Highland Council spends over half of its Council Tax revenue servicing debt according to Scottish Greens Report

They are not alone however, according to a Scottish Greens Press Release yesterday:

"Scottish Green MSPs today (16 Nov) published a report revealing the scale of long-term debt being held by Scotland's 32 local authorities - a total of £11.5billion.

In many cases, councils are spending more than half of the money they bring in from Council Tax simply to pay interest on debts including loans from the UK Treasury and private banks.

The Green MSPs are calling for the debts to be written off, so that local authorities can focus their resources on protecting public services.

The report, Local Government Debt in Scotland, uses data compiled by People vs PFI and Debt Resistance UK and shows that some councils are facing up to nine per cent interest rates, finding themselves trapped after taking out high-risk loans from private banks."

Details in the report reveal that Highland Council have a total long term debt of £746,187.00 and spend  54% of Council Tax Revenue servicing debt. 

Scottish Greens press release is here and the report is here.