President O’Neill, ladies and gentlemen, councillors and delegates.

Thank you for the opportunity to address your conference this morning, and set out some of the reasons why I believe the interests of local government - and everyone who depends on its vital services - are best served by a Yes vote for an independent Scotland in next year’s referendum.

First of all, however, let me set out what I am sure are shared beliefs and values held by everyone in this hall, regardless of our views on the constitutional future of Scotland.

First, local government is an essential element in the overall good governance of Scotland – it is not an ‘add on’, or a ‘nice to have’.  Local councils are in fact central to the delivery of most of the public services that contribute to the quality of life we seek for all the people of this country.

Second, whatever powers our parliament has at any given time, our country will be best governed when both the Holyrood government and local government are working together in a spirit of partnership and co-operation.

This is not to argue for bland uniformity – or to disregard the geographical, social and political diversity that is part and parcel of Scotland and our different tiers of government.

But it is to call for local and national government – by which I, of course, mean Holyrood – to respect the position of the other, and the job that each of us is elected to do.

Those of you who are long in the tooth may know that we have just moved beyond the 34th anniversary of the 1979 devolution referendum.  A number of doubts and disagreements within Scotland contributed to the Yes vote – at 52% - not being strong enough under the (frankly unfair) 40% rule laid down by Westminster for a measure of self-government to be achieved at that time.

One of these issues fomented by the No campaign in 1979 was a sense that local authorities and a new Scottish administration would find it difficult to coexist, and may seek to monopolise the affairs of the other.

Delegates, whatever other differences we may have, I doubt if there is a single person in this hall who would even want to argue that the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 has been anything other than an extremely positive development for Scottish local government.

Delegates who are not quite as long in the tooth will recall the years before devolution, when a Tory Government Scotland didn’t vote for denigrated local government and sought to disempower it at every turn.

And today we have a Tory government at UK level again which Scotland didn’t vote for - doing great damage to our social fabric though iniquitous measures such as the ‘Bedroom Tax’, and cutting the value of benefits for working families and vulnerable people – which puts enormous pressure on communities and the work of local councils.

But this time we do have a Scottish Parliament and Government that can make and are making a difference, in partnership with Cosla and Scotland’s councils.

Wherever we go in the future, we are not going back to the bad old days before Scotland had a parliament.

But my task this morning is to seek support for Scotland travelling further along our home rule journey to independence – so that local and national government can work together fully focused on advancing the services our nation depends on – instead of having to expend energy and resources mitigating the impact of damaging measures imposed by a Westminster government which most people in this hall and across Scotland did not vote for.

Delegates, I said at the start that councils were central to Scotland’s national life – and in a sense it was always thus.

The old, pre-democratic, independent Scottish Parliament was known as the Three Estates – or ‘Community of the Realm’ – in which the Third Estate comprised representatives of the Royal Burghs.  I suppose they could be described as the Cosla delegates of their day.

Indeed, in 1645 the Scottish Parliament met in Lower Parliament Hall here in St Andrews, supposedly to avoid the plague afflicting Edinburgh – as a former Health Secretary, I hope there are more positive reasons for meeting in this wonderful conference centre today.

But my serious point is that the delivery of services by a distinctively Scottish local government system – which has obviously undergone dramatic changes in nature and structure in all the years since – nonetheless takes its rightful place alongside other national institutions such as Scots Law and education which are part and parcel of what makes Scotland ‘Scotland’.

That gives us a solid platform to build on for an independent future.

Delegates, since coming to office in 2007, this government has sought to respect Scotland’s proud tradition of local government by working together on the basis of ‘parity of esteem’.  And we have achieved much together in difficult times.

The Concordat gave a new lease of freedom to local decision making by ending unnecessary ring-fencing, correcting a top-down approach to governing Scotland that was in many ways a hangover from the pre-devolution days.

And while there will always be difficulties, we have done our level best to work in partnership to provide a fair financial settlement for local government – indeed, a much better settlement than the one Westminster has handed down to Scotland as a whole.

I believe that where we have worked together, we have worked well.

This week, a £40 million package was announced to help families into hundreds of new social homes, and support up to 700 jobs in construction and related sectors over the next two years.  It will help realise our ambition of 5,000 council homes as part of wider plans to deliver more than 30,000 affordable homes during this Parliamentary term.

