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As you have said, we have talked about that before. In general, there are three areas where there are particular pressures: environmental health; planning services; and building standards. As we have discussed previously, significant work is going on in all three areas to improve that aspect.

In environmental health, for example, a lot of work is going on. In addition to the work that we are doing directly with local authorities, Food Standards Scotland has awarded the Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health in Scotland £0.25 million to provide funding to Scottish local authorities for sponsorship of trainee food safety auditors and the new qualification pathway to the higher certificate in food control.

In relation to planning—and we have discussed this in depth previously—we are continuing to engage closely with COSLA and Heads of Planning Scotland to understand the pressures on planning services. Action to strengthen the future pipeline of skilled planners entering and being retained in the planning sector in Scotland is a high priority for us, and it is a core part of the delivery of national planning framework 4. There are a number of actions, which we talked about just a couple of months ago. Those actions are on-going, but we recognise the challenges in that regard.

The third area—which, again, is outwith my direct portfolio—is building standards, and again, we are working closely with local authorities on that. Given that one of the challenges in the building standards sector is the profession’s profile and esteem, there has been a lot of focus on that aspect. One specific piece of work involves the ambassadors network, which is helping promote job roles and improve the profession’s attractiveness. As a result of the new modern apprenticeship pathway, which was introduced just last year, apprentices are now starting to come through.

We are taking action in those three areas, working in partnership with local government. We cannot simply take forward that work on our own—we have to work in partnership, as the committee would expect.

We effectively gave a heads-up with regard to high-level spending in the “Investing in Scotland's Future: Resource Spending Review” public document that was published in May 2022 and which looked at the Scottish budget up to 2026-27.

However, we are publishing a one-year budget for 2024-25 because, although we recognise the merits of multiyear budgets, the nature of the autumn statement and the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts make future prospects more volatile. It could in fact be misleading, and more unhelpful, if we were to suggest that there was some certainty about the position going forward.

We will revisit the multiyear outlook in the next medium-term financial strategy, which is due to be published in May 2024. However, if we were to suggest that we could promise what was coming in the future, that might not be as transparent as it might at first appear.

As Councillor Hagmann said, that was an aspiration. If we had had the fiscal framework in place by September, it would have been able to feed into the budget, which would have been good. However, it is important that we get it right. A huge amount of collaborative work between the Scottish Government and COSLA is going into the fiscal framework, and that work will continue. As was said, we want to get it ready as soon as we can, but it absolutely needs to be right.

In the meantime, we have taken a number of actions in the budget that support some of the principles that we expect to be in the fiscal framework—for example, on ring fencing, £1 billion is being baselined, which is really important. It is important to recognise that there is no simple formula. There was a suggestion previously that we should just take a percentage of the Scottish budget. Well, this time, we have given local government a higher percentage of the Scottish budget, but it still does not meet the aspirations, because of what we are all trying to do across Scotland’s public services. The framework is important, but it is important that we get it right.

A huge amount of work is going on. The timetable is not in the Scottish Government’s gift, as we are working with COSLA—there are two partners.

Ian, is there anything that we can add?

In line with the Verity house principles, this year has seen a significant increase in meaningful pre-budget engagement with local government, which is equivalent to the process that was followed to ensure that cabinet secretaries’ portfolio priorities, and the three shared priorities, were factored into the budget considerations. We did that up front prior to the budget—in fact, a lot of work was done prior to the autumn statement; that statement was clearly a surprise, and a shock to Scottish public services.

The budget invests in the Verity house agreement by baselining almost £1 billion of funding across health, education, justice, net zero and social justice. It is crucial to make the point that that baselining, which provides greater flexibility, has been provided in advance of the agreement on an accountability and assurance framework, which will sit alongside the fiscal framework that we are also working on.

