Hundreds Of Responses Received To Budget Engagement of Highland Council
15th December 2023
Hundreds of people have responded to the Highland Council's programme of engagement, completing a survey or taking part in the budget simulator challenge.
The Council is facing an estimated budget gap of around £62m in 2024-25 and is expected to need over £100m over the next 3 years to balance the books with current expenditure.
The public, partners and staff were invited to take part in a survey and a budget simulator to try and balance the budget and prioritise spending. Nearly 1900 people have responded to the survey and some 429 people took part in the simulator challenge, while thousands of people watched our videos explaining the budget challenges for the Council.
Emerging themes are telling us that people understand the need to raise income generation through council tax and increases in fees and charges. Unsurprisingly, people value the less visible support services less, with winter gritting and kerbside refuse collection being valued more.
Suggestions to save money include increasing digitisation, charging motor homes for services, introducing the visitor levy and increasing use of renewable energy on our buildings.
Leader of the Council, Raymond Bremner said: "I am delighted that so many people have taken part in our survey and simulator challenge. With less money, we need to decide whether to reduce our costs, to increase our income or a mixture of both. We want to focus our resources on key priorities and so it is important to know what matters most to our communities. There is still time to take part in both the survey and budget simulator for the next two weeks and I would encourage as many as possible to do that."
Convener Bill Lobban said: "Highland Council is facing the same financial challenge as other public sector agencies and individual households are facing with increasing costs and inflation. We are looking at a range of options, however high interest rates and the increasing cost of borrowing limits these options at the current time. As everyone knows, especially in this festive season, it can be tempting to borrow money to get through the short term, but that simply stores up problems for the future and that is equally applicable to the Council as well as individuals."
Cllr Bremner added: “Significant work is currently underway to find savings and income generation to close the budget gap. This is not an easy task and difficult decisions will be required, however we aim to balance the Council's budget.”
There is still time to take part in the budget survey and simulator until 24 December.
Find out more at https://www.highland.gov.uk/budget
Related Businesses
Related Articles
At the Highland Council Economy and Infrastructure Committee. (Thursday 2 May 2024) Members had the opportunity to review the work the Council is doing to progress active travel and improve road safety before approving the next steps.
At the meeting of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee members had the opportunity to review the last two years of the Community Regeneration Funding Programme before agreeing changes to how the 2024/25 programme will be delivered. Committee Chair, Cllr Ken Gowans said: "Following a successful two years, it is a good time to review what has gone well and what can be done better so we can continue to build on success, and seamlessly move the focus onto how best to support the delivery of projects." "With 279 live projects and over £6million of committed funds still to be claimed, there is no doubt as to the value and impact of the programme's potential.
The Highland Council's In-House bus service pilot project was launched in January 2023. The success of its first year of operation in delivering savings and creating a valued and reliable service was highlighted at today’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee.
Members of Highland Council's Economy and Infrastructure Committee today (2 May 2024) approved the local authority's draft Ecology Strategy and Action Plan which will now move forward to an 12-week public consultation. The Ecology Strategy sets out an ambitious set of actions to tackle biodiversity loss and address the ecological emergency.
Economy and Infrastructure Committee members today (2 May 2024) agreed to direct £100K from the Council's share of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) to fund a new staff training programme at the Inverness Castle Experience. The funding will enable the project team to provide specialist visitor attraction training to young people identified through partners at Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) and the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI).
The Housing and Property Committee met on Wednesday 1 May 2024 and noted the Housing Service performance report 2023/24 that met the agreed priorities and associated initiatives in the Local Housing Strategy 2023-2028. The report highlighted a number of achievements in 2023/24 in increasing housing supply.
Kate Lackie, Malcolm MacLeod and Allan Gunn have been appointed as Assistant Chief Executives with The Highland Council. Convener of the Council, Cllr Bill Lobban said: "I am delighted to say that Kate Lackie, Malcolm MacLeod and Allan Gunn have been appointed as Assistant Chief Executives with The Highland Council.
As intimated in Highland Council's budget plan, a new senior management structure is to be implemented following approval by Council 14th March. It reconfigures the senior management team into two layers, rather than three and brings Highland Council into line with other benchmarked authorities.
Today, Morrison Construction introduced some of their local apprentices who are working on the UK Governments' Levelling Up Funded refurbishment project at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness. All these apprentices have been recruited from the Highland area.
The by-election to elect a councillor to represent Ward 19 - Inverness South on The Highland Council has been won by Duncan Cameron McDonald - Independent who was one of the eight candidates who contested the vacancy. Voters in the ward went to the poll yesterday (Thursday 11 April) and the by-election count was held this morning in The Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness.