{"id":693151,"date":"2026-01-13T12:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/693151\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T12:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:34:13","slug":"scottish-budget-2026-live-shona-robison-to-announce-the-governments-spending-and-tax-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/693151\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish Budget 2026 Live: Shona Robison to announce the government&#8217;s spending and tax plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-to2z4d-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Councils hold their breath over government fundingpublished at 11:57 GMT<\/p>\n<p>11:57 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-kkut0v-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/19b771b4-e0ce-4e18-81af-5f146157b219.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950\"\/><strong>Jamie McIvor<\/strong><br \/>BBC Scotland News Correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Scotland&#8217;s 32 councils will be waiting for news on how much Scottish government money they will get in the coming year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Once they know this, they can start finalising their own budgets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Councils are heavily dependent on Scottish government money &#8211; and<br \/>\nthis money can essentially be split into two components.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Some of it is tied to specific objectives &#8211; the government will<br \/>\nexpect it to be spent on a particular project or service. This is known as<br \/>\nringfencing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But some of it can be spent on whatever the council may deem<br \/>\nappropriate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This is why councils often warn of cuts and savings in particular<br \/>\nservices despite headline rises in government funding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The big unknown at present is over the council tax.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Nothing has been said publicly to indicate whether or not<br \/>\nincreases are likely to be limited.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Last year, councils were able to raise the council tax by as much<br \/>\nas they considered appropriate without losing any Scottish government money.<br \/>\nSome &#8211; such as Clackmannanshire &#8211; went for double-digit rises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Generally since the SNP came to power in 2007, the Scottish<br \/>\ngovernment has put the mechanisms in place to freeze the council tax or limit<br \/>\nincreases &#8211; often to 3%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After the Budget statement, individual councils learn how much the<br \/>\ngovernment plans to give them and how much of it may be ringfenced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Most will then confirm their own council tax level and local<br \/>\nbudgets in February. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Councils hold their breath over government fundingpublished at 11:57 GMT 11:57 GMT Jamie McIvorBBC Scotland News Correspondent Scotland&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-693151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115887817874281657","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}