Highland Council told it will get no Scottish Government cash to bridge its £100 million budget gap, according to budget leader
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The Scottish Government will not provide Highland Council with additional funds to plug a financial blackhole of up to £97 million it says has been caused by coronavirus, according to the council's budget leader.
The claims by leading councillors were made at today’s meeting of the council's corporate resources committee.
Last week, the council revealed a projected deficit of between £65 million and £97 million as a result of increased costs and loss of income due to coronavirus.
Lib Dem councillor Carolyn Caddick said that, in the absence of any extra government funding, the council would have to "slash and burn" services.
Co-leader of the SNP group, Councillor Ian Cockburn, agreed there would be no new cash from the Scottish Government, but sought to point the finger of blame at Westminster.
He said: “Regarding Cllr Caddick’s point about governments, that is correct, but remember the Scottish Government only gets pocket money from Westminster and we have already heard they will not pay out to local government.
“So, what does that mean for us? I am just saying that is what we have got to look at because we have only got a certain amount of pocket money to play with up here.”
Budget leader Alister Mackinnon said: “In relation to income from the Scottish Government we have already been told that we are not going to receive any, so we will just keep lobbying – that is the fact.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We have been working closely with Cosla (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) and local governments since the beginning of the pandemic and have committed over £300 million of additional funding for Covid-19 measures, on top of the local government finance settlement of £11.4 billion from this year’s budget.
“Local government consequentials worth £155 million will be made to councils in June, alongside the weekly general revenue grant payments.
“The first instalment will have been received today. Following agreement with Cosla we are also front-loading the normal weekly grant payments by £300 million to ease local authorities' cashflow problems.”
