Chief Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council and Returning Officer for Edinburgh, Andrew Kerr, wrote in yesterday’s Edinburgh Evening News:
Preparations are well underway as the Capital readies itself for Thursday’s Local Government Election to elect the next set of councillors to represent our city.
In 2017, 63 councillors were elected to the Council, with a 50.5% turnout across the city – up from 42.6% in 2012 – and we’re hoping for even higher numbers this year. A total of 399,239 people are registered to vote in Edinburgh, of whom 96,671 have applied to vote by post – almost one voter in four. We have a record 143 candidates from many different parties and independents all looking for your support.
The local councillors you elect will make important decisions on how public services are provided. As a Council, we deliver over 700 services that have an impact on every resident’s life, including waste collections and road repairs, maintaining culture venues and play parks and caring for our youngest and eldest citizens.
In recent years, we’ve been working to reduce our use of schools on polling days as we‘ve always appreciated the disruption unscheduled school closures can cause to parents, teachers and pupils.
Following the huge interruption to normal schooling through the pandemic it was paramount not to close any schools on polling day and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to achieve this. As a result we are using some new and exciting venues from yoga studios to supermarkets!
As is the case for all local authorities, polling places are chosen to provide the best location, accessibility and space to allow as many people as possible to cast their vote easily. So, whilst many venues have changed, we’ve kept them as close as possible.
We’ve alerted people to their new polling place on their polling card and we also have an online tool where you can check.
Our elections web pages can help you find your polling place, accessible voting options, emergency voting and useful information on how the single transferable vote system works, i.e. you need to use numbers to rank as many or as few candidates as you choose in order of your preference.
As the returning officer I’m lucky to have an experienced and talented Election team here in Edinburgh and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them. Running an election in the Capital is no mean feat with 300 polling stations to set up and hundreds of staff to recruit and train.
Our team worked hard to replace polling places and also had to ensure a successful election included plans for any additional restrictions required due to the ongoing pandemic.
Our polling places will be safe spaces to cast your vote and we’ll be following the latest Scottish Government guidance as we have done throughout the pandemic.
They will also be accessible and welcoming, particularly for those voters with a disability, and our election team has worked closely with Public Health Scotland, our local Director of Public Health and our own Health and Safety team to ensure our polling places – and the people staffing them – are as well prepared as they can be.
Elections are opportunities to have a say on issues that matter to us all so please take the chance to make your voice heard at the ballot box.
Trinity Academy pupils who will be voting for the first time have been to visit their nearest polling place Summerside Bowling Club as the countdown continues to the local elections this Thursday (5 May).
Trinity Academy S5 pupil Luke Norman is looking forward to casting his first ever vote on Thursday 5 May 2022. He said: “I’m excited to be voting for the first time. I think it’s really important for young people to take part in elections and use their voice.
“It’s our future. The councillors that we help elect next week will make important decisions on education and many other issues that are important to us.”
Andrew Kerr, Chief Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council and Returning Officer for Edinburgh, said: “The local elections are under a week away now. We have been working to reduce our use of schools on election day and I’m delighted that this year there will be no interruption to the school day for Edinburgh’s pupils.
“Due to this, you might have a different polling place this time. Check your polling card carefully or use the online tool to find out where to vote on 5 May.
“Our elections pages also contain useful information on how the single transferable vote system works, ie that you need to use numbers to rank as many or as few candidates as you choose in order of preference.
“And if you’ve applied for and received a postal ballot pack, remember to return it as soon as possible to make sure your vote counts.”
A total of 399,239 people are registered to vote in Edinburgh, of whom 96,671 have applied to vote by post.
DRYLAW Telford Community Council will meet tomorrow (Wednesday 27th April) at 7pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre..
With the council elections just a week away, the Community Council has invited Inverleith ward candidates along for an informal opportunity to meet CC members and find out what issues are important to them.
Unfortunately the meeting is not open to the public.
Secretary Pam Higgins explained: “Due to covid restrictions – room size specifically – we cannot accommodate an open meeting at present.
“This is a meeting for the candidates to meet their potential Community Council so that the transition is easier post elections. We hope that in the near future we can fully open up to the community again.”
