Chamber and committees

That was a detailed and helpful answer. Do you think that there is any correlation between councils’ higher net debt levels and their central Government funding levels? Has that been explored? I note that my council—the City of Edinburgh Council—and Aberdeen City Council are the two lowest funded.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I will ask about local authority net debt, which we know increased by £0.2 billion to £16.4 billion in the financial year 2021-22. Why did that happen? Is there variation in councils around the additional debt level? With regard to public-private partnership agreements specifically, are you aware of any variations that are impacting on debt levels in different councils?

I have one final question. We had the integration of health and social care, the pandemic and now we have what the Government is proposing with the national care service. I know from speaking to councillors from all parties that that has created an environment in which they are not able to look at what has been, what currently is and what they want in the future. Do you think that that is preventing innovation and the capturing of different models that have been successful during the pandemic? Are we preventing those from being embedded now, as we pause while we wait to see what the Parliament will present to councils?

Looking back to the historic concordat, which the Government used to talk about, is there a model that we have already tried—it has been about freezing council tax previously, rather than about councils raising more income—that could be picked up and which councils have previously signed up to that would work to provide the flexibility at local level that everyone is telling us they want, but which also includes national accountability around outcomes?

Yes. We have heard about that previously.

I am not going to rehearse the arguments made in the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee about the funding that the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities highlighted concerns about, but there is concern about where homelessness could be lost in translation as a result of services being funded through joint partnerships. The Government is proposing to introduce homelessness prevention legislation and homelessness-specific funding. How will the cabinet secretary ensure that that funding will go towards delivering on those priorities at the local level?

Good morning to you, cabinet secretary, and your officials.

In its submission to the committee, Shelter said:

“Freezing funding for homelessness services and cutting funding for the delivery of new social homes is not in line with the Scottish Government’s international obligations to progressive realisation of rights.”

How do you respond to that?

I have raised the issue of temporary accommodation consistently with you, and you are right to point out that those recommendations are due shortly. That is likely to be after the budget is passed in Parliament, so will additional funding then be made available specifically for that and any policy changes that I hope will be brought forward?

Further to the answers that you have given to Willie Coffey and Paul McLennan, COSLA has outlined its concerns about where the national care service currently sits. With all the budget pressures that you have outlined, there is an opportunity to pause to look at the national care service, to allocate the resources attached to it now to local government so that the funding goes to the front line now when it is not being otherwise used, and to look again at what is happening with the policy.

That is helpful.

I have raised with you in the chamber the issue of auditing potentially available land, especially with regard to public sector bodies. The national health service has a significant estate that could be allocated for this use. Some organisations are doing that, but what plans are there in Government to carry out an audit and then ask public sector bodies to allow allotments to be developed? At the minute, there seems to be a bit of a closed-gate situation for many people who have come to me, especially here in the capital, having tried to access land that is owned by public bodies.