The Scottish government has been told it should provide local authorities with a multi-year financial settlement to enable robust medium-term planning amid long-term funding reductions.
Measuring the effectiveness of billions of pounds of Covid-19 support paid to Scottish firms is impossible due to the poor quality of data collected by the Scottish government, according to...
The Scottish government must rethink last month's local government settlement or risk disastrous consequences for communities, say COSLA's Alison Evison and Gail Macgregor.
Local authorities in Scotland are set to have full autonomy over the council tax rates they can set next year, amid reductions in core funding, the Scottish government has announced.
Scottish and UK government ministers will commission an independent report looking into changing the way Scotland’s tax revenue affects its funding from Westminster.
Scottish National Party members have supported a motion calling for local authorities to be allowed a more permissive environment to raise revenues to help fund services.
The Scottish government has unveiled proposals for council tax and business rate reforms, including a realignment of rate bands, in a consultation on a new framework for tax policy.
Covid-19 support measures and the related economic slowdown saw the Scottish government's budget deficit spike to 22.4% of GDP last year, according to latest statistics.
A lack of engagement by Westminster with the Scottish Government on the replacement for European Union structural funding has left the devolved employment minister “beyond disappointed”.
The Scottish National Party has proposed scrapping business rates, council tax and property transaction duties in favour of a land value tax, to give local government greater control over its...
Scottish Government’s income tax rates are progressive, but unnecessarily complicated by taxation bands that are too similar, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Funding for the Scottish Government’s day-to-day spending in 2021-22 is nearly a third higher per person than in England, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The UK government refused a request from Scottish finance secretary Kate Forbes for £1.7bn of additional funding to support the Holyrood administration’s Budget for 2021-22, it has emerged.
The Scottish Government has will extend the 100% business rates holiday for the whole of the next financial year, following further UK government funding.
Local authorities in Scotland are set to receive £11.6bn from Holyrood next year, an increase of around 3% – plus £90m to freeze council tax – according to draft budget proposals.
Funding from the Scottish Government will only meet between 60% and 70% of overall financial pressures identified by councils, according to the country’s local government spending watchdog.
NHS Tayside’s high running costs remain a risk, although the health board has improved its financial management, the Scottish spending watchdog has said.
The Scottish Government is to pump an additional £200m of funding into its Affordable Housing Supply Programme next year, to help the construction sector’s recovery from Covid-19.
