Additional investment in public services

Budget proposes an extra £2 billion spend.

Health services, the economy and public services will benefit from more than £2 billion of additional spend, Finance Secretary Derek Mackay has announced.

As he confirmed an agreement had been reached that will see the Scottish Budget passed at all stages by the Scottish Parliament, Mr Mackay outlined a package of reforms at stage one of the Budget Bill, hailing the proposals as a ‘substantial devolution of power to local government’.

The Finance Secretary also confirmed the Scottish Budget will provide an additional £90 million to support local government and as well as further flexibility and increased income from council tax. Taken together this enhanced package offers up to £187 million of increased funding and flexibility to councils.

Mr Mackay said:

“The Scottish Budget proposes an additional £2 billion of investment. It provides an increase of almost £730 million for health and care services, more than £180 million to raise attainment in our schools and gives a vital boost to our economy through a £5 billion infrastructure programme.

“As a result of these decisions, we have been able to invest in essential public services, particularly the NHS, while ensuring 55% of income taxpayers in Scotland pay less tax than those earning the same income in the rest of the UK.

“The Scottish Government has continued to ensure our partners in local government receive a fair funding settlement despite further cuts to the Scottish Budget from the UK Government. These additional measures will deliver the most significant empowerment of local authorities since devolution and provide additional funding to support local services.

“This enhanced package offers up to £187 million of increased funding and flexibility to councils, on top of the £11.1 billion local government settlement. In total overall spending power for local authorities next year will be £620 million higher than it is currently.”

Background

Following an agreement with the Scottish Green Party to support the Scottish Budget at all parliamentary stages, the Scottish Budget includes commitments to:

  • Consult on principles of a locally-determined transient visitor levy and introduce legislation thereafter
  • Support an agreed Green Party amendment to the Transport (Scotland) Bill that would enable local authorities who wish to use such a power to introduce a workplace parking levy with Scottish Government support being contingent on the exclusion of hospitals and NHS properties
  • Devolve Non-Domestic Rates Empty Property Relief to local authorities in time for the next revaluation
  • Convene cross-party talks on replacing the current council tax, with a view to publishing legislation – should agreement be reached -  by the end of this parliament, with legislation taken forward in the following parliament
  • Bring forward a three-year funding settlement for local government from 2020-21 budget onwards
  • Develop a rules based framework for local government funding in partnership with COSLA that would be introduced for the next parliament
  • Increase core resource local government settlement by £90 million
  • Allow local authorities the flexibility to increase the council tax by 3% in real terms, which equates to 4.79% next year, while keeping increases below the maximum permitted in England
  • Continue to provide an earmarked £160 million for health and social care investment in local authorities to support social care and mental health measures – including those delivered by integrated joint boards – while allowing councils the flexibility to offset their own adult social care contributions in 2019-20 by 2.2% compared to 2018-19, or up to £50 million across all authorities to help them manage their own budgets.

The 2019-20 Local Government funding allocations are:

Local Authority

Revised 2019-20 Revenue

Capital

Total Local Government Settlement

Council Tax Increase

Total Local Government Funding Plus Potential Council Tax Income

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Aberdeen City

339.096

36.645

375.741

5.809

381.550

Aberdeenshire

426.771

47.964

474.735

6.645

481.380

Angus

206.889

20.131

227.020

2.480

229.500

Argyll & Bute

197.604

21.878

219.482

2.469

221.951

Clackmannanshire

96.501

8.068

104.569

1.175

105.744

Dumfries & Galloway

288.494

27.803

316.297

3.306

319.603

Dundee City

301.388

27.361

328.749

3.042

331.791

East Ayrshire

233.436

22.897

256.333

2.670

259.003

East Dunbartonshire

188.556

13.850

202.406

3.041

205.447

East Lothian

176.466

15.824

192.290

2.628

194.918

East Renfrewshire

179.596

12.984

192.580

2.546

195.126

Edinburgh, City of

738.733

107.886

846.619

13.466

860.085

Eilean Siar

96.090

10.384

106.474

0.517

106.991

Falkirk

285.500

22.102

307.602

3.331

310.933

Fife

655.577

50.805

706.382

8.211

714.593

Glasgow City

1260.248

178.834

1439.082

13.705

1452.787

Highland

454.845

50.165

505.010

5.970

510.980

Inverclyde

167.362

11.719

179.081

1.714

180.795

Midlothian

164.223

17.000

181.223

2.260

183.483

Moray

162.538

15.355

177.893

2.039

179.932

North Ayrshire

278.757

24.705

303.462

3.040

306.502

North Lanarkshire

625.652

47.063

672.715

6.554

679.269

Orkney

75.229

8.283

83.512

0.443

83.955

Perth & Kinross

253.396

34.288

287.684

3.935

291.619

Renfrewshire

318.428

23.672

342.100

4.149

346.249

Scottish Borders

209.916

23.957

233.873

2.741

236.614

Shetland

86.422

9.026

95.448

0.458

95.906

South Ayrshire

203.933

18.863

222.796

2.927

225.723

South Lanarkshire

570.132

41.482

611.614

6.954

618.568

Stirling

171.466

14.923

186.389

2.380

188.769

West Dunbartonshire

190.353

13.361

203.714

2.007

205.721

West Lothian

322.797

22.711

345.508

3.694

349.202

Undistributed

150.768

82.221

232.989

0.000

232.989

Scotland

10,077.162

   1,084.210

11,161.372

126.308

               11,287.680

 

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