Chamber and committees

I have another question, convener, but I do not know whether you want me to ask it at the end.

A Local Government Information Unit representative appeared before the committee last week, and he talked about the need for councils to have a “basket” of taxes and a range of income-raising measures.

I will ask all the witnesses for your views on tax-raising powers that you think should be devolved to local authorities. We have touched on the balance between local authority funding and an aspiration to go 50:50, but how does Scotland compare with comparator nations when it comes to the balance between funding raised locally and funding raised nationally for council services?

Another area of agreement between the Scottish Government and local government has been on the work to develop a fiscal framework. What is your understanding of the developments in that regard? Do you see that as something to be valued? Should we push for delivery of a fiscal framework?

I have mentioned the Verity house agreement and the work towards a fiscal framework that is being done here in Scotland, but is there anything in the upcoming English devolution bill that we should look to emulate when it comes to the relationship between central Government and local government in Scotland?

Jonathan Carr-West, you touched on the Verity house agreement earlier and in your submission, and you talked about the surprise council tax freeze demonstrating a failure of the principles of trust and respect. Here in Scotland, there is a lot of enthusiasm, particularly in local government, for the Verity house agreement. Can it be saved, progressed or turned into something meaningful that can be rescued in the eyes of local government?

Thank you. I had another question, but it has already been covered in previous responses.

Do councils have adequate capital funding to maintain and develop the community facilities and infrastructure that people expect? There is also the issue of the capital funding requirements that councils will need further down the line in order to meet our expectations with regard to housing and, in particular, net zero.

Good morning. The Improvement Service and SOLACE are working on six short-term local government transformation projects. Do you get updates on those six projects, and are any themes developing that might assist councils in bridging some of the expected budget gaps in the next year to 18 months in the projects that are to be delivered?

Good morning, cabinet secretary. You have previously touched on the impact on industrial relations in the local government workforce. COSLA has said:

“the timing of the response and related messaging has contributed to conflation between the SLARC recommendations and on-going pay negotiations for our workforce”.

What is your response to that? Have negotiations over local government staff pay been made any more difficult because this discussion has been going on at the same time?

Essentially, you will update a 2022 figure for a one-year increase, but you will appreciate that that will be applied in 2025, which is three years later than the 2022 data. What is the rationale on applying just a one-year uplift to figures that are three years out of date?