All Things Scotland local government – Council budgets, housing updates and planning reports

For your diary!

• COSLA Excellence Awards 2023 will take place on Thursday, 28 September 2023 in the Crieff Hydro Hotel as part of the COSLA Annual Conference. Applications for the awards process will open on April 3rd 2023 (read the categories and more here).
• To mark International Women’s Day next week, a group of women from all political parties and from none, who are serving their North East communities in councils, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament, have come together to share their experiences and to give encouragement to other women at this special in-person event at The Town House, Broad Street, Aberdeen.

LGIU’s 2023 Council budgets tracker: This week budgets were passed in nine new Council.

Front and centre this week was the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership conference in Stirling. At the conference, projects in Dunoon, Aberdeenshire, Dundee and Dumfries were been announced as the winners of the 12th Scottish Empty Homes Awards, sponsored by Finders International. For more information, checkout this report Scottish Housing News here!

Also leading this week is the new report on town centre living from Scottish Futures Trust covering the findings from a 2022 working group which investigates the issues with, and opportunities for, the delivery of more town centre housing. It contains key case studies of town centre living approaches in Scottish Councils (you can find the full report here).

The Planner highlighted an interesting new pilot in South Ayrshire Council which entailed the creation of a community consultation platform, with interactive methods of engagement to improve community and other stakeholder involvement in local development plans (LDP).

From the Scottish Government, new guidance sets out private rented sector landlords’ responsibilities for ensuring their property meets updated standards have been published. Containing measures related to damp and mould, a key issue that plagued renters over winter. The guidance takes effect from March 1st 2024 and requires privately rented properties to have central heating, a kitchen with adequate space and facilities to prepare and store food, and common areas that are safe to use and properly maintained.

Modular housing was the focus of a new report from West Lothian Council. While Kilmarnock and the Ayrshire’s have witnessed recent modular projects, the report recommended that Quick Build Solutions are not an appropriate concept for the Council due to high construction costs, a lack of funding from the Scottish Government and the availability of suitable sites.

Scottish Borders Council has made a new call for sites as part of proposals to develop sufficient suitable authorised accommodation to help meet the identified housing needs of Gypsy/Travellers in the area.

Scottish Government 23-24 budget

Last week the Scottish Government 2023-24 budget is passed through the Scottish Parliament, and with it came three new developments for local government.

• £100m extra for councils for pay deals negotiated for the majority of local government employees by the Scottish Joint Council.
• Separately, the Scottish Government has already confirmed it will provide an additional £156m – £33m in 2022-23 and £123m in 2023-24 to support a new pay offer for teachers which would see teacher salaries rise by 11.5% from April.
• Promises to fund the revenue cost increases incurred by local authorities managing the inter-islands ferry network.
• Lending a long-term lens to what local government finance will look like, new IFS research outlines that even if Scottish councils increased council tax by 5% a year for two years, they may still face real-term cuts to their funding.

Other finance updates

The Chief Statistician has released figures on local government finance in 2021-22. A comprehensive overview of the financial activity of local government, including revenue expenditure and income; capital expenditure and financing; reserves; debt; and pensions, local authorities net revenue expenditure in 2021-22 was £11,780m. Education and social work were the services with the highest net revenue expenditure, accounting for £5,867m and £3,817m respectively.

Community projects tackling poverty and disadvantage will receive £27m funding over the next three years in South East Glasgow, Inverness, West Lothian, South West Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, South West Edinburgh and the Borders.

This was a busy week for the much-debated Deposit Return Scheme. Key updates this week included:

• The registration deadline for producers. Claimed as a “milestone” from Circulatory Scotland, the 664 companies that have registered are responsible for 95% of drinks sold in single-use containers in Scotland.
• However, the BBC reports that critics say they cover only about 16% of all producers that sell their drinks across the country.
• March 1st opened the registration for Return Point Operators (RPOs). Most retailers and hospitality businesses that sell drinks to take away are legally required to operate a return point, with exemptions managed by Zero Waste Scotland.
• All three SNP leadership contenders have proposed pausing or changing the deposit return scheme.

Consultations have opened on a new Scottish Government plan to end the sale of peat as part of wider plans to protect peatlands and reduce carbon emissions. Responses to the consultation will inform plans and timescales for moving away from using peat products in order to protect peatlands from further damage.

Highland’s Rewilding is the new owner of a 3,500-acre estate in Argyll. Following a £10m crowdfunding appeal, the new owner said it planned to restore the estate’s natural environment.

Key committee reports:

• Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee report – 21st February.
• Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee – 28th February.
• Health, Social Care and Sport Committee – 21st February.