Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2002

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 3:33 pm on 31 January 2002.

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Photo of Andy Kerr Andy Kerr Labour 3:33, 31 January 2002

The order that we are asking Parliament to approve this afternoon is of real significance to all Scottish councils and their council tax payers. The Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2002 provides the grant support for Scottish councils' revenue expenditure in 2002-03.

Revenue funding for local government accounts for more than a third of the total assigned budget. The order distributes more than £6.5 billion of resources to local government. That is £500 million more grant than in 2001-02. Today's debate gives members an opportunity to comment on this vital element of the Parliament's responsibilities—an opportunity that I am sure they will embrace. We are distributing historic levels of resources to local government. That is further living proof of our partnership with local authorities.

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of local government as a key partner in the delivery of better public services. We are working closely with Scotland's councils to encourage and support their efforts and to remove barriers to service improvement.

We have already put in place many such reforms. The Scottish Local Government (Elections) Act 2002 represents an important step forward in strengthening local democracy. The move to four-year terms for councils will allow them to take longer-term strategic decisions. Concurrent elections will strengthen the legitimacy of councils, ensuring that the turnout at local council elections is increased, and will provide equal legitimacy in electoral terms for the Parliament and local government. The introduction of electoral pilot schemes offers councils a welcome opportunity to test new electoral procedures.

We will publish a white paper on the future of local government—our plan is to do so before the Easter recess—which will be followed by an extensive consultation process. The Executive will set out the future steps for legislation shortly after Parliament reconvenes in September. The debate will be set in the context of renewing and supporting local government as a vital part of the democratic system and will take into consideration the crucial role of elected councillors.

That is all part of the broader agenda to modernise local government, not only through the local government bill but through the leadership advisory panel, which reported last year. The panel worked with councils to support reviews of their decision-making processes, political management arrangements and other aspects of how they run their business. Councils responded well to that challenge and we are keen to maintain impetus.

Councils have already introduced the best value approach on a voluntary basis. That means that councils are reviewing the effectiveness of their services, asking their citizens what kind of services they want and thinking about quality as well as cost. To encourage and support further improvement, we will shortly introduce a bill to remove the barriers that prevent councils from providing new services and from working with others in their local areas to improve services. The bill will also give councils a statutory duty to pursue continuous improvement and will extend their obligations to report publicly on their performance. We will also amend the duties of the Accounts Commission and council auditors so that they embrace quality of service as well as cost. The aim of all that work is to support the delivery of better public services. The acid test will be whether we deliver real change to the local authority services that are provided to our communities.

It is clear that that work is vital, but local government also needs the resources to do the job. To underpin the reforms that we are introducing to strengthen local government, we are working to develop a finance system that supports, rather than impedes, our partnership with local government. We have already introduced three-year revenue and capital allocations, secured councils' agreement to publish three-year council tax figures and abolished expenditure guidelines. We have also begun to put in place local outcome agreements, but we have more work to do.

Last year we announced firm three-year capital allocations.