Falkirk Council is in a challenging financial position. We understand that position. Falkirk Labour Group has agonised over what we should do today. We have not come to our decision lightly. The process has been politically challenging, and emotionally draining, and it is with heavy hearts we make our stand today. We cannot support the Administration’s proposals, and we have not put forward an alternative budget. The painful choices we had were:
- To support the SNP cuts proposals, or
- To put forward Labour cuts proposals or
- To put forward no alternative budget and vote against the SNP proposals
None of the Labour Group asked voters to elect us to deliver cuts. We said we would do our best to promote the interests of the people of the Falkirk Council area. We did not say we would cut services and close facilities, raise rents, raise the council tax, or raise fees and charges. Nobody likes raising taxes. Nobody wants to cut services. We said that we would do our best to protect and improve local services. We have been trying to do that for the past 9 months and we are trying to do that here today.
No Alternative Budget – The Scottish Government is to Blame
In the 1940s Beveridge brought forward proposals to provide security “from the cradle to the grave”. Over the past 9 months the SNP Administration has brought forward proposals to implement cuts in services from the cradle to the grave. I have been horrified to face proposals to close 133 Council properties, reduce home to school transport, increase waste service charges, and close school swimming pools. Almost every Executive and Council meeting has had a proposal for cuts, closures, increased charges and other decisions to the detriment to the people of the Falkirk Council area. I understand that the Council is in a serious financial position. I understand that the Administration has to agree a balanced budget. But the reason the Council has an eye-watering budget gap is that the Scottish Government has reduced funding to local government every year since 2007. The Scottish Government froze Council Tax or restricted how much the Council could raise in Council Tax from 2007 until 2021.
I do not envy the position the SNP Administration is in. As a result of the underfunding by the Scottish Government, the Administration has brought forward proposals for one cut after another – community centres, swimming pools, leisure facilities, waste services, support for employment, town centre Christmas lights and Christmas trees. This budget today is built on a series of cuts debated and agreed by the SNP and Conservative parties over the last 9 months. This budget adds further cuts today, and brings forward proposals to remortgage our schools in order to balance the books. If Labour supported this budget we would be accepting the cuts that we have tried to resist over the past 9 months. We cannot in all conscience do that. If Labour put forward an alternative budget we would be accepting cuts that we have voted against in debate after debate. We cannot in all conscience do that.
I might have more sympathy for the Administration if it had challenged the Scottish Government, if it had been willing to stand up to the Holyrood Government and say enough is enough. The Administration, with the support of the Conservatives, is grasping the lifeline of the Service Concessions as if it was a positive offer from the Scottish Government. There is nothing positive about remortgaging our schools to borrow enough money to enable the Council to keep essential services running and keep essential staff in post. The Administration said nothing about the Council Tax freeze which cost Falkirk Council £4 million per year in income. The Administration should have said enough is enough.
COSLA, the body which represents all 32 Scottish councils (15 with SNP in the Administration), estimates that over one billion pounds of funding that should have come to local government has gone towards national priorities. COSLA has said enough is enough.
That is what the Labour Group is saying too. We are saying enough is enough. We will not "go gentle into that good night" but rather we will "rage, rage against the dying of the light." Or in this case we will rage, rage against the cuts in services and facilities being proposed, against plucking out the heart of our communities.
Falkirk Labour has not made up the figures showing the cuts in funding. The Audit Commission identified the problem. In their Local Government Overview Report of 2020/21 they showed that Scottish Government funding to Councils fell in real terms by 4.2% between 2013/14 and 2020/21. Minus 4.2% when inflation has been in double figures. Minus 4.2% as energy prices for our communities and for our services have risen inexorably. Minus 4.2% as we have been clawing our way out of the Covid hole. Local government in Scotland: Financial overview 2020/21 | Audit Scotland (audit-scotland.gov.uk). Publishing the document the Audit Commission said:
"Such a reduction in both funding and income would be challenging enough in ‘ordinary’ times, but the impacts of Covid-19 have been both unequal and severely detrimental to many in our communities. And it has hit the hardest those already most disadvantaged. This convergence of circumstances has presented councils with complex and urgent challenges……."
Not only has the Scottish Government reduced funding for Local Government, it has also increasingly ring fenced what the Council can choose to spend that funding on.
If the Falkirk Labour Group supported this SNP Administration Budget, we would be accepting the unfair and inadequate financial provisions made by the Scottish Government. We cannot in all conscience do that. If we were to bring forward an alternative budget, we would be accepting the unfair and inadequate financial provisions made by the Scottish Government. We cannot in all conscience do that.
The Administration tries to deflect the blame on to the Conservative UK Government rather than the SNP Scottish Government. But the facts speak for themselves. Block Grant funding for the Scottish Government is the highest since devolution began at around £41 billion a year for 2022-2025. This means that for every £100 per person the UK Government spends in England on matters devolved to Scotland, the Scottish Government will receive around £126 per person in Scotland. Public Spending | Delivering for Scotland.
The UK Government has not exactly covered itself in glory with its destruction of the economy last year, but the SNP cannot accuse it of cutting the funding for Scotland or
Service Concessions
We think it is deplorable that Councils across Scotland are being forced to use Service Concessions to meet their budget gaps. The Scottish Government has, reluctantly, permitted this accounting mechanism to enable local government to borrow to meet the budget gap created by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government is forcing Local
- Make hundreds of staff redundant and reduce services or
- Leave our children with a debt they will be paying off for 40 years.
This budget proposed today uses £15 million from Service Concessions to bridge the budget gap. We understand why this is being proposed. There is no other choice. But we are asking our children to continue to pay for current services for 40 years. This is not fair, and
School Pool Closures and Home to School Transport
Looking at some of the individual cuts proposed in this budget, we see the SNP Administration’s disdain for the people of the Falkirk Council area. Some of the cuts assumed in this budget are currently out for consultation. To set up a consultation exercise, then to assume the outcome will be in favour of the cuts, shows a level of disrespect for the views of our communities
Scotland has the highest rate of accidental deaths due to drowning of all the UK nations – three times the level in England. BBC News 21 June 2022.
Cuts in home to school transport is also currently under consultation, but the savings are being assumed in this budget.
Nelson Mandela said "History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children." History will judge this Administration.
The need for a Vision
When I was elected as the Councillor for Lower Braes I was enthusiastic about helping to build a better Future for Falkirk. That takes forward planning and forward thinking – which has been in short supply. Falkirk Labour are working on a vision for the future, but in order to implement that we need a change of political direction.
Falkirk Labour Group supports the aims of the Falkirk Plan:
- Working in Partnership with Communities
- Reducing Poverty
- Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing
- Reducing Substance Abuse
- Reducing Gender-Based Violence
- Promoting Economic Recovery
If these aims are to be achieved, we need to survive until 2026, and in 2026 Scotland must grasp the opportunity to elect a Labour Scottish Government with a history of partnership working and a great deal more respect for local democracy and local decision making than the SNP.