Local government in Scotland: council umbrella body COSLA has had a tough year

In line with those it represents, COSLA, Scotland’s council umbrella body, is going through a tough time. Last year several local authorities gave notice to withdraw their membership from the organisation. In the subsequent 12 months, a number of these applications were rescinded but four – Aberdeen, Glasgow, South Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire – are set to leave COSLA in April.

The leaders of the four have been meeting to discuss a new Scottish local government partnership which will be in place by March. The partnership has said its aim is “to promote and secure the legitimate role of its member councils in the governance of Scotland”. Membership will be open to all Scottish local authorities.

The existing structures which represent local government have failed

Gordon Matheson, leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “The existing structures which represent local government have failed. They are overly bureaucratic and expensive and, in attempting to form a single view from Scotland’s diverse communities, they end up pleasing no one. This new partnership will be leaner and it will focus on a smaller number of strategic priorities which will ensure that councils are able to properly play their part in the governance of Scotland.”

This is not the first time councils have parted ways with COSLA. In the early 2000s, the organisation was rocked by bitter schisms which saw Glasgow, Falkirk and Clackmannanshire councils temporarily leave and both COSLA’s chief executive and president at the time also quit. The councils were unhappy about COSLA’s handling of the finance settlement from the then Scottish Executive, and issues around membership fees. However, these problems were overcome and all three subsequently rejoined COSLA, though Falkirk didn’t return until 2007. By that stage, Pat Watters was president, a role he would hold for a historic three terms, with Rory Mair in the chief executive position.

With the formation of the SNP minority government at Holyrood in 2007, a new agreement with local government was formed. The Concordat between the Scottish Government and COSLA was hailed as historic and set out a new way forward for local and central government.

The Concordat paved the way for single outcome agreements, the removal of ringfencing, the right to retain efficiency savings and increased autonomy. However, despite this new way of working, problems have continued to arise. Most recently, a row has broken out over teacher numbers. A few weeks ago, Finance Secretary John Swinney blamed councils for government targets on pupil/teacher ratios being missed.

He said: “To help ensure delivery of the teacher numbers commitment, and in recognition of the general budget pressures authorities are facing, I announced a further £10 million for 2015/16 – a figure proposed by COSLA – in addition to the £41 million previously allocated to support this commitment.

“In order to protect that investment in teacher numbers, this total resource of £51 million will only be available to local authorities on a council by council basis if they are prepared to sign up to a clear commitment to protect teacher numbers. Clearly any council that chooses not to make and deliver on that commitment will not benefit from that funding. We will continue discussions on the delivery of the teacher number commitment with partners, including local government.”

COSLA said the deal had been imposed, “breaching the ordinary rules of negotiations”.

The Scottish Government subsequently announced all 32 councils had agreed to its offer. However, David O’Neill believes very few councils had signed up to their individual deal “with a spring in their step”, adding that “it is both wrong and totally misleading to present this in this manner”.

With a gun to your head, it is difficult to make the decisions you might otherwise want to make

He continued: “Put simply, councils have been left with Hobson’s choice and I cannot allow the Scottish Government to traduce COSLA. With a gun to your head, it is difficult to make the decisions you might otherwise want to make. Councils once again were left in the invidious position of having to accept this deal or face the most unpalatable of punitive measures. This episode and behaviour has won the Scottish Government no friends and we stand by our accurate claim that they have acted totally unreasonably on this issue, an issue which has certainly not been their cleverest move.

“One final point to end on - yes, the Government have got their way and have bulldozed through their scheme. This is not a local government scheme and had we devised it, it would not have looked like this. When this goes wrong the public should remember that.”