Nature funding to be used to settle council pay deals

Money set aside for restoring nature is to be diverted into funding wage settlements in Scotland’s local authorities. Ministers have told councils to divert current allocations from the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) to settle pay deals. 

The fund is worth £29.2m spread across councils and the Scottish government’s nature agency, NatureScot. 

The NRF is used to pay for local projects to tackle the nature emergency, ranging from tree-planting to restoring waterways. 

Finance Secretary Shona Robison said that spending constraints were “unavoidable”. Staff in 26 of Scotland’s 32 council areas had planned to walk out in August after rejecting two previous wage increases proposed by local government body Cosla. 

The unions suspended strike action for their members to consider the latest offer. Nick Halfhide, NatureScot’s director of nature and climate change, said: “As with other public bodies, we work with the budgets allocated to us by the government to deliver our statutory functions and priorities agreed with Scottish Ministers. 

“While we understand that difficult decisions have been taken, NatureScot continues to actively support a wide range of exciting nature restoration projects across Scotland.”