Edinburgh’s ruling SNP-Labour ‘Capital Coalition’ voted though cuts of £35 million to public services last night – and agreed to raise Council Tax by almost 4.8%. Labour councillor Gordon Munro abstained.
And if you think the cuts will end after next year, think again: the Council set a three year budget and plans to make cuts of £87 million over the next three years.
Council leaders say the budget will protect vital services, but opposition parties argue that the scale of the cuts will damage communities.
SNP Cllr Adam McVey, Council Leader, said: “We’ve agreed a bold budget which protects the most vulnerable in society and guarantees a fairer quality of life for future generations. It prioritises those Council services which work to help those who are most in need of our support – protecting our young people, our communities and our planet in the process.
“In the face of growth and a global climate emergency, we’ve outlined plans for the biggest investment ever to be made into new, sustainable and affordable homes in Edinburgh.
“The people of Edinburgh have told us they want their city to be sustainable, to be fair and for frontline services to be protected. That is what we are delivering with a budget which invests in the services our city needs. I’d like to thank fellow Councillors for standing up for a plan which is fair and sustainable.”
Labour Cllr Cammy Day, Depute Leader, said: “The plans passed today support new schools, sustainability and the regeneration of this city and I’m pleased we’ve been able to – yet again – agree a balanced budget, despite the ongoing financial uncertainty we and all local authorities face.
“This forward-thinking approach will provide much greater certainty to residents, to workers and to partners right across the city and will help us tackle poverty in all its forms.
“Under today’s budget, this Council is committing to do all that we can with the resources we have to improve residents’ lives and protect those services which are vital to our most vulnerable citizens. This will be supported by the thousands of new, affordable homes we’ll help to build and the community regeneration we’ve pledged to deliver.
“For too long we’ve turned our back on our fantastic waterfronts and this budget plan will allow us to move forward with our plans to regenerate Granton, providing new homes and a fantastic community for people to work and visit.”
Far from moving forward, Lib Dem councillors Kevin Lang and Louise Young believe the budget is a backwards step.
Commenting last night, the brother and sister councillors for Almond ward said: “We are sorry to say the SNP’s Council budget was passed tonight. We argued strongly for our alternative which avoided the worst of the service cuts but the votes weren’t there.
This means:
❌ an end to all Council funding for community policing, putting dozens of officer posts at risk.
❌ removing all 130 teachers from our nurseries.
❌ a big cut to headteacher school budgets.
❌ slashing the funding for local sports and leisure centres.
❌ opening the door to library cuts.
“The SNP also refused to accept our fully costed plan to put more money into road and pavement repairs or into new park playground equipment.
“We always try to be optimistic but there’s no getting away from the fact this is a bad budget for our constituents.”
Earlier this week the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities warned that the Scottish Government’s Budget will hit vulnerable communities the hardest.
COSLA said the Government has not considered successive years of cuts, or rising inflation and demand and have therefore put council services at risk.
Councils have said they believe the budget will have a major impact on the Government’s ability to address the four priorities of inclusive growth, tackling child poverty, wellbeing and climate change, and puts Scottish Government commitments at risk if no further funding is found as part of the Budget Scrutiny process.
COSLA’s view is that taken on its own, the Scottish Government’s announcement of an additional £495m for councils is misleading to communities.
Councils are required to deliver an additional £590m worth of new Scottish Government policy commitments, resulting in a cut to council budgets of £95m. It is vital to note that this doesn’t account for inflation and therefore the real terms cut to the Local Government revenue budget is nearer £300m.
The draft capital budget is equally as devastating. Whilst £54m of new capital money has been announced this is negated by £171m worth of Scottish Government commitments. This leaves a £117m cut to core capital budgets of 17%. Again, if we include inflation the real terms cut to capital budgets is £130m.
This settlement does not address any of the restoration called for in light of many years of cuts.
Speaking ahead of an evidence session at the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government and Communities Committee on Wednesday, COSLA Resources Spokesperson Councillor Gail Macgregor said: “COSLA has campaigned hard in recent months for the Scottish Government to address falling Local Government budgets.
“We called for Scottish Government commitments to be funded, inflation to be accounted for and restoration to the budget to reflect successive years of cuts to Local Government. It is unfortunate that a sphere of government in this country has not been listened to.
“This draft budget will impact on jobs, frontline services and Local Government’s ability to address inclusive economic growth, child poverty, wellbeing and climate change and does not address the growing demand most councils are facing in relation to services.”
COSLA President Councillor Alison Evison added: “Recent benchmarking statistics have shown that 10,000 FTE jobs have been lost in Local Government since 2010/11. The impact of this on communities is real and cannot continue.
“We are calling on Scottish Government and the Parliament to address these concerns, listen to our asks and prevent the loss of essential council services which communities rely upon.
“Make no mistake, councils and the services which communities rely upon will be at risk as a result of this budget.”
Councillors voyed to raise Edinburgh’s Council Tax by 4.79%. The tax band levels for Edinburgh in 2020/21 will come into effect on 1 April 2020 and will be:
A – £892.39
B – £1,041.13
C – £1,189.86
D – £1,338.59
E – £1,758.76
F – £2,175.21
G – £2,621.41
H – £3,279.55
