Chamber and committees

COSLA talked last year about the lack of fiscal empowerment of local government, reduced core budget funding and too much ring fencing. I wonder whether the witnesses recognise that situation and the impact that it has on the delivery of local priorities. Are we essentially moving to a system where councils can afford to deliver only their statutory functions and what they have been given ring-fenced funding to do, without any consideration of local priorities? I will come to Councillor Jardine first, as he touched on that in earlier answers.

Thanks for that. I just?

Thank you for that clarification.

I will move on to another area. The programme for government 2021-22 confirmed that the Government would introduce a local democracy bill in this parliamentary session. What would COSLA and SOLACE like to be included in that?

I have one final question, which is on local government taxation. The Scottish Government partnership agreement between the SNP and the Greens committed to establishing a working group to deliberate on the form that local government taxation could take. Are there any updates from COSLA and SOLACE on how talks on local government taxation are progressing?

I have one more brief question about the multiyear nature of this year’s resource capital spending review. Has that given any certainty to local authorities on financial and workforce planning? Does anyone have any views on multiyear plans?

Okay. I appreciate that.

The percentage of respondents who self-identified as coming from a working-class background was 11 per cent. That seems low, considering the figure for the general population. What classifications were used? How were those from a working-class background defined and identified?

Thank you.

I will carry on the line of questioning about additional powers. If you had the power to carry out, say, a public value investigation, would there be any crossover between your work and that of the Auditor General for Scotland?

That would be helpful—thank you.

Okay. You talked about the difficulty with the budget never being enough, taking on extra responsibilities, child-friendly complaints and a national whistleblowing office. What burden would any new powers or responsibilities—whether they related to public value investigations or taking complaints in any form—put on your office’s budget? What additional budget would be required to fulfil those potential new powers?