Local Governance Review and New Deal for Local Government

The Committee has closely tracked progress on the Scottish Government’s Local Governance Review. The Review includes several different pieces of work and the Scottish Government has confirmed that it is intended to result in a New Deal for Local Government which will include a Fiscal Framework. A Local Democracy Bill is also expected to be introduced during the current parliamentary session. Further information, including links to relevant meeting papers and correspondence can be found below.

Background

In December 2017, the Scottish Government and COSLA jointly launched the Local Governance Review to strengthen local decision-making and consider how powers and resources should be shared between national and local government, and with Scotland’s communities.

Following a consultation in 2018, the Scottish Government and COSLA identified the following “three interconnected empowerments”—

• Community empowerment - through a new relationship with public services where communities have greater control over decisions;
• Functional empowerment of public sector partners to better share resources and work together;
• Fiscal empowerment of democratic decision-makers to deliver locally identified priorities.

Work on the Review was paused due to COVID-19. In May 2022, the Scottish Government confirmed that it would “work closely with COSLA and SOLACE over the coming months to agree a new deal for Local Government in Scotland in advance of the next financial year.” Further information can be found in the Resource Spending Review.

The Scottish Government then wrote to the Committee in November 2022 stating that the New Deal for local government would include—

• A Partnership Agreement which provides the framework for policy specific agreements, based on a shared value-based overarching agreement on outcomes and accountability.
• A Fiscal Framework for local government, which is intended to establish agreed ways of working in the fiscal relationship, supporting greater transparency and accountability.
• It also encompasses the Local Governance Review and a commitment to establish a working group to explore effective deliberative engagement on local government funding sources, including Council Tax.

The Committee asked the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government for an update on the progress on the New Deal in January 2023.The Cabinet Secretary confirmed that the New Deal would not be in place by the end of the financial year. However, she confirmed that the Scottish Government still intended to progress this work as a matter of urgency.

After the evidence session, the Committee wrote to the Cabinet Secretary asking for more detail on the Government’s plans. You can read the Committee’s letter and the Scottish Government’s response here:

Letter from Convener to Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, 1 March 2023 

Letter from Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government to Convener, 20 March 2023

SPICe Briefing

In summer 2022, the Committee asked SPICe researchers to provide a briefing on “Comparative research on local government and fiscal autonomy across Europe.” You can read the briefing here. (941KB, pdf) posted 24 March 2023

Meetings

2 November 2021 (community groups, COSLA and the Deputy First Minister)

13 December 2022 (Council Leaders, COSLA and SOLACE)

17 January 2023 (Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government)

31 January 2023 (Accounts Commission, Audit Scotland, local government Directors of Finance – focus on fiscal arrangements)