The following ten candidates are standing in Inverleith:
Jule BANDEL – Scottish Green Party
Stuart HERRING – Scottish Conservative and Unionist
Phil HOLDEN – Scottish Family Party: Pro-Family, Pro-Marriage, Pro-Life
Tam LAIRD – Scottish Libertarian Party
Stephen MCNAMARA – Independent
Max MITCHELL – Scottish Conservative and Unionist
Mhairi MUNRO-BAIN – Labour and Co-operative Party
Vicky NICOLSON – Scottish National Party (SNP)
Hal OSLER – Scottish Liberal Democrats
Malcolm Alexander WOOD – Scottish Liberal Democrats.
Four of them will be elected to represent Inverleith next Thursday.
Inverleith councillors elected last time (May 2017) were:
Gavin BARRIE – Scottish National Party (SNP)
Max MITCHELL – Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Hal OSLER – Scottish Liberal Democrats
Iain WHYTE – Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party.
Make sure you don’t miss the next of our series of #ERSLive talks, which will be held thisTuesday 26 April, at 7pm via Zoom.
What can we expect from next month’s Scottish local elections?
Which parties will be on the up and which losing out? Join us for an evening of insight and analysis with elections expert Professor Sir John Curtice for an in depth look at Scotland’s local democracy.
As well as a look at what we can expect from the upcoming polls, Prof Curtice will launch his upcoming ERS report – The Power of Preferences: STV in Scottish Elections – taking an in-depth look at the results from 2017 and how voters make use of the Single Transferable Vote system.
Be part of a conversation with some of the candidates standing for election in Edinburgh
Edinburgh’s Third Sector Interface (EVOC, Volunteer Edinburgh, Edinburgh Social Enterprise) and the Poverty Alliance invite you to be part of an conversation with some of the candidates standing for election on Thu 5 May.
The main focus of this event is the challenges arising from cost-of-living increases that are impacting people and communities across the City linked to:
the importance of a thriving voluntary sector
the benefits of an enterprising City
the need for wealth building within communities
Welcome & Introduction: Bridie Ashrowan, Claire Pattullo, Paul Wilson.
Panel Q&A:
Claire Miller, Edinburgh Greens candidate for City Centre
Vicky Nicolson, SNP candidate for Inverleith
Ross McKenzie, Labour candidate for Sighthill / Gorgie
Neil Ross, Liberal Democrats candidate for Morningside
Representatives from each of the political parties have been invited.
SUBMIT A QUESTION
Please submit any questions you have in advance, or if you are unable to attend the event to: comms@evoc.org.uk
ZOOM LINK:
The link will be sent out to everyone who has registered by 1pm on the day.
SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald has welcomed figures which show children across Edinburgh are excelling under the SNP Scottish Government.
Schools across Edinburgh are benefitting from £7.2m of funding for the coming year to reduce the attainment gap in the area.
As a result 95.1% of young people in the area go on to positive destinations. The latest figures also show that 19,523 have went into a modern apprenticeship under the SNP Scottish Government.
In helping to close the attainment gap, there are currently 10,016 children receiving free school meals.
Commenting, Gordon MacDonald said: “Since the SNP formed a government in 2007, attainment and the number of pupils going on to positive destinations has improved across Edinburgh.
“This is down to the funding the SNP Scottish Government has provided to reduce the attainment gap and I am delighted that this will continue as £7.2m has been committed to reduce the gap even further for the coming year.
“The SNP Scottish Government is also ensuring that P1-3 children have the best start to their day by providing free school meals. This will also be extended to all primary schools within this parliamentary term.
“It is only the SNP who can be trusted to protect Scotland’s education system and on May 5 the people of Edinburgh have the chance to send a message to the Tories that we do not trust them with it.”
SNP MSP GORDON MACDONALD SLATES ‘MORE TORY BROKEN PROMISES‘
SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald has slated the Westminster Tory Government for failing the people of Edinburgh by short-changing them by the equivalent of £14.6 million through the so-called Shared Prosperity Fund.
Following Brexit, which the people of Edinburgh did not vote for, the UK Government promised to replace every penny of the money Scotland previously received from the European Union. For this year, it is estimated that would have been £183 million.
However, figures just published show that Scotland will receive only £32 million this year. That is £151 million short of the £183 million promised and works out at an estimated equivalent of £14.6 million for Edinburgh.
Gordon MacDonald MSP said: “Not only did the people of Edinburgh not vote for Tory Brexit, we are paying a very high price for this disastrous Tory obsession.
“EU funding has supported infrastructure projects and community initiatives across the country since the 1970s, with Scotland receiving and delivering more than £6 billion of EU Structural Funds.
