Highland Council Budget Reality

28th February 2023

Council Tax to increase by 4% in 2023/24. This will be one of the lowest increases in Scotland with several council already opting for a 5% increase..

A band D property
£1,372.30 increase £54.89 - £1,427.19

Staff levels to be reduced by 206 jobs.
The Highland council has a no redundancy policy and many of these positions are already empty.

Removal of Discretionary Spending - Saving £90k
Review of the Early Years grants budget for non-statutory services with the view to full removal by the beginning of 2024/25. This is a legacy budget which does not provide funding equitably for all
EY organisations across Highland and the organisations do not provide commissioned services provided through an SLA with the Council via this grant funding.
Organisations currently in receipt of grant funding from this budget are: SNAP £65k, Toybox Gairloch £10k, Pultneytown Peoples Project £25k, CSS £60k, Fas Mor £10k, Allsorts £10k.
To mitigate the financial impact of the removal of these grants, a 6 month notice period will be given from 01/04/23 - effectively providing a 50% reduction in year one. From the next financial
year the full year saving total will be £0.180m.

Village Halls Etc
Remove legacy funding provided to a number of arts, culture, sports, music and community organisations. Where Service Level Agreements are in place, notice per the terms of those agreements will be given. From the next financial year the full year saving total will be £0.107m.
The organisations and savings are as follows: Aros (Skye) £7k, Highland Print Studio £7k, Lochaber Music School £9k, Village Hall grants scheme (£50k pan Highland) and Sports Council funding (£34k pan-Highland). The grant schemes for the final two funding streams have been under subscribed in recent years.

Review Mental Health and Wellbeing: - Saving £500k

To read the full list of cuts to a wide range of the budget headings go to
[url=https://www.highland.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/4754/highland_council]