Perth and Kinross Council’s SNP leader will write to Nicola Sturgeon over "massive" council funding gap

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Perth and Kinross Council’s SNP leader will write to Nicola Sturgeon “highlighting the massive real-terms cut to council funding” and its impact.The majority of councillors - including the entire SNP group - also voted to call on the Scottish Government to pause rolling out the National Care Service and redirect the £1.7 billion funding into social care and preventative services across local government.Both actions were approved as part of a Liberal Democrat amendment to an SNP motion on PKC’s revenue and capital budget update.Council leader Grant Laing told councillors PKC - with an estimated £28 million funding gap over the next three years - was facing a “perfect storm on three fronts”.Councillors met for the last time this year on Wednesday, December 21 but an update on PKC’s revenue and capital budget did not bring glad tidings.Moving the paper SNP leader Grant Laing said: “What we can all be certain of is that we are facing a perfect storm on three fronts.“Firstly, we are seeing rising costs that are impacting both our revenue and our capital spend.

Secondly, we are experiencing rising need and demand for the vital frontline services that our communities and citizens depend on.“And thirdly, we have inherited a structural deficit because tough decisions have not been taken in previous budgets.”On December 15 Perthshire North MSP John Swinney - in his interim role as finance secretary - announced an extra £550 million funding for Scotland’s councils.But COSLA’s (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) “reality check” document calculated the increase to revenue funding as £498 million with £427 million of that ringfenced - leaving a £71 million cash increase across Scotland’s 32 councils.The Institute for Fiscal