Members' Business — S5M- 02900 Alex Rowley: Local Government Finance and the State of the Debt

That the Parliament welcomes the work of Unite the Union Scotland in producing its paper, Local Government Finance and the State of the Debt; understands that the paper estimates that Scotland’s local authorities, which includes Fife Council, have around £2.4 billion of pre-Scottish devolution debt liabilities owed to the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB), with an average rate of return of 8%; further understands that post-devolution interest rates paid to PWLB are only around half this; notes that pre-devolution interest rates were not independently set by the Bank of England but by the then UK Government; believes that there is a growing consensus regarding the need for action to tackle local authority debt owed to PWLB; considers that Scottish devolution was intended to be a new beginning for Scotland, and notes the view that the time has come for this historic financial burden to be dropped by the UK Government.