Agenda item
Notice of Motion by Councillor Alex Nicoll
That the Committee
1. notes that at the COSLA group leaders meeting of 15 May 2020, Councillor Lumsden moved a motion calling on the group leaders to reject the funding formula being proposed for the distribution of the £155M Barnett Formula Consequentials to local government arising from the Covid-19 pandemic on Council budgets and to consider instead distributing the monies on a pro rata basis in line with the predicted costs to Councils of the Covid-19 pandemic reported to COSLA on 24th April 2020;
2. notes that reports in the media suggest this motion failed to attract support and was defeated by 31 votes to 1;
3. notes that the costs of managing the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the related loss of revenue to individual Councils vary considerably across the country;
4. instructs the Chief Officer - Finance to write to his colleagues responsible for finance in each of the other 31 local authorities in Scotland, together with the leaders or co leaders of each local authority outlining the disproportionate effect the use of the GAE formula has had on individual local authorities and requesting they consider supporting any future grant from the UK Government or Scottish Government to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on Council budgets be distributed in a manner which takes full cognisance of the existing payments which have been made and the need in future to make any payments to the disproportionately affected Councils such as will allow them to be reimbursed for the total financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on an equitable basis, in line with the costs Councils have identified to COSLA; and
5. instructs the Chief Officer - Finance to report back at the earliest opportunity to the appropriate committee with details of any progress.
Minutes:
The Committee had before it the following Notice of Motion by Councillor Alex Nicoll:-
“That the Committee
1. notes that at the COSLA group leaders meeting of 15 May 2020, Councillor Lumsden moved a motion calling on the group leaders to reject the funding formula being proposed for the distribution of the £155M Barnett Formula Consequentials to local government arising from the Covid-19 pandemic on Council budgets and to consider instead distributing the monies on a pro rata basis in line with the predicted costs to Councils of the Covid-19 pandemic reported to COSLA on 24th April 2020;
2. notes that reports in the media suggest this motion failed to attract support and was defeated by 31 votes to 1;
3. notes that the costs of managing the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the related loss of revenue to individual Councils vary considerably across the country;
4. instructs the Chief Officer - Finance to write to his colleagues responsible for finance in each of the other 31 local authorities in Scotland, together with the leaders or co leaders of each local authority outlining the disproportionate effect the use of the GAE formula has had on individual local authorities and requesting they consider supporting any future grant from the UK Government or Scottish Government to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on Council budgets be distributed in a manner which takes full cognisance of the existing payments which have been made and the need in future to make any payments to the disproportionately affected Councils such as will allow them to be reimbursed for the total financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on an equitable basis, in line with the costs Councils have identified to COSLA; and
5. instructs the Chief Officer - Finance to report back at the earliest opportunity to the appropriate committee with details of any progress.”
Councillor Alex Nicoll, seconded by Councillor Yuill, moved that the Committee approve the Notice of Motion.
