By stewartb

There is a story circulating about the Labour-led West Lothian Council’s decision to close three public swimming pools. Underlying it is a typical political jibe blaming the Scottish Government, this time for not passing on a (supposed and tiny) Barnett consequential in the precise way the Council requires. However, the news coverage also provides yet another example of a lack of analysis, context or perspective from an important national news organisation.

The STV website has this headline: ‘Three swimming pools to close as council blame ‘failure’ of government – Council chiefs said they were ‘extremely saddened and disappointed’ by the closures due to ‘insufficient’ funding’.

Source https://news.stv.tv/east-central/west-lothian-three-swimming-pools-to-close-as-council-blame-failure-of-scottish-government

We learn that following an assessment of possible ways to avoid closures, the Council determined that proposals to continue operations were “not viable”. But of course, it’s the Scottish Government’s fault for not giving the Council more money. Presumably – and despite apparently being severely cash-strapped – if more money was forthcoming, the Council would have been content to spend Scottish taxpayers’ money specifically on keeping these three pools open, regardless?  Well, perhaps!

The following insights from the STV article and Council sources are relevant here! We’re told the three facilities currently ‘make a significant monthly financial loss’: indeed the poolsare expected to make a combined operating deficit of over £900,000 next year alone.’ But there’s more that should be relevant to prioritisation and decision making.

From STV, we learn this about swimming pools located in West Lothian schools: ‘The council also has plans to allow for more public, community and other non-curricular use of Deans Community High School, Inveralmond Community High School, James Young High School, Broxburn Academy and Armadale Academy, from August 31 2023.’  This is lifted straight from a Council statement.

However, the STV journalist opts NOT to report what follows immediately on from this in the same statement: ‘Given that there is capacity at these pools, it is anticipated that this will help to mitigate the impact of reducing the total number of pools.’  One wonders why this was omitted?

Moreover, the coverage omits this: ‘According to recent figures, West Lothian currently has the highest number of swimming pools of any 32 council areas (per head of population) in Scotland. The data was published by the BBC last year’ and ‘With three fewer pools, West Lothian would continue to have (16 pools) more than double the Scottish average (7).’

Sources https://news.westlothian.gov.uk/article/78098/Alternative-options-to-be-explored-for-Xcite-facilities and https://news.westlothian.gov.uk/article/78712/Update-on-swimming-pools

Labour’s case for special treatment for West Lothian?

Let’s take this step by step:

• a supposedly strapped-for-cash Council
  • which will – even after these pool closures – still have the largest number of public swimming pools by far of any Scottish local authority, and
  • which has the highest number of swimming pools per head of population
• demands that a cash-strapped Scottish Government provides it with additional funds to keep three pools open – pools that operate with an annual deficit of £900,000 per annum
  • and makes this demand this even though five of the Council’s own schools have swimming pools with under-used i.e. spare capacity!

If only West Lothian was in England!

The STV article includes comments from the Leader of West Lothian Council: “I am devastated that we are in this position whereby we have to grant West Lothian Leisure consent to cease operations at these three pools. We are all extremely saddened and disappointed that WLL are in this position.’ 

Adding: “… in the Spring budget earlier this year, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced funding of £63 million to support swimming pools remaining open in England. Around £70 million of Barnett consequentials in total will go to the Scottish Government and, to date, no funding has been provided by the Scottish Government to specifically support swimming pools.’

(As an aside, note the sleight of hand here – ‘new’ money of £63 million linked to ‘around £70 million’ of Barnett consequentials!  A typographical error or typical Labour …?)

Sport England reported on 15 March 2023: ‘New funding to help keep leisure centres with pools afloat – £60 million is being made available to help these vital community resources through the financial pressures they face.’

Source https://www.sportengland.org/news/new-funding-help-keep-leisure-centres-pools-afloat

We learn that: ‘Publicly-owned leisure centres with swimming pools have been handed a financial boost following the announcement of a major new fund in today’s Spring Budget. This afternoon, the Chancellor of the Exchequer outlined that £60 million of new money will be made available in a one-year fund.’

Of course, we know nothing from any of this of urgent demands on key public services in England that did NOT receive much needed new funding from the Chancellor. And we know nothing of similar urgent needs in Scotland for which the Scottish Government will receive no additional funding because of the Westminster government’s choices. However, even on this tiny measure for swimming pools, some of the details are relevant given the way the West Lothian Council leader is seeking to make political capital out of it.

Sport England notes: ’In total, £40 million of the fund will be made available for investment in decarbonisation and long-term energy efficiency, while £20 million will help with costs to make these essential local hubs more energy efficient.’ Are these big numbers?

The Sports England article also notes: ‘There are more than 2,000 public leisure centres in England, over 800 of which have pools ..’ So on this basis the funding amounts on average to £50k per pool for CAPEX in one year and £25k per pool for OPEX for one year.

Moreover, the new money is part of ‘a competitive fund that will provide targeted support and applications will be accepted from local authorities who will be asked to coordinate one submission on behalf of all publicly accessible swimming pools in their area’.