We will continue to work with local government to develop the necessary accountability and assurance arrangements, because that will allow us to provide more flexibility to ensure that the priorities of the Scottish Government and of the Parliament are achieved, alongside the priorities of local government and the three shared priorities in the Verity house agreement. To be clear, in this budget, which is the most difficult budget since devolution, we have prioritised local government with a higher share of our discretionary budget.

Whatever the constitutional situation is, we should step back and ask what we are trying to achieve. If we can achieve what we are trying to achieve without going down what would almost certainly be a challenging constitutional battle line, we should try to do that, because local authorities want those additional powers as soon as possible. My message to leaders across Scotland is that, if they have ideas, let us test them out. If the challenge is that the situation cannot be resolved without having that power, we will need to look at that. I do not think that I have seen anything where that has been the case—I do not know whether Ian Storrie is aware of anything—but, if there are issues, we need to look at them.

If we are looking at whether there is one magic power that makes everything okay, looking down south does not appear to be the answer. Twenty-six councils in some of England’s most deprived areas are at risk of effective bankruptcy, including those in Birmingham, Slough, Croydon and Woking. Clearly, there is something not right there. If there are lessons to be learned, that is great, but I am not sure that any one sweeping power will allow us to resolve some of the challenges.

The secret for us is to make sure that we work in collaboration and with respect. That gives us the opportunity to make a difference on the ground in a shorter time than would be the case with what could be a constitutional battle.

Despite the real-terms increases that were allocated to local government and several other public services this year, it is unquestionably the case that the pressures on our local authorities and other public services are unsurpassed. Such high levels of in-year inflation have not been experienced in my memory—not since I was very young. There was nothing that we could have done to plan for that, so that pressure is there. Our public services have done an amazing job to manage that in a way that protects the most important services, but let us not pretend that it is all apple pie; it is not. It has been really challenging this year in particular. We face significant in-year increases because of inflation, high energy costs and higher-than-expected pay settlements. Money to address those things has to be allocated from this year’s funds, so there is unquestionably a real challenge there.

That is partly why we are looking at further flexibilities for local government, but one of the things that we need to do is look at how we can empower local government to raise more of its own funds. That is a wider discussion. When I have gone around the country speaking to council leaders, I have encouraged them to think about what works for them.

It is absolutely clear that some ideas are coming through Parliament, such as the visitor levy and the proposal around second properties. Those will work for some local authorities but not for others, so we need to be open to the idea of listening. Obviously, there is a working group within COSLA that Councillor Hagmann co-chairs. There are 32 local authorities, and there might be other ideas out there. A local authority might come up with an idea that it thinks is bespoke to it but which another local authority says is useful for it, too. We need to be open to that if we want to have the public services that we all aspire to have.

It remains the Government’s view that we need to continue to make sure that we apply our limited resources across public services in such a way as to achieve the best possible results for our citizens, and that we need to continue to look at ways of doing things more efficiently and effectively. Flexibilities in local government to make sure that they can do things differently, if appropriate, are part of that. I guess that is where that sits. Nonetheless, we have managed to provide additional funds to local government in recent years.

Ultimately, how they employ and shape their workforce is a matter for local authorities, but there will Scotland-wide issues, particularly around skills gaps and the specific areas that, I guess, the committee will come to shortly: environmental health, planning and building standards. They are the challenges that you will have heard of, and it is absolutely appropriate that we work on them in collaboration with our colleagues in local government, further and higher education and the specific professions.

The area that I am most aware of is planning. The Government and COSLA are working with Heads of Planning Scotland and the Royal Town Planning Institute to make sure that we are taking that forward. A lot of work is being done where particular skills gaps have been identified. The first thing that we need to do is to recognise that there are challenges, and then work together to meet those challenges, and we are doing that in collaboration with our local government partners and others.

Councillor Hagmann covered most of the points eloquently. We cannot overemphasise the need to ensure that we have a workforce with the correct skills, and apprenticeships are part of that. The Withers report is really helpful in helping us to navigate that going forward across not just local authorities but the whole public service. Councillor Hagmann covered the other points.