Latest editorial
CARE for the elderly, libraries and leisure facilities all face further cuts after George Osborne handed out tax cuts yesterday at the expense of local council funding.
The Chancellor announced in his last Budget that central government funding for local authorities in England would be phased out. Instead he proposed to allow councils to keep business rates raised locally, a plan likely to short-change poor towns and cities.
But yesterday he robbed councils of this contingency funding by slashing business rates centrally.
Years of underfunding are eroding Scotland’s local services and deepening inequality in communities, says VINCE MILLS
The 2025 Budget shores up the PM’s political position with headline-grabbing welfare U-turns, but with no improvements on offer to declining public services or living standards, writes MICHAEL BURKE
Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT
