SNP launches ‘biggest assault on local services since Thatcher’

The Scottish Government has been accused of forcing local authorities back to the ‘Thatcher-era’ of front-line services cuts.

Ahead of a parliament debate on spending allocations, Scottish Labour claimed a freedom of information request to all 32 councils revealed they would have to make £300m of cuts.

Labour’s local government spokesman, Michael McMahon, claimed finance secretary, John Swinney, was putting councils on ‘starvation rations’.

He said: ‘Councils are being forced to make cuts in core areas such as education, social work, library provision and road repairs.’

‘Every community in Scotland will suffer because the SNP have done a deal with the Tories to launch the biggest assault on local services since Thatcher.

‘Let’s not forget that this is happening at a time when the Scottish Government has nearly £1 bn more to spend than last year and greater resources than any previous administration.’

Mr Swinney rebutted the claims, describing them as ‘factually incorrect and grossly hypocritical’.

‘The efficiency savings the Scottish Government is asking local authorities to make are not cuts as the councils keep the money and can spend on their frontline priorities, whereas the UK Labour Government’s “efficiency savings” are cuts, pure and simple,’ he said.