Council Tax freeze for 7th year in a row recommended as budget balances for 2014-15

12th December 2013

The Highland Council is being asked next week to freeze the Council Tax for a seventh successive year and confirm a budget of £563.697 million for 2014-15.

The Council Tax bands would remain: Band A: £775.33; Band B: £904.56; Band C: £1,033.78; Band D: £1,163.00; Band E: £1,421.44; Band F: £1,679.89; Band G: £1,938.33; Band H: £2,326.00.

A final tranche of budget adjustments amounting to £3.561 million – added to the £12.148 million of savings already identified in February 2013 - will be presented to the Council meeting on Thursday 19 December for approval to balance the budget and allow the budget process to be concluded two months ahead of the typical special February budget meeting.

Councillor Dave Fallows, Chair, Finance Housing and Resources Committee, who has been leading the budget discussions, said the early conclusion to the budget discussions was due to sound forward planning and savings identified at the start of this year.

The budget of £563.697 million includes an estimated grant settlement of £451.444 from the Scottish Government and income from the Council Tax of £112.253 million. It also takes account of £3 million to be spent on preventative measures in relation to children and older people and a 1% increase in pay for staff.

The Education Culture and Sport budget is the biggest at £235.342 million followed by £137.606 million on health and social care and £56.1 million on Transport Environmental and Community Services.

Councillor Fallows advised that although the settlement from the Scottish Government maintained the Council grant at previous levels, inflationary pressures meant that Council faced some tougher times going forward, with potential savings totalling up to £80 million equivalent to 3% per annum, required over the period to 2018/19. He said: “Setting the budget for 2014/15 now, allows additional time over the next 12 months for the Council to consider options for addressing the substantial challenges ahead. Early consideration of future budget savings will be made whenever possible.”

The report to Council states that the budget strategy over the period 2015/16 until 2018/19 would focus on strategic reviews, service redesign and transformational change. The senior management team had held a number of budget strategy meetings to further consider how the strategy could be taken forward and the types of review which could lead to the service change and savings over that period.

The report to Council recommends that responsibility for setting council house rents for 2014-15 should be delegated to the Finance Housing and Resources Committee at its meeting on Wednesday 22 January.