SCOTLAND could be at a turning point when it comes to local devolution.
Or so say Building a Local Scotland. A group of academics, trade unionists, former council leaders and journalists founded in 2024 and advocating for more powers for Scotland's councils – and far more of them, for that matter.
With just 32 councils representing well over five million people, the campaign group – represented by Joyce McMillan and Dave Watson – told The National podcast that Scotland now has practically the largest units of local government in the world.
They used the example of how many people local authorities in Scotland represent on average compared to Europe.
“170,000 people is the average in Scotland, and that's compared to about 10,000 typically in Europe,” Watson, who is also the director of the Jimmy Reid Foundation, said from our studio in Glasgow.
“And I've done lots of work in Norway and Sweden and Denmark, and even if you look at France, all these countries view the fact they have real local councils that actually deliver things, whereas in Scotland our powers have been taken away from councils – colleges, water, police, fire, all of these things have been centralised since devolution.”
This wasn’t always the case.
More than 50 years ago, until the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 came into effect, Scotland had over 400 separate local administrative units – including 33 counties, 21 large burghs, 176 small burghs and nearly 200 district and town councils.
That isn’t to suggest that system was perfect.
But now, the topic of local devolution has sprung back into the public’s collective consciousness with the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
The former Greater Manchester mayor has recently outlined his government’s programme of decentralisation, which aims to give regional English leaders much greater control over their finances.
He has also argued for more powers for Scotland’s councils too – although the extent at which he would be able to bring about that change himself would be limited given the powers already devolved to the Scottish Government.
It is here that the risk lies, according to McMillan – a journalist and commentator for The Scotsman.
Essentially, that if Burnham enacts this change in England and the SNP delays and dithers – what if it ends up being a success and Scotland is left behind?
“The lack of respect for local government, lack of respect for agreements made with local government, I'm afraid has become routine in the whole of the UK and as bad in Scotland as everywhere else,” she said on the podcast.
“And if the Scottish Government wants to get back on the front foot, then I think they would be well advised to take note of the kind of argument that we're making and say, look, the kind of changes that are being planned for local government in England may well work.”
McMillan added that while some of the work Burnham has done is “admirable”, it’s not necessarily what Scotland needs.
She said: “We actually need a root and branch reform of local government.”
If you want to watch this full interview, where this topic and what reform would look like is discussed at length, then please head to our YouTube channel below or audio platforms.
