Stewart Cree queries John Swinney's 'premature' Council Tax claim
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MORAY Council leader Stewart Cree is to ask the Scottish Finance Secretary to explain his comments about the authority’s proposed 18% increase in Council Tax.
John Swinney declared the proposed move by the Independent-Tory administration as "unecessary and premature".
Councillor Cree (pictured) believes that suggests that further further adjustments to funding allocations could be in the pipeline.
Councillor Cree said Moray Council had responded to the Finance Secretary’s settlement offer in advance of the January 22 deadline.
"Like all councils we were requiredto respond to the settlement offer from Mr Swinney by January 22.
"If the settlement was not acceptable – and we knew quite soon after it was received that this was the case – we were advised to inform the Finance Secretary.
"We looked long and hard at how we could meet the savings target demanded by the settlement. Moray Council is ahead of many authorities in making rafts of efficiency savings; we have reduced staff numbers, premises, and reduced services where we could, cutting our annual costs by more than £24 million. There is nothing left that would generate the level of savings required, hence our decision to propose an increase in the council tax.
"We informed Mr Swinney of that prior to our announcement and a week ahead of the Jan 22 deadline.
"However, I’m aware that discussions are still ongoing between Cosla and Mr Swinney over the grant allocation, so if by ‘premature’ he is indicating there could be a change to the figures I’ll be very interested.
"Most commentators agree with us in that the current method of funding local government is not working, and the council tax freeze is unsustainable.
"When the freeze was introduced in 2007 Mr Swinney promised an alternative system of financing councils, but nine years later we are still waiting. Moray simply couldn’t wait any longer."
