Council finance deal deadline extended

Councils are to get an extra week to decide whether to accept the Scottish government's funding offer.

Scotland's 32 local authorities now have until 9 February to respond to the plan.

Many councils have complained they are facing bigger cuts and savings targets than they had forecast.

Inverclyde Council has said it will delay setting its budget until "uncertainty" over funding is resolved.

This is the second time the Scottish government has delayed the deadline.

On Tuesday, after talks between Finance Secretary John Swinney and senior councillors, they were given until 2 February to respond.

In his December budget, Mr Swinney again extended the national council tax freeze which has been in place since 2007.

The local authority umbrella group Cosla has warned pressures on council budgets are now so severe they face making "draconian cuts".

Some councils are considering an increase in council tax in defiance of the Scottish government.

Loss of funding

But BBC Scotland understands that doing so would lead to a loss of central funding in three key areas:

• their share of money for freezing the council tax

• their share of £250m towards the integration of health and social care

• their share of money to maintain the ratio of teachers to pupils in schools

Inverclyde Council has said it will delay its budget meeting because of what it calls "uncertainty over future Scottish government funding".

The council had been due to set out its plans on 18 February but the decision will now be delayed until March.

Inverclyde said the amount it will get from the government is being cut by £6.6m - £4.2m more than it had expected.

Council leader Stephen McCabe said: "We are working together with our trade union colleagues and all elected members through the cross-party members' budget working group to protect jobs and services as best we can.

"This is proving extremely challenging in the face of the extra cut from the Scottish government."