After a short break, next up in this series on local government is an examination of how Wales’ peer countries do it and what we could learn from them. Some of it will be familiar, some a little bit different.
As usual, it’s worth putting Wales in at the start to offer a comparison.
What are the similarities with Wales? – The responsibilities of local government in Wales and Scotland are near enough identical and both use unitary authorities as the main tier of local government. Management of the health service is similar too (regional health boards).
The mechanism for financing local government is near enough identical to Wales as well (except for community councils). Scotland is also taking part in the UK Government-backed city deal and growth deal programmes.
What are the main differences from Wales? – The obvious one is the electoral system. Scotland uses single transferable vote/preferential voting, while Wales still uses first-past-the-post. Scottish council wards tend to be much larger as a result and Scottish councils are rarely under one-party control – there are lots of coalitions.
Scottish unitary authorities don’t have as distinct a Cabinet as Welsh councils do. There are still council leaders and senior spokespeople but there’s far more cross-party cooperation, with “opposition” councillors often being members of executive and policy-shaping committees.
Community councils are more closely tied to (and dependent on) their respective unitary authorities than they are in Wales. They’re arguably less independent – especially when you factor in their lack of financial powers. It’s not uncommon for Scottish community councils to be “mothballed” if too few candidates come forward, while come unitary authorities – Fife, for example, have area committees and community councils.
Management of policing and fire services is also different in Scotland. There are no Police & Crime Commissioners and both services are now run nationally with only one board/authority each.
What’s the financial situation like? – The situation is almost identical to Wales. The bulk of the council funding in Scotland comes from an equivalent of the Revenue Support Grant (Part II), topped up by council tax, business rates (redistributed in a similar way to Wales), other grants and various fees/charges.
Gross expenditure by Scottish unitary authorities was around £20.4billion in 2020-211. As mentioned earlier, one of the key differences is that Scottish community councils don’t use a council tax precept for funding.
Is there anything that Wales can learn from Scotland? – Changing the electoral system. The switch to STV hasn’t caused any serious issues and the Scottish electorate adapted to the system fairly quickly, producing far more proportional results and fewer uncontested seats. It also prompted parties to rethink how they select candidates and where/how many to run in each ward2.
Scottish unitary authorities are also set up in a way that actively encourages councillors from opposition parties and groups to contribute to policies and decision-making. While there is usually a party/parties in charge – often through a coalition – the use of executive committees and policy advisory groups is a genuine “whole council approach”, not the lip-service one we often get in Wales.
1. Scottish Government (22nd March 2022). “Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics (SLGFS) 2020-21” (p14). Available at: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2022/03/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2020-21/documents/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2020-21/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2020-21/govscot%3Adocument/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2020-21.pdf
2. Electoral Reform Society (April 2022). “The Power of Preferences: STV in Scottish Local Elections”. Available at: https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/The-Power-of-Preferences_STV-in-Scottish-Local-Elections.pdf
