THE general election campaigns so far have been a mix of lacklustre manifestos from the main political parties — all failing to address the causes of worsening conditions in housing, healthcare and job opportunities.

Along with the constant drive to international war, we have fascistic rhetoric from the far right that denies any legitimate criticism of capitalism and the ruling class — instead turning it on the most vulnerable in our society, refugees.

However, the election does give a platform to progressive forces within the trade union and workers’ movements to highlight the systemic crisis felt by the working class in Britain and the growing distrust of Establishment politics. 

Nowhere is this more evident than on the issue of local services. At hustings up and down the country many candidates are faced with questions relating to poor social housing, worsening public transport, disintegrating community centres and dilapidated high streets. Many of those candidates will push these issues onto problems with local authorities, often using the chance to score political points.

Local authorities have been first to the guillotine at every round of government-imposed cuts. In Scotland, a Convention of Scottish Local Authorities survey of all 32 councils showed over £600 million of pressures for 2023-24 due to inflation, rising energy costs, pay and increased demand without an increase to budget from the Scottish government. 

This coincides with a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies which states: “Official projections by the Scottish government and Scottish Fiscal Commission suggest that the amount available for all public services is set to fall by 1.6 per cent in 2024-25. If grant funding for councils is cut in line with this, overall funding for Scottish councils would fall by around 0.5 per cent in real terms compared with 2023-24, even if council tax was increased by 5 per cent.”

In the event the Scottish government froze council tax, with local authorities and services in such a dire state, what then is the strategy of the left? What are the questions we should be asking? And what are the obstacles in our path to reclaiming councils as tools for social progress? 

One major development in the trade unions’ strategy comes from this year’s 127th Scottish TUC Congress, where a motion calling for a zero-cuts budget was passed. North Lanarkshire Trade Union Council moved the motion that calls for the STUC to develop and work with trades councils to:

• Lobby councils to reform council tax in line with STUC’s 2023 tax report;
• Encourage local councils to pressure the Scottish government to implement the taxation model proposed in the report;
• For the STUC to lobby councils and government to deliver a zero-cuts budget, as the STUC tax report shows these cuts are purely a political choice.

This is a huge development in comparison to other years where “no-cuts budget” motions were voted down. However, it’s fine to lobby and campaign but what are the obstacles in our way? And how do we get past them?

The main and most critical argument put against such budgets is legality. The Local Government and Finance Act 1992 imposes restrictions on actions that councillors can take to avoid passing a cuts budget, and councillors may find themselves in opposition to their code of conduct if found to be purposefully avoiding passing a “legal” budget. 

This is backed by a cohort of council officers who pressure councillors that attempt to avoid or organise against cuts. From every level councillors are faced with legal threats and institutional opposition to cuts-free budgets that many of them don’t see as politically safe in relation to their individual position. In this respect, they find themselves separated from the communities they represent.

Past political gerrymandering of constituencies introduces a crucial class element for attempts by local authorities to gather tax on higher earners. Changes to Glasgow cities’ boundaries in the 1990s allowed more affluent areas to escape. Only 200 Glasgow properties were taxed at the higher level. Boundaries can however be changed at Scottish government level.

The STUC’s tax report highlights both short- and long-term reforms that the Scottish government can introduce to gather more than £3 billion worth of tax that can be fed into local services and invested in communities. The political will to tax the wealthy and landowners, however, simply isn’t there.

Short-term Holyrood could raise £1.1 billion from income tax reforms, land and buildings tax, additional dwellings supplement and landfill tax.  

Long-term Holyrood could raise £2.6bn from a wealth tax, a proportional property tax replacing council tax, replacing the small business bonus scheme by a scheme for the relief of Fair Work employers, a land value tax on commercial land, levies on frequent flyers and private jets, a carbon emissions land tax and a Scottish aggregates levy.

What is to be done? Over the past year trades councils in Clydebank, Lanarkshire, Aberdeen, and Fife have been at the forefront of the anti-cuts campaign to bring together the industrial, political and social struggles to fight for our communities. They have sometimes found support in unexpected places. Mothers’ groups have sprung up against North Lanarkshire Council’s plans to cut school bus transport. They have picketed the council building, disrupted, and then taken over, a council meeting — all to defend the safety of their children. Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned.

In the framing of the general election left candidates must highlight the lack of a political will to address the causes of dwindling public services through progressive taxation focused on wealth and land ownership. Cuts are not necessities, as is now the Labour Party line. Rather they are a political decision to put the burden of the country’s problems onto the working class rather than a capitalist class benefiting from a low wage, poor terms and conditions economy.

The primary action must therefore be to build and support grassroots community campaigns, giving them the political understanding and tools to address the apathy of politicians, that gain confidence through victories in saving local community centres and school transport and improving conditions in social housing. The general election offers a perfect opportunity to bring these arguments into the public consciousness and vocabulary. 

But the hard work starts after this when we go back into our communities and build that political will to force councillors into positions where they must directly challenge the government and say “no more.”

Drew Gilchrist, of North Lanarkshire TUC, moved the successful No Cuts Budget motion at the 2024 STUC Congress. He is a Communist Party of Britain candidate in Coatbridge and Bellshill.