“Being short-changed again by the Tories, this time to the equivalent of £14.6 million, really adds insult to injury for the people of Edinburgh.
“This demonstrates exactly why the Tories’ sick joke of ‘levelling up’ actually means our community losing out, with Edinburgh facing the estimated loss of £14.6 million had Scotland not been taken out of the EU against our will.
“Not only that, the Scottish Government previously made decisions about how best to spend the EU money based on local priorities. Now a UK Tory Government – which Scotland did not vote for and hasn’t done for a lifetime – is cutting Scotland’s elected Government out of the decision-making process.
“That is both a betrayal of democracy and a disgrace that money will be spent on Tory priorities which will fail to meet the needs of communities in Edinburgh.
“This is yet another shocking demonstration why the Tories cannot be trusted with Scotland’s future. Scotland deserves better than Partygate liar Boris Johnson’s litany of broken promises.
“By voting SNP in the local elections on May the people of Scotland will send a crystal clear message to Johnson’s Tories that they will never be trusted.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson admits guilt at last – but serial liar refuses to resign
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak have both been fined by the Metropolitan Police for breaching Covid regulations.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the following statement yesterday:
Today I have received a fixed penalty notice from the Metropolitan Police relating to an event in Downing Street on 19th June 2020, and let me say immediately that I have paid the fine and I once again offer a full apology.
And in a spirit of openness and humility, I want to be completely clear about what happened on that date.
My day began shortly after 7am, and I chaired eight meetings in No10, including the Cabinet Committee deciding Covid strategy, I visited a school in Hemel Hempstead, which took me out of Downing Street for over four hours.
And amongst all these engagements, on a day that happened to be my birthday, there was a brief gathering in the Cabinet Room shortly after 2pm, lasting for less than 10 minutes, during which people I work with kindly passed on their good wishes.
And I have to say in all frankness, at the time, it did not occur to me that this might have been a breach of the rules.
But of course the police have found otherwise and I fully respect the outcome of their investigation.
I understand the anger that many will feel that I myself fell short when it came to observing the very rules which the Government I lead had introduced to protect the public, and I accept in all sincerity that people had a right to expect better.
Now I feel an even greater sense of obligation to deliver on the priorities of the British people:
strengthening our economy,
creating jobs and opportunities,
levelling up the whole United Kingdom,
now, of course, ensuring that Putin fails in Ukraine, and easing the burden imposed on hard-working families caused by higher energy prices.
I will take forward that task with due humility, but with maximum determination to fulfil my duty and do what is best for the country I serve.
Whether this short statement, which addresses transgressions commited on just ONE day during lockdown, will be enough to save his political life is now in the hands of Conservative MPs, and Conservative MPs alone.
If it was left to the people of the country to decide Johnson’s fate – those millions of people who stuck to the Covid rules imposed by this government – there can be little doubt Johnson would be finished.
The Prime Minister said it himself: people had a right to expect better.If he had a scintilla of honour, Johnson would resign without delay.
Official figures reveal that council taxpayers in Edinburgh pay on average £587 a year less than they would in Tory-run England and £398 less than in Labour-run Wales.
Across Scotland, council tax payers get the best deal in Britain. The figures also demonstrate that the savings for Scottish council tax payers in comparison to what those in England and Wales will pay is going to be even greater next year.
The research shows that Band D council tax payers in Edinburgh pay £1,379 which is £587 less than the equivalent in England and £398 less than in Wales.
Council tax across Scotland is lower than in England – for 2022/23, the average Band D Council Tax bill in Scotland is £1347 compared to £1966 in England and £1777 in Wales.
For 2022/23, the average charge for all property bands, including E, F, G and H, is between £413 and £651 lower in Scotland than England.
The average council tax increase in Scotland for 2022/23 was 3.0%, compared with 3.5% in England and 2.7% in Wales.
Commenting, SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald said: “Council taxpayers in Edinburgh are paying £587 less than they would in England. In fact, council taxpayers across Scotland get the best deal in Britain.
“On top of the £150 council tax rebate announced last month by Finance Secretary Kate Forbes, this demonstrates that the Scottish Government is doing all it can within its restricted powers and resources to keep as much money as possible in the pockets of Scottish families.
“Council tax bills in Edinburgh are so substantially lower because the SNP has such a strong record of delivering the best value. For an entire decade the SNP Scottish Government froze the cost of council tax – despite Westminster continuing to slash the Scottish budget.