The Vice Convener, seconded by Councillor Boulton, moved as an amendment:-
That the Committee:-
1. notes that at the COSLA group leaders meeting of 15 May 2020, Councillor Lumsden moved a motion calling on the group leaders to reject the funding formula being proposed for the distribution of the £155M Barnett Formula Consequentials to local government arising from the Covid-19 pandemic on Council budgets and to consider instead distributing the monies on a pro rata basis in line with the predicted costs to Councils of the Covid-19 pandemic reported to COSLA on 24th April 2020;
2. agrees the minutes from COSLA show Councillor Lumsden’s motion was defeated by 30 votes to 1 with 1 no vote;
3. agrees that the costs of managing the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the related loss of revenue to individual Councils vary considerably across the country;
4. agrees it is for elected members to lead and for officials to carry out instructions from those leaders, therefore, acknowledges it would be inappropriate to write to the Chief Officer – Finance’s colleagues responsible for finance in each of the 31 Local Authorities in Scotland, therefore instructs the Director of Resources to write to the 31 leaders or co leaders of each local authority outlining the disproportionate effect the use of the GAE formula has had on individual local authorities and requesting they consider supporting any future grant from the Scottish Government to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on Council budgets be distributed in a manner which takes full cognisance of the existing payments which have been made and the need in future to make any payments to the disproportionately affected Councils such as will allow them to be reimbursed for the total financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on an equitable basis, in line with the costs Councils have identified to COSLA;
5. instructs the Director of Resources to write to the Local Government and Housing Minister Kevin Stewart MSP asking the Scottish Government to support his SNP colleague Councillor Nicoll and the Administration to ensure any future grant from the Scottish Government to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on Council budgets be distributed in a manner which takes full cognisance of the existing payments which have been made and the need in future to make any payments to the disproportionately affected Councils such as will allow them to be reimbursed for the total financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on an equitable basis;
6. agrees on the basis of 4 above that the Group Leaders send the attached letter (set out below) to the Depute First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills to ensure that Aberdeen City Council gets its fair share of the £100m of funding over two years to help children return to school and recover any lost ground; and
7. instructs the Chief Officer - Finance to report back to the City Growth and Resources Committee, 28 October 2020, with details of any progress on 4 and 5 above, as part of the Q2 financial performance report.
Dear Mr. Swinney,
Funding request from Aberdeen City Council following your announcement to fund Councils with £100m over the next two years following Covid-19
At the Urgent Business Committee on the 30th June the 5 Group Leaders at Aberdeen City Council, debated a motion from Councillor Alex Nicoll, SNP Group Leader.
The main basis for the motion was to ensure that Aberdeen City Council is not further disadvantaged by COSLA when it comes to receiving additional Covid-19 funding. The debated motion included, amongst other things, an instruction to the Chief Officer - Finance to write to the Leaders of the other 31 local authorities in Scotland outlining the disproportionate effect the use of the GAE formula has had on individual local authorities. He was further instructed to include a request that they consider supporting the proposal that any future grant funding received from the Scottish Government to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on council budgets should be distributed in a manner which takes full cognisance of the previous payments made and the actual costs which councils have incurred and identified to COSLA.
The Committee further instructed the Director of Resources, to write to the Local Government and Housing Minister, Kevin Stewart MSP, asking the Scottish Government to support their SNP colleague, Councillor Nicoll, and the Administration in their quest to ensure that any future grant funding allocated by the Scottish Government to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on council budgets is distributed in a fair manner which takes full cognisance of the previous payments made and the actual costs each council has incurred as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
It was further agreed that the Group Leaders would send a letter to the Depute First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, to try and ensure Aberdeen City Council gets its fair share of the £100m of funding which will be distributed to councils over the next two years to help children return to school and recover any lost ground. We feel it is necessary to contact you as we believe that, to date, the distribution method used to allocate Covid-19 funding to councils has seriously disadvantaged Aberdeen City Council, despite us being one of the worst affected councils in Scotland. Indeed, despite identifying Covid-19 costs totalling £22m in April the amount we were allocated by COSLA from the £155m Barnet Consequentials provided to combat this shortfall was a lamentable £5.448m.
Given the significant challenges we continue to face the Group Leaders are resolute in our determination to do all in our power to receive our fair share of the £100m education funding. Therefore we request that you either direct COSLA to distribute the proposed £100m on a fair and equitable basis using a formula that takes account of actual costs being incurred by individual councils, rather than on GAE plus SINA which clearly disadvantages councils such as Aberdeen, or you negotiate directly with individual councils to ensure the funding is distributed in a fair and equitable manner.
We trust you will respond positively to our request and we await hearing from you.
Yours
On a division, there voted:- for the motion (2) – Councillors Alex Nicoll and Yuill; for the amendment (3) – the Convener; the Vice Convener; and Councillor Boulton.
The Committee resolved:-
to adopt the amendment.