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Daily Record
Daily Record
Politics
Paul Hutcheon

Nicola Sturgeon to be quizzed on £70m of national insurance funding not given to councils

Councils are in dispute with the Scottish Government over £70m they say must be handed over to pay for higher national insurance costs.

All 32 local authority leaders signed a letter around Christmas insisting their funding was being cut by £371m in real terms.

They are scheduled to meet the First Minister this month and will raise objections about their cash settlement.

It is understood a key issue will be funding the higher employer costs for councils as a result of the Tory Government’s national insurance hike.

A council source said Scotland’s share of the funding to pay for public sector bodies has been given to the SNP/Green Government, but not yet passed on to councils.

However, the Sturgeon administration is arguing that the Treasury’s block grant to Scotland does not identify funding for NI contributions.

A COSLA briefing seen by the Record argues that the Scottish Government has received the funding.

A COSLA spokesperson said: “As it stands, the settlement makes no provision for the new burden of the National Insurance Contribution increase, estimated at a recurring £70m for the Scottish Local Government workforce (including teachers).

“We know that the NHS in Scotland has been compensated by the Scottish Government for the increase in their National Insurance costs whilst Local Government has not.

"And unlike Councils in England and Wales, who have also been compensated for these, our costs will once again have to be taken from frontline services. We would ask why Scottish Local Government has been singled out for such unfair treatment on this specific issue?”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The Scottish Budget takes account of the full range of pressures across different areas, and accordingly increases the local government settlement by over £900 million next year.

“The Scottish Fiscal Commission has highlighted the overall 2022-23 Scottish Budget is 2.6 per cent lower than this year’s in cash terms and 5.2 per cent lower after accounting for inflation because of reduced Covid-19 funding and falling capital funding from the UK Government.”

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