More Council Borrowing



Here are the extra borrowing consents granted by the Scottish Government to help local councils meet the costs associated with their outstanding equal pay claims - for some reason (which is not explained) East Ayrshire has not made the final list, so maybe their application was denied.

Anyway it makes very interesting reading and I wonder why North LanarkshireCouncil and South Lanarkshire Council don't appear on the list - could it be that they are keen to raise the money elsewhere because they don't want the Scottish Government casting a critical eye over their books? 

  1. Aberdeen - £11.1 million 
  2. Clackmannanshire - £1.5 million 
  3. East Ayrshire - no figures 
  4. East Dunbartonshire - £2.8 million 
  5. Edinburgh - £25.7 million 
  6. Falkirk - £5.63 million 
  7. Glasgow - £13 million 
  8. Highland - £4.4 million 
  9. Midlothian - £10. 1 million 
  10. North Ayrshire - £1.5 million 
  11. Scottish Borders - £1.8 million 
  12. West Dunbartonshire - £4.41 million

Council Borrowing (5 September 2014)



I submitted an FoI request to Scottish Ministers on 19 August 2014 and, unlike some councils I could mention, they got back to me with a very helpful reply in a lot less than the maximum 28 working days laid down in the legislation.


Anyway what I wanted to know is which Scottish council have made applications for extra borrowing consents to the Scottish Government to help meet the costs of dealing with their outstanding equal pay claims, and the answer is as follows:
  1. Aberdeen
  2. Clackmannanshire
  3. East Ayrshire
  4. East Dunbartonshire
  5. Edinburgh
  6. Falkirk
  7. Glasgow
  8. Highland
  9. Midlothian
  10. North Ayrshire
  11. Scottish Borders
  12. West Dunbartonshire
I will post the amounts each council has borrowed once I've had time to check the figures, but  that makes 12 councils in total although strangely there's no mention of North Lanarkshire Council, or South Lanarkshire Council for that matter.

I wonder why? 

Freedom of Information (21 August 2014)



I have submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to Scottish Ministers over a scheme the Scottish Government established five years ago to help councils in Scotland meet the cost of their outstanding equal pay claims. 

Now I've heard all sorts of things about what councils in Scotland have done to raise money to pay for equal pay including mortgaging off commercial premises from which councils get rent - Birmingham City Council did something similar recently with its National Exhibition Centre.

But why would a council enter into such an arrangement if the Scottish Government is willing to lend a helping hand?  

Maybe the Scottish Government would ask sensible questions of the councils involved, such as: "What is the council's total liability?" -"How did the council get into this position?" - "How will the council ensure that the same thing does not happen again?" - "Is anyone within the council being held responsible?" - or "Sure we can help, but the council will have to open its books so that Scottish Government can see exactly what has been going on?" 

Surely that would be a very responsible thing for the Scottish Government to do because the intention would be ensure that public money is properly spent. 


Derek Mackay
Minister for Local Government and Planning
Scottish Government



Dear Mr Mackay

FOISA Request 

I would like to make the following request under the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002.

Please confirm the names of all Scottish councils which have applied to the Scottish Government for extra 'borrowing consents' to meet the costs of their outstanding equal pay claims?

Please confirm the names of the councils which have made successful requests to date and the amounts of money involved in each case?

3 Please confirm if this facility is still available to Scottish councils in 2014 and the process to be followed in making such a request to the Scottish Government? 

I look forward to your reply and would be grateful if you could respond to me by e-mail to: markirvine@compuserve.com
    
Kind regards



Mark Irvine

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