“The SNP Scottish Government is also rolling out a social security system based on fairness and respect. It has introduced the ‘game-changing’ Scottish Child Payment – which will deliver £25 per week per child for the lowest income families in Edinburgh – and we are increasing a range of Scottish social security benefits by six per cent.
“It is a glaring contrast with the Westminster Tory Government which, far from protecting hard-pressed families from the spiralling Tory cost of living crisis, it callously cut vital Universal Credit support by £20 a week for the poorest families.
“This is a real tale of two Governments and the people of Scotland will have the opportunity to send a message to Boris Johnson by rejecting the Tories in the local elections on May 5.”
‘A tale of two governments’?It’s worth pointing out that neither Boris Johnson nor Nicola Sturgeon will be standing in May’s LOCAL government elections. These elections are supposed to be about who runs our council services!
Edinburgh is currently under the control of an SNP – Labour ‘Capital Coalition’ partnership. Do you think Edinburgh taxpayers are really getting a ‘good deal’? – Ed. …
Local elections will be held across all 32 Scottish local authorities on 5th May. Just over 1,200 council seats will be determined.
Local government is a hugely significant part of the public service landscape in Scotland. Local government’s revenue settlement from the Scottish government in 2022/23 is almost £12bn, accounting for just shy of one third of the Scottish government’s total revenue spending.
Drawing on this settlement – plus resources from council tax, fees and charges – local authorities will manage and deliver social care services, pre-school and school education, and a raft of environmental, planning and cultural services.
In this context, it is perhaps surprising that turnout at local government elections is typically less than 50% (turnout in 2017 was 47%). Low turnout partly reflects a sense among the electorate that their vote makes relatively little difference to the delivery of public services, for two reasons.
First is a pervasive view that local authorities have relatively little power to influence service delivery in meaningful ways, regardless of the political control of the council, as local authorities are often perceived largely as delivery agents of the Scottish government.
Second is a set of issues around political accountability. The results of local government elections are often ambiguous – after the 2017 elections, no mainland council authority was controlled by a single party (moreover, it is not always the case that the largest party forms part of the governing coalition). On top of this, the profile of local politicians is often low. Recent research indicates that three quarters of people are not confident that they could name the leader of their council.
Data from the Scottish Household Survey – an annual survey of around 10,000 households – indicates that in 2019, fewer than a fifth of adults thought they could influence decisions affecting their local area.
At the same time, only just over one quarter actually wanted to be more involved in the decisions of their local council (Chart 1). The last decade has seen a persistent decline in the proportion of adults who want to be more involved in local democracy.
Chart 1:Percentage of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing with various statements about local services.
Source: FAI analysis of Scottish Household Survey
The Covid pandemic may have raised the public’s awareness of local government and the breadth of activities it is responsible for. Local authorities were instrumental in delivering financial and other support during the pandemic – both to households and to businesses – supporting testing and tracing infrastructure, and ensuring the safe reopening of schools. It will be interesting to see whether this manifests in any increase in turnout in this year’s elections.
People have different views about how much we should care about the public’s relatively low interest in local government, and what we should do about it. For some, the answer is greater policy autonomy, both in general terms and in relation to local taxation in particular. For others, elected mayors (or provosts) would raise profile and accountability.
On the first of these issues, policy autonomy, there has been little progress during the past five years. In fact if anything, things are moving towards less not more local autonomy. Throughout the past five years the Scottish government has made increasing use of specific (ring-fenced grants). Meanwhile, the government’s plans to establish a new national social care agency – which have a number of well meaning justifications – have been referred to by Cosla as ‘a direct attack on localism and on the rights of people to make, and benefit from, decisions taken locally.
Local government funding, 2017/18 – 2022-23
One of the dominant issues going into the 2017 local government elections was the very constrained nature of the local government financial settlement over the past five years. Between 2013/14 and 2017/18, the core local government revenue settlement declined by £750 million in real terms according to SPICe which is equivalent to a 7% real terms reduction in its budget.
What’s happened to local government budgets during the past five years?
Unsurprisingly, local government budgets increased substantially during the pandemic. Local government General Revenue Grant increased by £2.4bn in 2020/21 to reach £9.3bn. The increase offsets the loss of around £1bn of non-domestic rates revenue as a result of pandemic-related tax reliefs, and also reflects increased grant to enable local authorities to play a critical role in delivering pandemic-related support to households, businesses, and the wider pandemic infrastructure (e.g. testing facilities).
