Make No Mistake Highland Council Are Going to Make Significant Cuts For Next Two Years At Least
23rd February 2024
Over £100m investment programme proposed as part of 3-year budget
Highland council are about to use significant amounts of reserves to cover shortfalls in the budget for 24/25 and possibly 25/26. Despite pushing out big figures it disguises the cuts about to fall on Highland services.
Over £100m of investment will be possible if budget proposals are agreed at Highland Council's budget setting meeting on 29 February.
Budget saving proposals of £54m are underpinned by the need to invest in change to deliver recurring and sustainable cost reduction, income generation, redesign and efficiency savings.
£32.3m of Reserves is proposed to support and invest in change and redesign, which includes £20m to support Adult Social Care, to deliver cost improvements and redesign, thus supporting the achievement of a multi-year £12.6m saving target against that budget.
£1.2m has also been set aside from Reserves to drive build community capacity in the third sector and community groups in order to support training, mentoring and specialist support in areas such as health and social care.
Up to £60m of capital can be released with an additional £1m per annum of investment in loan charge budgets over 3 years. This would significantly boost the Council's opportunity to invest in important capital projects such as roads and infrastructure.
£6m has been proposed for property maintenance with £2m per annum funding over 3 years, met from Reserves. The Council has over 3000 assets and much of the school estate and depots are in urgent need of repairs. This funding would go some way towards the more urgent needs.
An additional £37m has been earmarked to meet inflationary and other cost pressures.
Convener Bill Lobban said: "Investment is fundamental to supporting the necessary transformation in order to redesign our services and maximise our income generation and release longer term savings. Funding change over a 3 year period allows substantial changes to take place and be sustainable."
Leader of the Council Raymond Bremner added: "We have recently had to make difficult decisions on our capital programme due to the difficult financial context we find ourselves in. An additional £60m, while not an answer to everything, would go some way towards us being able to invest in important capital projects, while not putting undue pressure on our Reserves."
The budget paper sets out the Reserves position for consideration by Members on 29 February.
Related Businesses
Related Articles
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.
The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate. The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate.
Following the success of its Business Digital Grant scheme launched last year, The Highland Council is delighted to announce further funding. This is to help Highland companies access digital support alongside other business growth support.
The Highland Council is delighted to confirm a highly successful second year for Public Service Obligation (PSO) flights between Wick and Aberdeen. The period from April 2023 to March 2024 has seen a substantial increase in passenger numbers, with several months seeing over 1,000 passengers using the service, and overall the service has seen year on year growth of 25%.
Members of Highland Council, who met on Thursday 14 March 2024, approved a corporate Digital Ambition, which has been designed to deliver significant organisational change across Council services, recognising the current priorities within the organisation. The Strategy, which is embedded within the wider Council Delivery Plan, has been developed to focus attention and resources on areas of change which will deliver the greatest benefit to the Council.
The Council remains committed to supporting mentoring in our schools, including the support that is currently delivered through the MCR Pathways programme. Highland Council is currently undertaking a review of Employability Support provided by a number of different council services and how these relate to the work carried out by external partners and in our schools.
Highland Council members have considered and agreed a revised draft Highland Outcome Improvement Plan. The partnership plan has been reviewed and updated by the Community Planning Partnership.
