Top priority at council elections is public services - survey claims
Public services are the top priority for the majority of Scottish voters as the local government elections approach, according to a new survey.
Public services are the top priority for the majority of Scottish voters as the local government elections approach, according to a new survey.
The Survation poll for trade union Unison shows 72% of voters rank local services as one of the three most important issues ahead of the vote on May 4.
More than half (51%) said the economy was in their top three priorities followed by job security and availability at 44%.
The poll found half of respondents thought public services were best delivered by the public sector, with 19% saying the private sector was best placed and 13% opting for charities.
The figures were released as the union launched its manifesto for the elections with a call for sustainable funding'' for local government.
Mark Ferguson, chair of Unison Scotland local government committee, said: The present funding of council services is simply unsustainable.
The savage cuts that have been inflicted on local government do not just impact on council workers but also on the kind of society we live in.
We need proper staffing levels, decent wages, security of employment and adequate training for all council staff.
Nine out 10 jobs lost in public services since 2009 have been in local government - that's 30,000 jobs in total.
It's impossible to keep delivering the high-quality public services we all need while we are trying to deal with these levels of cuts.''
The manifesto calls for the planned expansion in early-years provision to be delivered by the public sector as well as further investment in social care, the protection of social work budgets, a massive'' social housing programme and investment in library services and facilities.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: The Scottish Government has treated local government very fairly, despite the cuts to the Scottish Budget from the UK Government.
Taking next year's local government finance settlement, including the extra #160 million announced on February 2, plus the other sources of income available to councils through reforms to council tax and funding for Health and Social Care Integration, the overall potential increase in spending power to support local authority services now amounts to over £400 million or 3.9%.''