A money comparison here is relevant: the England scheme is of a scale that could on average provide £25k to help meet operating costs over just one year. But each of the three West Lothian pools due to close are presently expected to have an average financial deficit of £300k per annum. Would such a scale of funds for one year really change West Lothian Council’s assessment of the financial viability of the three West Lothian pools?

And we know (see later) that West Lothian Council has an agreed budget for capital investment projects of £280 million over the next ten years: so for the sake of argument, £28 million is available for spending in the same year as the Westminster government’s support for swimming pools may be forthcoming. With 800 pools in England this is on average £50k for CAPEX per pool. Let’s be generous and give double that amount: let’s give the lucky pools in England £100k each and therefore three lucky pools get in aggregate £300k.

For perspective, even this generous £300k in the context of West Lothian Council’s £28 million per annum budget for CAPEX is just 1.1% of the annual total. So amongst ALL its multifarious needs and wants regarding the allocation of its budget, West Lothian Council is unwilling to save two, or even just one of these three swimming pools. One hundred percent of its CAPEX budget is already allocated to projects of higher priority than three, two or even one of these swimming pools? Perhaps the Council recognises that – when viewed in the context of all its funding priorities – it may have an over-provision of swimming pool facilities but needs to lay blame for closure on the Scottish Government and therefore on political opponents.

(We don’t yet know what the terms of the competitive bidding process in England will be. However, providing public funds to support swimming pools which are racking up financial deficits of c.300k per annum each – and in a Council area already with best national provision plus spare capacity in its school-based pools – hardly seems credible.)

Spot the elephant!

In the context of the Council’s charge over the fate of a tiny, supposed Barnett consequential, let’s look at Westminster’s funding of local government in England over well over a decade. This reveals the TRUE significance for the Scottish Government’s budget of having to rely long term on Westminster’s choices and on the Barnett Formula.

This on Local Government funding in England comes from the National Audit Office: ‘Local authorities continue to face significant financial pressures. The government has reduced funding for local authorities since 2010 and their spending power declined by 26% between 2010-11 and 2020-21.’ (my emphasis)

‘While Council Tax has increased substantially in real terms since 2016-17, if its effects are removed, local authority spending power funded by Government fell by more than 50% between 2010-11 and 2020-21 in real terms.’

Source: NAO (14 October, 2022) Introducing Integrated Care Systems: joining up local services to improve health outcomes.  Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

So in England, the burden of Local Government financing has been shifted radically by Tory governments more towards Council Tax payers. This impacts – that is substantially reduces – the scale of funding of England local authorities captured within the Barnett Formula.

By contrast, a recent Fraser of Allander Institute (FoAI) publication entitled ‘Scotland’s Budget Report 2022’ examined options available to the Scottish Government in its budget setting for 2023-24. It provided this useful context for the present Council Tax burden in Scotland relative to other parts of the UK:

‘One legacy of the decade-long council tax freeze in Scotland is that residential properties are subject to much lower levels of taxation than in England or Wales. A typical band D property in Scotland faced a council tax bill of £1,347 in 2022-23, compared to £1,777 in Wales and £1,966 in England.’

So, Labour-led West Lothian Council gets media traction for it’s claims of a supposed withheld, tiny Barnett consequential. But the Council, Labour’s leadership in Scotland and the Scottish media pay ZERO attention to the decimation of local government spending power in England and IGNORE the consequent negative consequences of this on the Scottish Government’s budget – and especially on a Scottish Government that has sought to protect Scotland’s Council Tax payers. It is hard to credit how little if any of this gets attention from Scotland’s political journalists.

Of course, West Lothian Council has the option to increase its rate of Council Tax to raise ‘much needed’ funds for these swimming pools if its Labour councillors (and West Lothian residents) really would prefer to be subject to England’s local government funding settlements!

And finally for additional local context

This is just a little further insight into West Lothian Council’s ‘hardships’ under SNP Scottish Governments:

Source: https://news.westlothian.gov.uk/article/73856/New-Winchburgh-Academy-to-open-in-August-2022

‘Leader of West Lothian Council Lawrence Fitzpatrick said: “I hugely welcome the opening of the superb new Winchburgh Academy to pupils from August 2022. It’s a significant milestone in the £62 million project to deliver three state-of-the-art schools for our school estate, which is already one of the best in the country.’ 

Source: https://news.westlothian.gov.uk/article/77299/Millions-invested-in-West-Lothian-schools-roads-and-open-spaces

‘West Lothian Council will invest an estimated £280 million over the next ten years in capital investment projects’ and ‘A total of £165.7 million will be invested in property, with the majority spent improving and maintaining West Lothian’s school estate to ensure it remains one of the best in the country.’

Source: https://news.westlothian.gov.uk/article/75187/Keys-handed-over-at-16-million-Sport-Wellbeing-Hub

‘The new £16 million Winchburgh Sport & Wellbeing Hub – which has been completed on budget and earlier than anticipated – will be home to a state-of-the-art fitness suite; gymnasium and fitness/dance studio; two full sized sports halls; a six lane swimming pool; a full-sized grass sports pitch and two synthetic pitches suitable for hockey, football and rugby, car parking and drop-off’.