Cutting council workforce will have ‘serious consequences’, Cosla warns

Council leaders in Scotland have warned the Deputy First Minister that any reduction in their workforce could have “serious consequences for communities”.

Steven Heddle, the vice president of the local government body Cosla, issued the warning as the organisation again stressed the importance of ensuring the council tax freeze is “fully funded” in Tuesday’s Scottish budget.

That will see Deputy First Minister and Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robison set out the government’s tax and spending plans for the coming year in a statement to MSPs at Holyrood.

First Minister Humza Yousaf has already pledged as part of this that council tax will be frozen across Scotland – a move announced without first consulting local authorities.

Local government is now looking for at least an additional £300 million in its settlement to account for keeping council tax bills unchanged in 2024-25.

But with Cosla, which represents all 32 of Scotland’s councils having already warned of a risk of bankruptcy for authorities in Scotland, Mr Heddle warned any failure to provide sufficient cash for the tax freeze would have an impact on local services.

Speaking ahead of the budget he insisted whether council tax is frozen is “up to 32 individual councils to decide”, not the Scottish Government.

He added: “Unless it is funded with additional money for each council that allows them to fund their planned council tax increases, then it is not fully funded, and it will be our service users who will suffer as a consequence.”

Mr Heddle said: “Cosla knows that Scottish Government is under pressure financially around this budget.

“However, the council tax freeze came out of the blue and has serious financial implications.

“And any suggestions that local government’s workforce needs cut further will have serious consequences for communities.”

The money to compensate local government for the freeze in council tax must be “transparently additional” to the rest of the budget settlement, Mr Heddle added, and should also be built into future budgets going forward.

His comments on the council tax freeze came as the Cosla vice president stressed local authorities had also seen their workforce fall in previous years – though more recently the increase in funded childcare has seen staffing numbers rise again.

With Ms Robison warning that the size of the public sector workforce may have to be reduced, Mr Heddle said: “Local government’s workforce has already changed shape drastically.

“Between 2006 and 2018, the local government workforce reduced by 15% (35,000 full time equivalent staff) before Scottish Government policies such as early learning and childcare added staff back in from 2019.

“The Scottish Government workforce has nearly doubled since 2006, staffing in non-departmental bodies has also doubled and in Scottish Government agencies, staffing has grown by 15%. These increases have added more than 7,000 full-time equivalent staff in just over 15 years.”

Speaking ahead of what she described as being a “tough budget”, Ms Robison insisted the Scottish Government had sought to “prioritise investment in public services”.

The Deputy First Minister also said any moves to “change the size and shape of the public sector” would be done together with unions and others, stressing there would be no compulsory redundancies.

Ms Robison told journalists: “We have a policy of no compulsory redundancy, and that policy will remain.

“The work we will do with our unions and public sector bodies and organisations is to make sure that if we are looking to change the size and shape of the public sector, we do that in partnership with our unions.

“So there will be no compulsory job losses here. We will do it in a way that is done in partnership and that we manage to reduce the size of the public sector in an orderly way, that manages to reduce cost but not at the expense of compulsory redundancies.”