Council leaders have demanded the Scottish Government hand over the £155 million it was given by the UK government to support local authorities and prevent them needing to “rob” their reserves.
In April, the UK Government revealed an extra £1.6 billion was being made available to local councils, with £155 million given to the Scottish Government as part of funding consequentials.
But Aberdeenshire Council’s leadership, as well as the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) umbrella group, has strongly appealed for the Scottish Government to speed up proceedings and give struggling councils their allotted cash.
Jim Gifford, the leader of Aberdeenshire Council, said: “Cosla are absolutely correct in demanding that the £155 million allocated to local government is actually passed through to the councils in Scotland.
“It is completely unacceptable that this money has not yet made it through to each council, but comes as no surprise since additional money for our health and social care partnership to fund mobilisation plans, promised two weeks ago, hasn’t appeared either.
“We had a report to council last week that confirmed we have £45 million of reserves, of which 80% are for specific purposes.
“These specific reserves were set up for projects and work that was to be delivered throughout the year.
“If we spend that money elsewhere, these projects don’t happen.
“This includes money allocated to our pupil equity fund, which is money to help some of our most vulnerable children.
“Is Kate Forbes saying that we should rob funds like that to pay for our day-to-day operations when she has the money that we need sitting in her bank account?”
Peter Argyle, the deputy leader of the local authority, added: “Our current estimate of the additional costs that Aberdeenshire Council is incurring is likely to be a minimum of £12 million for the first quarter of this year, compared to the budget that we set just six weeks ago on March 18.
“We need all the money that as been promised by the Scottish Government sent through without delay and we need all the money allocated by the UK Government passed through as well.”
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “We will make any decisions about further funding, including the recent £155 million of consequential money, in consultation with Cosla, reflecting any cost pressures, reprioritisation work and the additional financial flexibilities that we have already provided to local government.”