Scottish Conservative Lothian MSP Miles Briggs has hit out against Finance Secretary Kate Forbes’ refusal to pass on £150 million in funding from the UK government for Covid-19 relief.
City of Edinburgh Council, like the other 32 local authorities in Scotland, have been told to use their reserves for dealing with Coronavirus. On 31 March 2019 Edinburgh had reserves of £243.1 million.
The UK Government announced another £1.6 billion in funding for local councils in England, but SNP Ministers are declining to hand the equivalent money on to cash strapped councils in Scotland.
The Scottish Conservatives have previously criticised cuts to council budgets before the outbreak of Covid-19 and the withholding of funds to council to fight Covid-19 is a continuation of this trend.
Councils across Scotland have increasingly had to use their reserves to make up the reduction in council funding in the SNP/ Green budget each year, which has depleted their reserves and led to warning from Audit Scotland that Councils are running on empty.
Lothian MSP, Miles Briggs, said: “Edinburgh City Council has an important role to play in tackling Covid-19, but are being hindered by the refusal of SNP Ministers to pass on funding for Council that has been made available to Councils in England.
“Health and Social care services have been amongst the hardest hit by Coronavirus and they will continue to struggle if SNP Ministers to not provide them with proper funding.
“Councils are going to become increasingly important in the management of Covid-19 once lockdown is lifted and measures need to be put in place to limit social distancing and have adequate levels of PPE.
“To be effective they will need the funding to be able put these measures in place, funding which is currently being withheld by SNP Ministers.”
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