Public views vital for new Highland Council budget
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CHALLENGES faced by Highland Council when it sets its next budget make it vital that the public airs its views, the local authority has said.
It made the comments after a new Accounts Commission report underlined the challenge ahead for setting the council budget.
The chairman of the commission, Graham Sharp, said: “There’s a need for councils to continue rethinking how they deliver services, and look at ways to increase their income. For some councils in Scotland, finding ways to do this is getting more and more difficult as their current income doesn’t match demand.”
The commission added that over the past six years as “…demand for services continues to grow, funding for councils from the Scottish Government has reduced by 7.6 per cent and is forecast to reduce further.”
And the council said the publication of the commission’s report reinforced the “urgent need” for taxpayers to engage in the council’s budget consultation process when it begins in January. Budget leader and chairman of the corporate resources committee, councillor Alister Mackinnon, said: “Highland Council’s budget engagement will focus on efficiency, building reserves, increasing income and restructuring to enable a more flexible workforce, which will strengthen the local economy and protect jobs.
“It’s vital that people in Highland take part when they have the chance, in the council’s budget engagement processes in January. It will only be with local information, choices and preferences expressed that councillors will be able to make the very difficult budget-setting decisions.”
While the Accounts Commission’s warned that “council budgets [are] straining to keep pace with demand,” the council argued it also recognised the investment that Highland is making in housing, and transparency in financial management reporting.
Highland Council will launch its budget engagement in the new year.
