Lanarkshire’s councillors have responded to the Scottish budget containing an end to last year’s surprise council tax freeze as well as promised funding for the planned new Monklands Hospital.
Both of the area’s council leaders say they are analysing the detail of last week’s Holyrood announcement by finance secretary Shona Robison, while the North and South Lanarkshire SNP groups each praised its “record funding for local government”.
The budget contains a funding allocation of £1.7 billion for NHS Lanarkshire, up £224 million from last year, as well as capital funding for three Scots healthcare projects including the new hospital at Wester Moffat – with health secretary Neil Gray, the Airdrie & Shotts MSP, saying the overall budget “gives so much back” to local residents and calling on other parties to give their backing.
South Lanarkshire Council leader Joe Fagan said: “Our cross-party budget working group will meet over the coming weeks to unpick the local government settlement and consider what the Scottish budget means for local services and council tax payers.
“Our priorities are to ensure that core funding for Scotland’s councils is rising and that the burdens imposed by central government are fully funded. Given the Chancellor’s record settlement, the Scottish Government now have more money to work with and councils need to assess the budget in detail to make sure we are getting a fair share.
“The Scottish Government funds almost 80 per cent of the council’s revenue budget and any improvement in that will help us narrow the forecast budget gap, assuming the costs of new burdens are met.”
North Lanarkshire counterpart Jim Logue agreed that it remains “too early” to analyse the budget in detail but said: “I welcome the removal of the council tax freeze [which] over multiple years led to significant cuts having to be made to vital local services. Decisions about council tax are best made locally.
“We are still analysing the detail of the Scottish Government budget statement. When we have that detail we will consider what should be in our budget, including the level of council tax that best protects services balanced against the pressures people face.
“The Scottish Government must pass down the 3.4 per cent increase in real-terms funding to North Lanarkshire without any strings attached – anything less is cutting our residents short.”
Respective SNP group leaders John Ross of South Lanarkshire council and Tracy Carragher of North Lanarkshire noted that the first budget delivered since John Swinney became first minister earlier this year included increased teacher funding and had “delivered so strongly for local government; investing in the key services that people in our communities rely on and delivering the largest uplift in funding in recent times”.
They said: “The first minister has listened to council leaders and taken decisive action to deliver a fair settlement in the budget. This will allow us to make real progress on people’s priorities. It is now up to the Labour administrations to deliver with this increase in funding.”
Both added that local authorities need “the UK Labour government to urgently U-turn on their decision not to fully reimburse Scotland for their national insurance tax grab” – with Councillor Carragher noting that it “could cost North Lanarkshire £11m, putting local services at risk”.
Councillor Robert Brown, leader of South Lanarkshire’s Liberal Democrats and a former MSP, described the budget as having “a strong sense of smoke and mirrors”, saying the replacement winter fuel allowance and abolition of the two-child limit for benefit are promised for next year and “whether there is funding for this is highly questionable”.
He said: “The devil is in the detail – I am particularly concerned about funding for councils and the services they provide, and at this stage it is almost impossible to make out whether they have an increase.
“South Lanarkshire Council has to meet a £71m budget gap over three years, caused by previous Scottish Government underfunding together with rises in wages, energy and materials costs, inflation, and there is no clarity as yet as to whether councils – and their voluntary and private sector partners – will be fully compensated for the rise in employers’ national insurance payments.”
Health secretary Mr Gray said the “welcome steps” in the budget include “funding to allow the new Monklands Hospital replacement project to continue”, as well as the winter fuel and two-child benefit measures plus £4m for hospices and “record” funding for councils and for health and social care.
The Airdrie & Shotts MSP said: “I have long campaigned for the new Monklands Hospital and I am delighted the budget funding will guarantee this project can make progress; I hope that MSPs will see the undeniable benefits which can only be delivered if the budget passes, and quite simply they must vote to support the Monklands project, winter fuel payments and funding support for hospices like St Andrew’s.”
Central Scotland representative Richard Leonard responded: “I welcome confirmation that the replacement Monklands Hospital is going ahead, there have already been too many delays and too much uncertainty. The Scottish Government must ensure that the new hospital is not a scaled-back version, it must include the full range of services that we were promised, [and] we now need a definitive timetable.”
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