COUNCIL LEADER CHALLENGED BY SNP OVER UNDERSPEND
Written by author on February 21, 2017
SNP Councillor Jim McClung has challenged Council Leader Ronnie Nicholson to “stop being economical with the truth” following claims the Labour administration’s flagship anti-poverty strategy is seriously underspent.
Councillor McClung first raised the issue at the Council’s Policy & Resources Committee and today he said: “The Council Leader has been listing in the press what his administration is doing to tackle poverty, such as making progress on the Living Wage, when the Living Wage has been paid to Council staff since October 2011, long before Councillor Nicholson and his party were even in Administration!
“He also trumpets the paying out of Crisis Loans, Crisis Grants, investing in new housing and providing free school meals as part of this Council tackling poverty, however, as Councillor Nicholson knows full well, the Council only handle the granting of the funds for all of the above measures, the money to actually finance them is supplied to the Council by the Scottish Government, so to claim credit for these measures is being economical with the truth.
“Councillor Nicholson also claims that the dedicated anti-poverty fund has only just ben set up. Again he is being economical with the truth. In 2014/15 this Council held £1 million in funds for Welfare reform/Anti-Poverty. In 2015/16 had £1.5 million in funds for Welfare Reform/Anti-Poverty and in this current financial year the Council has £1 million in funds for Tackling the Cause and Effects of Poverty. A new title for the same objective.
“In these same three years this administration, led by Councillor Nicholson, has spent less than £500,000 of those £3.5 million funds available for tackling poverty.”
He went on: “Should he dispute these figures then I suggest he reads the Council papers for Policy and Resources Committee entitled Budget Out-turn 2014/15 and 2015/16, the Budget Resource update 2016/17 and the Full Council papers on 17/12/15 and 15/12/16, not forgetting the Labour Budget passed at full Council on 05/02/15, which promised a further £1 million in anti-poverty funding for 2017/18.
“If Councillor Nicholson and his party live up to their promises of another £1 million in anti-poverty funding for next financial year there will be £4 million of unspent funding available. His Administration should stop being economical with the truth and start actually spending this funding on assisting those that are in need, such as the 46% of households that are living in Fuel Poverty and the 1 in 4 children that are living in poverty in the region instead of the two ‘talking shops’ they have planned.
“Spend the £4 million you have on those in the region that are in need and stop just talking about what you are going to do. Action speaks louder than words.”
