Falkirk's 'chronic lack of funding' will 'devastate services', Swinney warned

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The leader of Falkirk Council 's Labour group has written to Scotland's deputy first minister to share her despair at the "chronic lack of funding" that will, she says, inevitably mean more cuts that will devastate services.

In an open letter to John Swinney, Anne Hannah told him that people in Falkirk are facing "loss of jobs and loss of services vital to all our citizens".

And Ms Hannah, who was newly elected as a councillor in May, warned Mr Swinney - who is currently finance secretary as well deputy first minister - that she "cannot accept" that the Scottish Government is not able to offer councils more help to face the challenges ahead. Read more: Scots councils consider opening buildings as 'warm banks' ahead of winter She said: "I stood for election because I wanted to make a difference in the Falkirk Council area, and I wanted to improve the lot of the people who live in it.

I have been appalled at how little we are able to achieve due to the chronic lack of funding for Local Government, and I find that all 32 councils in Scotland are in much the same situation."She acknowledges the many problems that are not of the Scottish Government's making: the global pandemic, Brexit, a global economic crisis and Russia's invasion of Ukraine are all creating financial volatility.But, she added: "Nevertheless, the Scottish Government provides approximately 79 per cent of the Council’s funding so only the Scottish Government can resolve this crisis for us."Cllr Hannah used figures from the Scottish Government’s own website that show while its funding has increased by 3.1 per cent, local government finance reduced by 2.4 per cent between 2013/14 and 2021/22.Falkirk Council’s budget gap over the next five years is around £82