Council / Council hopeful of resetting relationships with Scottish Government
THE POLITICAL leader of Shetland Islands Council has welcomed the new partnership agreement between local authorities and the Scottish Government as an “opportunity to reset the relationship”.
Emma Macdonald said the document, signed off at the end of last month, had the potential to allow for more localised decision making and early influence on the government’s budget setting process.
Meanwhile, North Isles councillor Duncan Anderson – one of the driving forces behind efforts to bring back more decision-making powers to the SIC and ultimately secure more self-determination for Shetland – described the agreement as a step in the right direction but nowhere near enough to address Shetland’s needs.
The New Deal with Local Government sets out a more collaborative approach in delivering public service on a local and national level and promises to create “more freedom and flexibility for councils to address our shared priorities in locally appropriate ways”.
Local authorities are regularly at loggerheads with the government in Edinburgh over these “shared priorities”, something that is particularly strongly felt in island councils.
The general feeling is that since devolution and the establishment of a Scottish Parliament in 1999, more and more local powers have been centralised rather than devolved.
Back in 2020, then council convener Malcolm Bell said after 21 years of devolution local government was neither ‘local’ nor ‘government’ and had simply become nothing more than a “delivery arm of central government.”
Macdonald said that relationships needed to be reset. She welcomed the three priorities set out in the New Deal document.
“The three overarching priorities of tackling poverty, particularly child poverty, transforming the economy through a just transition to net zero and delivering sustainable person –centred public services are all very much at the heart of the council’s own priorities,” Macdonald said.
“We know that to achieve these we need to work with government at all levels. This deal will hopefully allow for continued positive engagement and the fiscal framework element will hopefully allow for less ring fencing of budgets and allow for more localised decision making.
“Obviously, it is early days, and we need to see the action behind this deal being made reality.
“I think we will need to watch this space and ensure we play our part in this new deal to benefit Shetland.”
Anderson meanwhile said there was lots of positive language and some welcome principles in the partnership agreement.
“However, we must be cognisant that this is not legally binding so we will have to wait and see if commitment to this goes beyond mere words,” he said.
“Hopefully this could signify the beginning of a meaningful change in the relationship between central and local government in Scotland.
“I do still believe that it will go nowhere near far enough to address Shetlands needs but it is a welcome development nonetheless.
“This will be a useful publication to refer to during any future discussions with Holyrood on increased powers for Shetland.”
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