A fair budget for the Highlands say Independent Councillors

15th February 2018

Independent councillors have delivered a fair budget for the Highlands today. It's a fair budget that has limited the impact on council services, protected the provision of frontline education, and minimised the rent increase for council house tenants.

Leader of the Council, Margaret Davidson, welcomed the outcome of today's budget meeting, "Councillors were faced with difficult choices over the last few months as they considered how to fill the budget gap. This was complicated by the unacceptably late decision by the Scottish Government in allocating funds to the Highland Council.

"Despite those Scottish Government imposed challenges we’ve delivered a balance budget that protects the Highlands. Schools and roads are the key priorities for Highland Independent councillors. We’ve protected school budgets and put an extra £1/4 million into rural primary schools. Our roads are seeing the brunt of harsh winter weather so the fact we haven’t plundered the roads maintenance budget, unlike other councils, means we can continue to prioritise road repairs.

We’ve protected council jobs, vital for the Highland economy, without resorting to compulsory redundancies. And we’ve introduced a modest increase council rents of just 36p a week, which means we can spend more on housing maintenance and repairs."

“There been much muttering about lack of leadership by opposition councillors. Unfortunately, they failed to demonstrate leadership themselves by ducking the big decisions and suggesting we don’t set a budget today. That would be irresponsible and lead to greater uncertainty for council staff and Highland residents. Independent councillors provided clear leadership for the Highlands by delivering a fair and balanced budget for the council."