The cross-party Borders Finance Summit, convened by Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale MSP Jeremy Purvis and Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk MP Michael Moore was raised in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday and was commended by Scottish Government Finance Secretary John Swinney.
The debate focused on the influential Finance Committee report, which concluded:
“The Committee asked at the beginning of this inquiry what preparation should be underway now by the public sector in responding to tightening public expenditure. The Committee is of the view that the evidence of adequate preparation is at best patchy and it is concerned that there still appears to be a lack of urgency among some public sector leaders. While the Committee heard some broad examples of how the impact of the spending cuts could be mitigated, there does not appear to be a consistent approach across the public sector to preparing for budget reductions. The Committee therefore calls on decision makers within all publicly funded bodies, and also the Scottish Government and parliamentary committees, to show far greater leadership by discussing in more open and realistic terms the impact that the budget cuts will have and the options that are available to deal with these cuts.”
In the Parliamentary debate on the conclusions John Swinney said:
“There is an interesting contrast between the assertion … that there has somehow been a lack of leadership in the debate, and the example of the event in the Borders that Mr Purvis described, regarding which I saw some media comment — and I very much welcome the fact that such an event took place.”
He went on:
“…it was clear that public sector partners in the Borders had been working on the agenda for the discussion. That utterly refutes the view that nobody has been working on the matter.”
Jeremy Purvis added after the debate:
“There are very serious times ahead and in many respects there should be political parties working together. In that regard I am pleased that John Swinney has recognised the contribution that was made to the way forward at the recent meeting with local public bodies. The Cabinet Secretary’s commendation of the summit meeting is in stark contrast to other reactions we have seen which tried to score cheap points by attacking it for no good reason.
“I will continue to argue for local bodies working together to prevent them disappearing altogether as people talk about centralisation. I will follow up the commitment by the Cabinet Secretary that civil service support will be made available to support the work of Scottish Borders Council and NHS Borders work through more combined joint delivering of services.”