The local government settlement in 2021/22 was not as high as in 2020/21, as the recovery began to take effect.
By 2022/23, core local government funding – including general revenue grant, NDR income and specific grants – is slightly lower in real terms than it was in 2017/18 (Chart 2). If we also include additional funding from the Scottish Government that is transferred into the local government settlement from other portfolios, then the story is that local government funding from the Scottish government is around 3.5% higher in 2022/23 than in 2017/18.
These additional revenues include £380m for health and social care integration and mental health, £234m to pay the living wage to social care staff, and £150m for additional teaching and support staff in schools. It does make sense to include these elements in the calculation. But even so, the 3.5% real terms funding increase has to be seen within the context of a significant increase in local government’s delivery responsibilities over the same period.
In other words, whilst the story of the past five years has not been one of funding cuts – at least as clearly as at the last election – local government’s funding settlement has nonetheless been very constrained.
Chart 2:Local government core funding from Scottish Government, real terms.
Source: For 2017/18 to 2021/22, Provisional Outturn and Budget Estimates (POBE); for 2022/23, Local Government Finance Circular 1/2022.
One result of this funding constraint is a further concentration of local government spending on education and social care. Between 2017/18 and 2021/22 (the latest year for which data is available), spending on education increased 6% in real terms, whilst for social work the increase was 5%. The flipside of this was a 9% real terms decline in local government spending on cultural services and an 8% decline in environmental services spending.
Despite these funding pressures, overall satisfaction with council services had held up reasonably well, at least until 2019 – the latest year for which we have comparable data (Chart 3). However, there was also some evidence of a decline in satisfaction with particular aspects of local government service delivery in 2017 and 2018. This coincides with a period when local government funding was cut particularly rapidly. It will be interesting to see how this trend is affected by the pandemic once data is available.
Chart 3:Percentage of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing with various statements about local services.
Source: FAI analysis of Scottish Household Survey
Looking ahead
Local government will retain a critical role over the next five years in delivering key Scottish government priorities and commitments, particularly around childcare, educational attainment, and climate objectives (e.g. in relation to improvements to the housing stock and active travel plans). And clearly, major existing agendas such as health and social care integration and digitalisation of public services will remain high priorities.
Yet at the same time, it is hard to see an immediate reversal in the broad trend of funding constraint. The forthcoming Scottish government Spending Review, to be published in May, should shed further light on the funding outlook for 2023/24 and 2024/25.
In addition to consideration of the local government funding envelope in totality, local government will be interested to know more about the outlook for its core budget, relative to elements of the budget that are ringfenced in some way.
The government has committed to work with local authorities to produce a fiscal framework for local government this parliament. The expectation is that this might set out clearer criteria about when it is or isn’t appropriate for local government funding resources to be ringfenced. But the timescales for production of the review are not yet known.
A major area of uncertainty is what the future of social care will mean for local government.
The Scottish government has set out its intentions to establish a new National Care Service by 2026. There are a number of well-founded justifications for the proposed National Care Service, including parity with the NHS, stronger opportunities for staff retention, and consistency of service across the country.
But there is little clarity yet about what the reforms will mean for the role of local government in shaping local priorities. COSLA has accused the proposals as representing an attack on localism.
Another uncertainty is the prospects for local tax reform. The past five years have seen relatively little movement on this front. The government has introduced legislation to allow local authorities to introduce Workplace Parking Levies, although the practical advantage of this as a policy has been temporarily stymied by the pandemic.
Debates around the introduction of local powers over tourism levies is progressing slowly. On council tax, the SNP-Green Collaboration Agreement makes the case for a ‘fairer, more inclusive and fiscally sustainable form of local taxation’. It proposes a process of deliberative engagement and a citizens jury to consider reforms in further detail. Whether this process culminates in a more concrete political willingness to reform council tax than previous processes remains to be seen.
The past five years have seen no major revolutions of local government financing arrangements or public services delivery. But evolution continues at pace. Local government played a critical role in supporting the pandemic response, and continues to play an increasingly important role in delivering core Scottish government commitments in areas from child poverty and the cost of living crisis to climate change.
The next five years may see more substantive evolution in the role and responsibility of local government in Scotland. Whether this happens in a way that enhances, or further erodes, public engagement with local democracy remains to be seen.
