Protecting the role of local government. Just as the role and status of Holyrood is being constitutionally guaranteed by the Scotland Act, so too should local government and communities be protected from the steady accumulation of power in Holyrood. As part of the process of writing the new constitution, Scottish Greens would fight for a constitutional entrenchment of the rights and powers of local government. Never again should local governments’ democracy be undermined by Scottish ministers.
A bottom-up local democratic revolution. Strengthening local democracy should not be about the Scottish Parliament and Government devolving power at their discretion. Instead, national bodies should always have to justify why their functions are not been exercised at a local level. We support proposals made by Cosla’s Commission on Local Democracy, on which all 5 main parties were represented, that Scottish Ministers should be placed under a legal duty to explain why the decisions they make are not being made locally. Similarly, local government should have a ‘right to challenge’ to take on functions currently exercised by national bodies.
Locally funding public priorities. Scottish local government raises only 18% of the money it spends, in contrast with an average of 50%-60% in comparable European countries. Scottish Greens will fight for local governments to be able to levy their own local taxes – including entirely new ones where there is a clear public demand – and to set property tax rates to match local needs. This would result in local government raising at least 50% of its own income.
Citizen-led local governance. The Local Democracy Act would enshrine a clear duty to promote community participation in all local decisions about taxation; spending and services, including a legally-defined minimum proportion of local authority budgets to be decided through participatory budgeting, a process championed by Scottish Greens in Edinburgh to great success. Green MSPs would also push for local government to identify communities that might otherwise find it difficult to participate in such processes, and support them to do so.
