better delivered. Do you have any good practice examples of councils having saved money by sharing resources and working together?

Dr Carr-West mentioned that, in the survey that you carried out with local authorities, councils highlighted workforce challenges. How can pay deals be managed more sustainably and strategically, given that employment costs form around 70 per cent of the employment budget?

Thank you.