All Things Scotland – Nicola Sturgeon leaving, what might that mean for public services and local government in Scotland?

Nicola Sturgeon will only resign as First Minister once a successor has been elected.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 To all the people of Scotland – whether you voted for me or not – please know that being your First Minister has been the privilege of my life.

Nothing – absolutely nothing – I do in future will ever come close.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. https://t.co/ZbmmkzyHwK

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) February 15, 2023

The constitution of the Scottish National Party sets out the party’s leadership election rules. Candidates for leader must have at least 100 nominations from party members from at least 20 of the party’s local branches. If there is more than one candidate, there will be an election in which all party members are eligible to vote. The vote is run on a one-person-one-vote postal voting system.

Find out the full process from the House of Common’s David Torrance.

Hospitality businesses will be able to place tables and chairs on the pavement outside their premises without submitting a planning application under measures expected to come into force at the end of next month. Councils will still retain powers to deal with obstructions that make it difficult for people to access pavements safely and effectively (you can find out more here).

Under the new National Planning Framework (NPF4), projects returning former industrial or derelict sites to community use will be more likely to be approved following the introduction of long term planning reforms. Moreover, under the NPF4, Councils are encouraged to support proposals for development that will help restore green spaces as part of local development plans. (Find out more about the NPF4 changes here).

£105m has been agreed to boost the number of affordable homes in Scotland. The Charitable Bond programme provides loans to social landlords, with the interest then reinvested as grants into the social rented sector, further increasing housing supply.

Scotland’s Big Walking Seminar is back and in person! Join Living Streets Scotland in Stirling on the 7 March 2023 for a day of big ideas in economics, planning and behaviour change that can create change on the ground and make walking and wheeling everyday journeys a reality for everyone in Scotland.

Nine local authorities in Scotland are set to receive a share of £10m in funding from the Scottish Government to transform vacant and derelict lands, with the funding shared between 15 projects (You can find the full breakdown of successful applicants here).

Last week, the BBC showed the difficult measures facing Scottish Council budgets this year. Containing feedback from 30 Scottish Councils, measures include:

• Falkirk Council is offloading 133 properties.
• East Renfrewshire Council has decided to sell its distinctive civic number plate HS 0.
• Moray Council is proposing a 10% increase in the cost of burying the dead.

Lending a long-term lens to Council’s struggles, new IFS research outlines that even if Scottish councils increased council tax by 5% a year for two years, they may still face real-terms cuts to their funding. (You can find the IFS research here).

While Tuesday saw a new pay offer for Scotland’s teachers being shared with trade unions following a meeting of council leaders on 14th February, the EIS Salaries Committee rejected the revised pay offer from the Scottish Government and COSLA, with COSLA’s Resources Spokesperson, Councillor Katie Hagmann commenting,

“This is very disappointing. The decision by the unions to turn down the offer of good faith, without even asking their members, means that teachers will not see a penny of this pay increase in 22/23. “

Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) & a number of civil society organisations published an open letter requesting the National Care Service Bill be paused. In response, COSLA’s Health and Social Care Spokesperson, Councillor Paul Kelly, commented:

“The National Care Service Bill has clearly caused great concern across Scottish civil society, reflected by today’s letter from a breadth of organisations.”

Over 54,000 children and young people were receiving Child Disability Payments in December last year. Just over 13,000 of these are from new applications. More than 41,000 children and young people have had their award transferred from Disability Living Allowance for children from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to Child Disability Payment.

Scotland has achieved its highest ever reported score in an international survey which asks 60,000 adults from 20 countries what their perceptions are of 60 nations. Scotland’s overall score has jumped to 65.3 out of 100, compared to 62.6 out of 100 in 2020. (You can find more here).

Visit Scotland has been working alongside London & Partners in partnership with Expedia Group Media Solutions and Caledonian Sleeper to deliver a brand new campaign. Running from February to May, this new London and Scotland dual destination campaign is part of VisitBritain’s Gateway Innovation Fund.

The Scottish Government Needs A Rethink To Meet Net Zero Ambitions- Fraser of Allander. Asked to explore how the Scottish Government can better assess the impact of its spending choices on emissions and improve its carbon assessment of the Budget to support parliamentary scrutiny, research found that there is a significant gap between the intentions of processes and how these processes are being applied.

Last week, Part 2 of a report from Dr. Colin Church identifies key actions in the decarbonisation of residual waste infrastructure. You can the full report here!