Council budget cuts hitting schools were avoidable, claims Kezia Dugdale
The cutting of council budgets ``to the bone'' in last month's draft Scottish budget could have been avoided, Kezia Dugdale will argue.
The cutting of council budgets to the bone'' in last month's draft Scottish budget could have been avoided, Kezia Dugdale will argue.
The Scottish Labour leader will say the cut to the local authority budget, impacting on schools, was a conscious choice by SNP ministers and not inevitable.
Local authority body Cosla has said councils face a catastrophic'' £350 million, or 3.5%, cut as a result of the Scottish Government's draft budget for for 2016/17.
In the first of a series of speeches by party leaders organised by the David Hume Institute, Ms Dugdale will say new powers coming to Holyrood mean Scottish ministers can no longer claim they are powerless.
She is expected to say: We can no longer pretend that the things that are happening in our country are simply inevitable or the fault of someone else.
At times when you listen to those in Government in Scotland and across the UK it sounds like they are helpless in the face of economic realities.
They're not. The power of government is immense. Government ministers have the power to affect more change in one day at work than most will be able to achieve in their lifetime.
The gap in achievement between wealthier and poorer children in Scotland is not inevitable.
Cuts to schools budgets are not inevitable. The SNP Government has actively decided that those who provide education in this country, our councils, should have their budgets cut to the bone.
It is not inevitable that a whole generation will miss out on owning a home. More of the same is not inevitable.''
Ms Dugdale will highlight Labour plans to use money from the devolution of Air Passenger Duty to give first-time buyers £3,000 towards their property purchase. Labour would not raise the threshold for the upper rate of income tax and would bring back the 50p top rate of tax, paid by those earning over £150,000 a year, to fund plans to cut the gap between rich and poor children in schools.
She will say: The impact of these changes is that we can guarantee that the tax plan we set out before the election will be significantly progressive, with those lucky enough to be doing very well being asked to pay more than the vast majority. That is a challenge to all other parties.''
A spokesman for Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: Despite ongoing cuts to our budget as a result of the UK Government's austerity programme, local government has always been treated very fairly by the SNP.
Average spending per pupil in Scotland is significantly higher than in England, and this year councils planned to spend 3.3% more on delivery of education - the largest increase in six years.''
The spokesman said that additional funds worth hundreds of millions were being provided for specific priorities, such as free school meals and maintaining teacher numbers.
He added: We will always listen carefully to costed, constructive proposals from opposition politicians, but Kezia Dugdale doesn't appear to be making any with this speech.
Until Labour's sums add up, they can't be considered as a credible opposition - never mind a credible government in waiting.''