North Lanarkshire Council’s new finance convener believes Scottish local authorities could suffer the same fate as their English counterparts if local government does not receive additional funding.
The free download features the latest breaking news and exclusive stories, and allows you to customise your page to the sections that matter most to you.In his letter to the Finance Secretary, Councillor Duffy-Lawson said: “As you will be aware, your predecessors have made decisions that have negatively impacted local government in Scotland across the board, in particular North Lanarkshire Council.
Speaking to Lanarkshire Live this week, Councillor Duffy-Lawson spoke of his real fear of Scottish councils following the likes of Nottingham, Birmingham and Woking councils who all went bust in 2023.He said: “For too long the people of North Lanarkshire have had the rough end of the stick from the Scottish Government and it’s high time that the Scottish Government relooked at how funding settlements are agreed.
“In North Lanarkshire our most important thing has been saving the jobs of our staff. However, if this funding gap continues it will take us to a place where we would have to make unpalatable decisions. Decisions on local government budget allocations for future years are subject to the outcome of negotiations with COSLA, the results of which will be confirmed in future Scottish Budgets.