Scottish Councils are being forced to cut their budgets due to systemic underfunding from the Scottish government. This trend has been evident since before the pandemic but is being exacerbated as councils have to foot the bill for the current cost of living crisis. Despite this, central funding for council budgets fell by 4 percent between 2014 and 2021, and other means of raising revenue failed to fill this gap. Wherever the budget shrink is felt, the overall lack of funding from the Scottish government threatens to cause negative impacts for both BAME Scots and wider Scottish society.
The problem of overstretched council budgets is a national problem, and not specific to any individual council area. In Inverclyde council, council leader Stephen McCabe warned the Scottish Government that the local authority had a projected funding gap of £20 million – the same amount of money being put aside by the Scottish Government for a referendum next year. Similarly, Dundee council faces having to make cuts of £45 million over the next 4 years due to factors like inflation and rising energy costs. This is clearly an issue felt across the country, and one which has been growing for years, though it has been made much worse by the cost of living crisis everyone is experiencing this year.
Lower council budgets have a number of consequences. For one, they reduce the ability of councils to invest in the local area, by building homes or covering the upkeep of public areas. This negatively impacts all Scots, as a sense of community is at risk of being lost as the number of shared spaces decreases. Local councils may also be forced to cut programs or drives to provide opportunities for BAME children from deprived areas or promote diversity within local industries. It is vital that councils are given adequate funding to ensure they can improve local areas to the benefit of all Scots.