Mr Douglas Alexander

Mr Douglas Alexander

Labour (Co-op) — Lothian East

Speaking in the House of Commons on 14 January 2026

Debate

Economic Growth

Contribution

I sense that my hon. Friend has forgotten more about local government financing than John Swinney will ever know. The reality is that the First Minister has been writing budgets for 19 years in the Scottish Government, while at the same time Scottish local government has been pushed to the brink of failure. The independent analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that Scottish local government finance is set to see reductions averaging 2.1% a year in real terms. That would require each Scottish council to increase council tax by around 8% just to hold budgets constant. My question for the First Minister is the same the day after the budget as it was the day before: “John, where’s the money gone?”

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