Statement following West Lothian’s Council’s Budget Agreement 2025/2026

Statement from Lib Dem Councillor Sally Pattle, Ward 1, Linlithgow, following West Lothian’s Council’s Budget Agreement 2025/2026

Firstly, I’d like to extend my thanks to Officers for their continued openness and transparency over the past year. I’ve felt fully informed about the increasingly dire financial situation we are facing in West Lothian.

There are pressures coming from every conceivable angle – from changes to legislation in how bulky waste has to be treated before recycling; to ever-increasing demand in adult social care; the ongoing and worsening housing emergency and of course the completely unexpected – and unfunded – increase in National Insurance Contributions. The latter is forecast to cost the council £6.6m in this year alone and we have been offered £2.2m uplift by the Scottish Government, vastly increasing our predicted budget gap yet again.

It’s worth recognising that West Lothian Council has made historic savings worth £172.6m since 2007. We talk about ‘transformation’ being a key theme of the council’s corporate strategy, and I believe it’s absolutely correct for an organisation the size of West Lothian Council, that offers such a range of services – including statutory services – to continually assess whether they are operating in the most efficient way possible.

However, it is also clear that there comes a point where ‘transformation’ simply becomes another word for ‘cut’ and sadly, I believe we reached that point long ago.

What we as a council are having to agree to now are decisions that nobody finds easy to make, but that’s also why I believe every Elected Member has the responsibility to pull together and support this budget and the proposals within it.

A few final things to note. As has been well-documented, the Scottish Government has made it perfectly clear over many years just how little it values local government, whether that’s through the continual ring-fencing of funding streams which curtail our ability to spend the money we are given where it will best serve our communities, or through artificially freezing council tax and not funding the shortfall – despite claims to the contrary – or by the infuriating short-termism that has plagued every single service sector’s ability to forward plan.

We also need to recognise the difficult work done by Officers to identify further savings since September 2024. I fully appreciate that the measures included in today’s budget will not be what anyone wants to hear, but I’d also like to reassure the people of West Lothian, who have put their trust in us to act as their elected members, that we will continue to scrutinise and question every proposal that is brought before us.

That’s why I’ve been supporting efforts over the past year to find a mutually agreeable and bespoke solution for each and every community centre to ensure their long-term viability – both in terms of looking at different operating models, but also by requiring the council to concurrently look at internal staffing structures.

And it’s why I’ll continue to call for a coordinated national response – both from Westminster and Holyrood – to the RAAC crumbling concrete crisis which as been so effectively tackled by West Lothian Council, but which has come at a current cost of £68m. Despite repeated requests for support, every single penny of that £68m has been taken from our reserves, placing a huge strain on our ability to balance the budget.

At a time when increasing numbers of citizens find themselves looking to their council – our council – for support, we must do everything in our power to ensure we can continue to provide services to every resident in West Lothian, and furthermore we must make sure West Lothian Council is able to prudently plan for the financial long-term, and is therefore able to cope with whatever the future brings. Which is why I supported the budget proposals brought forward today, and why I’ll to work as hard as I can for the people who have placed their trust in me to see their best interests are served by West Lothian Council.