A MAJOR shake-up of Scotland's councils is needed as the country's local government set-up makes it an "international outlier", the Scottish Greens have said.
In a new report, the party has called for the return of a two-tier system with regional and district councils to "bring decision-making closer to communities".
The Greens said that Scotland's system of having 32 unitary authorities means it has less local democracy than almost any comparable country in Europe.
The party argued that current councils are too big "to be truly local", while the system is also too fragmented "to plan properly for the future".
Scotland currently serves around 170,000 people per council, which is far greater than other countries such as Denmark, where it is around one third of that.
The report cites how prior to 1996, Scotland had a two-tier system of local government with district councils providing local democratic accountability while larger regional councils created economies of scale for service delivery, which is more aligned with models across the UK and Europe.
Green MSP Kristopher Leask said overhauling the council system in Scotland should be a key priority in the upcoming Programme for Government, which is to be revealed this week.
He said: "In too many places our councils are simply too big to be truly local, while the system as a whole is too fragmented to plan properly for the future.
“We need to put local democracy back at the heart of local government. District councils would give local people a direct say over the decisions that affect their neighbourhoods, while regional councils would have the scale to deliver services efficiently and tackle the big challenges facing Scotland.
“This would bring decision-making closer to people while making sure councils have the capacity to tackle the big challenges facing our communities.
“After years of centralisation, it is time to stop treating local government as an afterthought. We need to rebuild local democracy, give our councils and communities real power and create a system that works for the people it is meant to serve."
It comes after the Daily Record reported council mergers are being considered by the First Minister.
Sources have told the paper the Government may commit to enabling legislation that would allow councils to merge on a voluntary basis.
In May, the Scottish Government appointed its first Secretary for Public Sector Reform in Ivan McKee, and the Greens have said introducing a two-tier system should be one of his key priorities.
In 2024, former SNP minister Kate Forbes also argued for councils to be broken down into smaller entities.
She said “big behemoths” like Highland Council needed to be broken down to ensure people’s voices outside big urban areas like Inverness were not drowned out.
The Greens have also called for the "broken" council tax system to be abolished and replaced with a fairer alternative.
In a makeover of Scotland's council system, the report argues there should be eight to 15 regional councils holding strategic functions such as health and care integration, transport and economic strategy.
These would be paired with "genuinely empowered" district councils below them.
The report says: "The Scottish Government needs to make a clear commitment in the upcoming Programme for Government that local government reform is part of the wider programme for public sector reform.
"This also needs to be accompanied by progressing the ongoing commitment to significant reform of the council tax, to ensure changes to local government and public services are properly resourced. Structural reform of this kind delivers savings, but the international evidence is consistent that they are real rather than dramatic."
