Every Scottish council will suffer a real terms cut in their core budget next year, Holyrood’s independent advisers have revealed, despite SNP government boasts of an increase.
The cuts range form 1.8% in Angus to 3.9% in Shetland, with a Scottish average of 3.1%.
The Scottish Parliament’s independent information centre also said council revenue budgets had fallen nine times faster than the Scottish Government’s.
It said that since 2013/14 the Scottish Government revenue budget has fallen 0.8%, but it passed on a 7.1% cut to the local government revenue budget.
The Scottish Tories said the figures shot down Finance Secretary Derek Mackay’s claim in last week’s draft budget of a £210m real terms increase for councils in 2019/20.
The Greens, who Mr Mackay needed to secure two budgets, said he was ready to "sacrifice local services".
The detailed parliament analysis confirmed an initial assessment that Mr Mackay’s figure for council funding had been inflated by around £500m of ring-fenced monies.
Even though this is bundled into the local government settlement, it must be spent on specific central government priorities, and so is effectively off-limits to local authorities.
The council umbrella group Cosla warned this week that the budget squeeze, which comes as demand for council services is rising, threatens to wreck communities and cost jobs.
The parliamentary briefing said total local government funding in the draft budget was £11.1bn, a real terms increase of 2% or £210.5m.
“However, when looking specifically at the non-ringfenced revenue funding available for councils to deliver services (general revenue grant + non-domestic rates income) this falls by 3.4% (£319.1m) in real terms between 2018-19 and 2019-20,” it said.
The study also said that capital funding would fall 9.1% in real terms next year were it not for £150m that was “reprofiled” in 2016-17 being belatedly added back into 2019-20.
The budget also expects all 32 councils will raise council tax by the maximum 3% allowed to raise £80m, taking the average bill for a Band D home to £1245 from April.
The Tories said the SNP was cutting local authority budgets “to the bone”, and warned it could lead to councils seeking even more local tax increases.
Tory MSP Graham Simpson said: “This damning evidence shows every single council in Scotland suffered as a result of the SNP’s latest budget, when ring-fenced funding is taken out the equation. And there’s no excuse for this reduction when the money coming from Westminster is going up.
“This takes autonomy away from local authorities, and could force council leaders to lobby for even more punishing tax increases on hardworking households. As a result of this damaging decision, local services up and down the country are going to suffer badly.”
Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie added: “The impartial analysis from SPICe shows that local councils will be facing impossible tasks. The SNP government has deliberately cooked the books to disguise cuts that will hit every community.
“Scottish ministers need to admit they have made a mistake and get back round the table to give local authorities the chance to save local services from the chop.”
Green MSP Andy Wightman, whose party is demanding local tax reforms to support the SNP budget, said: “This briefing shows Greens are right to stand up for fairer funding for front line council services and to hold out for fundamental reform to local taxation.
"The fact that between 2013-14 and 2018-19 the local government budget fell by over 7% while the Scottish Government’s budget only fell by 0.8% shows that SNP Ministers are choosing to sacrifice local services such as schools and social care.
"This situation cannot continue and ministers must commit to end the outdated, unfair Council Tax and broaden councils’ tax base if they want Greens to enter formal budget talks - talks in which we would insist councils receive a genuinely fair settlement.”
Public Finance Minister Kate Forbes said: “It is wrong to focus on certain elements of the funding support for local government. Excluding £507 million of specific revenue grants to fund services such as the expansion of Early Learning and Childcare and the Pupil Equity Fund, as well as the £151 million of revenue funding still to be distributed, presents a distorted picture of the facts.
“We are delivering a funding package of £11.1 billion for local authorities next year – which the SPICe figures confirm is a real terms increase of over £210 million, or 2 per cent, for essential public services in Scotland.”
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