Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2005 (SSI 2005/19)

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 4:11 pm on 3 February 2005.

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Photo of Christine May Christine May Labour 4:11, 3 February 2005

Following on from the transport-based theme of Tommy Sheridan's speech, I am sure that members will be glad to know that I read a report yesterday about a recently launched website that contains the recordings of the engine sounds of various buses. It has had 250,000 hits in its first few weeks of operation. Local government finance tends to be similarly treated, as my Opposition colleague Alasdair Morgan said, as an anorak's subject. However, as I realised when I was first elected as a district councillor in 1988, unless we know how the money works, we cannot make policies, deliver services or find out where we can achieve efficiencies to deliver increased services. That is what we are talking about in today's debate on the local government settlement.

Everybody knows that if we were to redo public sector finance, we would not start from where we are now. Over the years, the settlement has been built up as a delicate balance between competing priorities. It takes account of new pressures as needs and lifestyles change and of costs that do not always rise in line with the retail price index or consumer price index. Although its standard indicators and distribution formulas are not perfect, I can inform Mr Sheridan that they at least take account of more than just population.

I congratulate the Executive. As one who formerly had a particular interest in local government finance—a few years ago, I might have been arguing from the other side of the fence—I can say that the system has changed beyond recognition from what I remember of it when I came into local government.