West Lothian Council is to write to the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Holyrood finance secretary demanding more money for the new five-year term.
It follows earlier announcements from the Scottish Government that it would freeze funding for all councils until the 2026 to 2027 financial year when an extra £100 million will be shared out among all 32 councils.
The freeze - maintaining all local authority funding at its current levels despite surging inflation and increasing costs - will severely damage the council’s ability to maintain services, said the council’s finance director, Donald Forrest.
In West Lothian, the council has had to trim £150 million from its spending since 2007 to balance its budget- something it is legally required to do. Mr Forrest told a meeting of the council’s Executive that the council faced a new five year term with a gap currently estimated at £38.4 million.
Mr Forrest said: “Since the financial crash in 2008, the economic outlook facing local government and public services more generally, has been constrained, difficult to forecast and impacted by the UK leaving the European Union, the Covid-19 pandemic and the current ongoing cost of living crisis.”
Council leader, Lawrence Fitzpatrick proposed a motion that “instructs the chief executive to write a letter to the First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy seeking an improved settlement for local government.”
He told the meeting: “I am very concerned. There are massive increasing costs in delivering our services. The Fraser of Allander Institute estimates that the Scottish Spending Review will see local government budgets decline by seven per cent in real terms between 2022 to 2023 and 2026 to 2027.
“Either the Cabinet Secretary is correct on this issue or 32 local government directors of Finance are correct. I leave members to make up their own minds.
“There is a disdain for the local authority sector that I for one cannot understand.”
An amendment by depute SNP group leader Robert de Bold noted: “that because of cost pressure due to Westminster austerity that the Scottish Government has needed to prioritise funding of many core government services.” He said the “buck stopped at Westminster.”
Tory group leader Councillor Damian Doran-Timson said there had been a real terms cash increase in funding to the Scottish Government which had not been passed on to local authorities and accused the SNP councillors of trying to con their supporters.
“Stop trying to defend the indefensible,” he added.
Councillor Pauline Clark for the SNP said Labour, the Conservatives and others are asking for money from a non-existent money tree. She added that the Westminster Government had ruined the economies of the four nations since 2008 and was doing nothing to help them recover.
She added that English councils faced the same dire finances: “We would all like to see our local authorities funded better but the money available to us is restricted.”
Lib Dem councillor Sally Pattle said that the SNP government had pursued policies of centralising power, which had failed the country at every single turn.
She added: “The de-funding and de-valuing of local democracy is something that I am increasingly concerned about and I hope that West Lothian Council will continue to challenge that.”
Labour’s Andrew McGuire said the Scottish Government had deliberately run services down to make voters believe that independence is the only way forward.
SNP councillors should hang their heads in shame, he added.
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