ON Friday I was through in Edinburgh to attend what is likely to be my second last COSLA leaders’ meeting as Inverclyde council leader.

This monthly meeting provides the opportunity for council leaders from across Scotland to come together to discuss issues of common interest and national importance. 

As usual the agenda was long and varied, ranging from education governance, climate change and unaccompanied asylum seeking children through to water billing and collection. Of course no political agenda these days would be complete without a report on Brexit.

The first item on the agenda — and arguably the most important— was a report on the Scottish Government’s draft Child Poverty Bill.

The ambition of the Bill — the eradication of child poverty — is most laudable. 

The Bill is likely to place a new duty on local authorities to take action to reduce child poverty, including the requirement to report annually on what they have done to achieve this aim.

Unfortunately, like many Scottish Government bills, there is little sign that significant new resources will be made available to councils to take forward this duty.

In our recent budget, the council established a £1 million anti-poverty fund, but this is a drop in the ocean compared to the level of need there is in our community. 

A radical Scottish approach to child poverty must be backed with much more funding. 

This can only come from the Scottish Government, using the new tax and social security powers that have been devolved from Westminster since the 2014 independence referendum.

I was delighted therefore to hear Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale announce on Saturday at our party conference in Perth a plan to increase child benefit by an extra £240 a year by 2021 using these new powers. 

Labour will be urging the SNP government to include this plan in the Child Poverty Bill.

One of the reasons we have seen an increase in child poverty in the past few years has been the callous welfare reforms of the UK Tory government. 

These were the subject of another report to COSLA leaders outlining the impacts of the roll out of Universal Credit, the reduction in the benefits cap and the change from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payments (PIPs).

The local impacts of the move from DLA to PIPs were the subject of a separate report to the council’s heath and social care committee last week. 

Officers have calculated that Inverclyde residents could suffer a total financial loss of nearly £6.3m a year. This will cause real hardship for thousands of our fellow citizens.

Another cause of increasing poverty is the real reduction in incomes as a result of earnings failing to keep pace with inflation. Council staff have not been immune to this; with nearly a decade now of modest or no pay rises due to ongoing funding constraints.

At COSLA leaders on Friday we considered a request from the trade unions for an increased pay offer for the new financial year starting on 1 April.

Despite the poor funding settlement from the Scottish Government, leaders of Labour-led councils proposed an increased offer to try to secure a negotiated settlement with our trade unions.

This proposal was opposed by leaders of SNP, Tory and independent led councils. However with Labour currently having the majority ofcouncil leaders our motion was passed by 14 votes to 10.

While this increased pay offer will add to the financial pressures on councils, we simply cannot continue to ask our staff to shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden of Tory austerity and the failure of the Scottish Government to use the powers it has.

If we want quality public services and a fairer society we must be prepared to share the wealth of our nation more equitably.