Last week, councils were allocated £33 million from the newly created Scottish Welfare Fund to provide Community Care Grants and Crisis Grants for disabled people, older Scots, lone parents and other vulnerable groups – including an additional £9.2 million to reinstate funding cuts by Westminster.

Last year, we announced with Cosla an agreement to jointly cover the £40 million cost of Westminster’s 10 per cent cut to Council Tax Benefit resources in 2013/14, protecting the income of over half-a-million Scots.  Neither Scottish nor local government would allow the lowest income people in Scotland currently receiving council tax benefit – including pensioners, those who cannot work because of disability, carers and people who receive tax credits – to suffer from this Westminster cut, and we worked together to protect them.

In the last Parliament, Cosla and the Scottish Government launched a new framework aimed at tackling poverty and income inequality in Scotland, setting out our joint approach in the fight against poverty.  The framework outlined the key actions required by government and our partners, such as the strengthening of income maximisation work, launching a campaign to raise awareness of statutory workers' rights, and supporting people who find it hardest to get into jobs or use public services.  It also called for the UK government to transfer responsibility for personal taxation and benefits to Scotland, simplify the tax credits scheme, and promote the greater availability of childcare vouchers.

Delegates, as someone who is very much involved in many of these initiatives, I will be the first to say that it is all excellent work – and I hope you will agree.

But for as long as the key levers of welfare and economic policy are held at Westminster, too much of our joint work has to be focused on reacting to policy decisions over which we have no control, and which we don’t even agree with.

That is bad for people in Scotland – and therefore I believe it is bad for local democracy and government in Scotland.

I mentioned the ‘Bedroom Tax’ earlier, and it is a particularly acute and harmful illustration of my point.  In the House of Commons debate last week, over 90% of Scotland’s MP who turned up for the debate opposed it – only 4 MPs supported it.  If a vote took place here today, I imagine the result would be similar.

As everyone knows, part of the job of councils is to empty the bins.  But it is not the job of local government to clear up after the rubbish policies generated by a remote Westminster government that appears clueless about the damage to families and society being wreaked by its ideology-driven social policies.

There is a better way – and a better job to be done.

I know that Scotland’s councils will always do the best they can in any set of circumstances.  But I believe that a proactive, shared Scottish policy agenda will always be better than reacting to divisive Westminster policies – and that therefore local government will work in the best interests of local people in an independent Scotland.

Finally, while this devolved administration has always sought to put our commitment to ‘parity of esteem’ with local government into action, we can go further with independence – and only with independence.  That is why a Yes vote is so important.

As new powers come to Holyrood, we will have the opportunity to also consider what powers should go from Holyrood to local government and from local government to local communities themselves.

Independence is about empowering people and communities as much as it is about empowering institutions. Indeed, we have already started that process through our Community Empowerment & Renewal Bill.

We want to go further though and I want to talk now about one particular proposal that can only be achieved with independence.

As you will know, the Scottish Government has published proposals for the transition to an independent Scotland if we achieve a Yes vote next year – including a process to involve the whole of Scotland in preparing a modern, written Constitution to enshrine key rights and protections.  Political parties, civic Scotland, local government representatives, and above all the people, will shape a 21st century constitution for a 21st century Scotland.

Delegates, as well as the other measures which the Scottish Government has advocated – such as free healthcare, education and a ban on nuclear weapons – I can announce today we will also argue for Scotland’s Constitution to guarantee the status and rights of local government.  The role of Scottish local authorities should be entrenched in a written Constitution – a democratic settlement that only independence offers.

Such constitutional protection is mainstream in developed democracies such as Germany, Denmark, and Sweden – once again, it is the UK which is the exception.   We believe this should also be the case in a modern, independent Scotland - and I look forward to having productive discussions on further details with representatives and champions of local government in Scotland.

Each and every person in Scotland has a big decision to make next autumn about the future of our country.  We all love Scotland equally, and this is not a competition about who is most Scottish – if it was, we would all win.  It is rather a contest of ideas about what is the best future of Scotland, and I hope you agree that the case for Yes is a positive and attractive one.

There are benefits for the people of Scotland – including the local government sector – that only the powers and status of independence can deliver.  It is the privilege of this generation – unique in our nation’s entire history - to be able to choose an independent future for Scotland in a free and fair ballot.  I hope that you do so.  I hope that my answers make you even more inclined to vote Yes – and therefore with that I am very open indeed to questions.

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