UofG Centre for Public Policy

12 October 2026: Following the Scottish Government's announcement of local government reforms, Dr Ian C Elliott examines Scotland's local government landscape, suggesting that improving outcomes may depend more on reforming systems, funding and governance than on changes to organisational structures.

Blog by Dr Ian C. Elliott

The Scottish government has set out plans for a reform of local governance including the development of two tiers of local government: a small number (6-10) of regional authorities and a larger number (120-160) of burgh/county/town/district/island community authorities. Councillors would still be elected at the ward level and would serve on both the community and regional local authorities.

Anyone who has been working in local government for over a decade might be surprised to read that “The current model of local government has not been reviewed since devolution and the restoration of the Scottish Parliament in 1999”. Whilst it is true that there hasn’t been a formal review to local government there have been many piecemeal changes which, taken together, mean that local government in Scotland today is radically different to how it was 26 years ago.

The current structure of 32 unitary authorities was established by the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 and came into being in 1996. This replaced the 9 regional councils, 53 local district councils and 3 single-tier island councils which had existed since 1975. The current council tax system came into force following the Local Government Finance Act 1992 which replaced the failed Poll Tax. Thus, on the face of it, nothing has changed – we still have 32 local authorities, and we still have council tax (and council tax valuation bands remain tied to 1991 property values).

Having a fairly small number of large local authorities is unusual by international standards. Across the UK the average local authority has 192,830 inhabitants. Scotland is fairly similar with 173,296 per local authority. But in Denmark it’s 60,988; Netherlands 52,614; Sweden 36,659; Belgium 20,974; Finland 18,250; Estonia 17,624. There is no evidence to suggest that larger local authorities are more efficient or produce better outcomes – and recent developments at Birmingham City Council (Europe’s largest local authority) would suggest quite the opposite.

Equally, the way in which council funding operates is unusual by international standards. Across Europe on average 25% of council funding comes from local taxes. In France it is 55.7%, Latvia 52.5%, Sweden 45.5%, Croatia 44.9%, and Spain 42.3%. In Scotland it is around 18% whilst in England it is 45.6%, in Wales it is around 30%. Whilst there have been many pledges and moves to reform the local government tax system in Scotland this remains a heavily debated issue.

Consequently, Scottish local authorities are more distant from the communities they serve and they have considerably less independence than is the case in other countries. At the same time, councils have faced many reforms since 1999 including to election processes, their responsibilities, commitments to joint working and community participation. An important question to ask is whether major structural reform of local government in Scotland will represent value for money or directly improve outcomes? Undoubtedly the public service landscape is cluttered, and there may be anomalies and inconsistencies in service delivery, but these are not necessarily caused by structures. In other words, it isn’t necessarily the organisational structures that need simplified but rather the systems, processes and practices of government (at all levels). This requires a fundamental rethink of how responsibilities are devolved and how our services are delivered to be more customer-facing.

Whatever reform takes place, it is important that how resources are allocated, how we measure progress, who is held accountable, and that decisions around what should be done (and what should be stopped) are all aligned with the National Performance Framework and the shared goal of improving the wellbeing of people living in Scotland now and in the future.

Author

Dr Ian C. Elliott is a Senior Lecturer in Public Administration at the Centre for Public Policy. His research includes the strategic state and mission-led government as well as the teaching of public administration. Ian has extensive experience of advising governments and conducting research on behalf of governments and public bodies including most recently as a member of Scottish Government Reform Advisory Group for the National Performance Framework.

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Photo by Artur Kraft on Unsplash

First published: 12 October 2026