CUTS to council spending could derail the First Minister’s flagship plans to close Scotland’s education gap, Labour and the Lib Dems have claimed.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Lib Dems, both pressed Nicola Sturgeon on the issue at Holyrood the day after the Scottish Government’s spending plans for next year were revealed.
Local authority leaders at Cosla have already claimed the £10.3 billion budget for councils leaves them facing a £350 million cut, which could mean up to 15,000 job losses.
At First Minister’s Questions, Dugdale said the budget “pulled the rug out” from councils, who play a key role in the provision of education.
Rennie also joined in the attack, branding SNP ministers as “butchers” of school budgets.
Sturgeon accepted the budget deal her Deputy First Minister John Swinney had outlined was “a tough one for local government”.
The FM said that to put that in context, local government would see day-to-day revenue spending fall by £320 million, which “amounts to a reduction in the total expenditure of local authorities of 2 per cent”.
She also argued the “challenging settlement” did not take account of £250 million of additional cash that will be used to help councils improve social care.
The SNP leader added: “The core budget of local authorities equally doesn’t take account of the additional £33 million that was announced by the Deputy First Minister yesterday for specifically tackling attainment and the attainment gap in our schools.”
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