Arbuthnott poised to lead overhaul of Scotland’s councils

The architect of radical plans to overhaul public services in the west of Scotland is expected to spearhead a nationwide review of how local government must change in the face of a massive squeeze on budgets.

A day after eight councils announced they were following his blueprint on sharing services to save £70 million, senior local government figures have told The Herald that Sir John Arbuthnott is to draw up a plan that would see local authorities work across their borders.

The shared services agenda has accelerated in the past year, but Scottish ministers and Labour are said to be frustrated with the pace of talks and want concrete schemes rolled out to give them more room for manoeuvre in future budget settlements with local government.

A senior source said: “Both the SNP and Labour want to see something happen and are fed up with the horse-trading and partisanship amongst councils. They want this agenda to have a bit of oomph and think Arbuthnott is the man to give it that.”

Sir John refused to confirm or deny he would front a national review of council services.

He said: “I’ve spoken with all political parties from time to time. They are interested in what I do. I will continue to do that. As the agenda develops, we’ll see what happens.”

Yesterday, West and East Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, Glasgow and North and South Lanarkshire announced they were moving plans forward for a joint single approach to waste management, social transport, health and social care and IT services, saving around £70m over five years.

There has been some criticism that Sir John’s plans have not been taken far enough, with the savings – around 0.25% of each council’s total budget – barely making any impact.

But the former NHS chairman defended the pace of reform, claiming a template was now emerging for sharing services and that ministers had been looking for “evidence of action”, adding that the Government had “a lot of levers it can pull to help keep service levels appropriate to public need”.

John McLaren, a senior researcher at the Centre for Public Policy for Regions and a leading public sector expert, said it was now too late for any radical reform plans to make any difference to budgets in the short to medium term.

He said: “I struggle to see where the Scottish Government can make changes and see little evidence of a lot of planning or work going on in the background. This £70m would be £200m across Scotland

“But this won’t deliver savings for November or for next year’s budgets. The SNP at their conference trotted out their planned review of public services but that’s just come out of the blue, with no real thought. That’s no way to plan for the biggest cuts in Scotland’s history.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The First Minister recently announced the establishment of a new commission into the future delivery of public services and further details will be announced in due course.”