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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 15 March 2025
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Displaying 2095 contributions

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Economy and Fair Work Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 25 September 2024

Willie Coffey

I will wear my parochial hat. You both mentioned some impressive figures at the outset. Al Denholm spoke about £650 million being invested in 37 businesses. Adrian spoke about 80,000 jobs being delivered, and 26,000 jobs in the investment pipeline coming along. If I ask you about this as an Ayrshire member of the Scottish Parliament, can I—or any of my colleagues—see where the benefit of all of that is going in relation to our particular parts of Scotland? Do you do that? I am not asking you for it now, but could we, as members of Parliament, see how that impact and those benefits are being spread around Scotland, so that all the communities in Scotland benefit from the activity?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 24 September 2024

Willie Coffey

Good morning to you both. I want to continue briefly with the discussion that Emma Roddick led, using the example of the Welsh councils. As I understand it, the Welsh councils are saying that they are less likely to end up in a bankrupt situation than their English council counterparts, as a result of their close relationship with central Government. As we do not have our Welsh colleagues in front of us, perhaps you can offer an explanation. What do they mean by that? Do councils there have a tighter financial relationship with the Welsh Parliament?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 24 September 2024

Willie Coffey

One councillor in particular, who is head of finance at Cardiff Council, is reported as saying that, with regard to councils in Wales,

“higher central funding from the Welsh Government has helped them stay afloat when some English councils are collapsing.”

That is quite a statement to make. It is clear that that councillor thinks that, in Wales, there is a better relationship with central Government that has enabled Welsh councils to avoid the disasters that some of the English councils have encountered. Can you add anything to what you have said, Abdool?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 24 September 2024

Willie Coffey

Goodness. Thank you for that.

My final question is on general financial sustainability indicators, which I ask you both to comment on. In Scotland, our Improvement Service publishes those to guide us. Are the financial sustainability indicators, which, collectively, we all use, fit for purpose? Do we need to think differently about what financial sustainability should look like in the medium to long term? What measures should we introduce to get a better and more rounded picture of what we need to know?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 24 September 2024

Willie Coffey

Thanks very much to both of you.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 24 September 2024

Willie Coffey

Good morning. I will start with you, Jo. The committee often hears extremely different points of view depending on who is sitting in your chairs, particularly about local government finances. The Improvement Service benchmarking framework seems to present a more positive picture of local government finances, certainly in terms of debt management and healthy reserves, but on the other hand we hear from our colleagues in the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities about how serious the position is. Why is there such a divergence in opinion when in essence we are talking about the same thing—local government finance?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 24 September 2024

Willie Coffey

Would you see yourselves recommending some kind of consistent, standardised way of describing the issue? Would you ask the Government to formalise it so that we do not continue to get a varying picture, depending on which council we talk to? Would that be a useful tool?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 24 September 2024

Willie Coffey

My other question is about capital funding. Do councils have any mechanisms open to them for capital funding, other than capital grants, borrowing, and so forth? Are there any other measures that they may be able to deploy locally so that they can deliver?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 24 September 2024

Willie Coffey

I look forward to the update that will be published in January, as it will clear up all those issues for us. Many thanks for your answers.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Pre-budget Scrutiny 2025-26

Meeting date: 24 September 2024

Willie Coffey

We have mentioned the reserves position before at the committee, and we have probably asked you about this, but we cannot seem to agree what the indicators are. We have categories such as contingency funds, earmarked, unearmarked, committed and not committed. There is a myriad of terms that, frankly, we struggle to understand, so we do not know where the various bits of money that local authorities have tucked away are and what they will be used for. I have probably asked you this before, Jo, but do you think that we will get a clearer picture and an agreed set of criteria for that stuff?