As it prepares to set the budget for 2026/27, the council has set out some of the factors that affect decisions about how to use council funding.
Recent estimates showed a gap of around £14 million in the council budget. The Scottish Government national funding settlement and budget adjustments bring some reduction to this but with increasing costs and demand the gap is expected to be at least £13 million.
Councillor Jim Lynch, Leader of Argyll and Bute Council said:
“Council services support all aspects of day-to-day life, so demand on council budgets is huge and growing. On top of that Argyll and Bute’s geography brings demands that many other councils do not have, primarily air and sea transport.
The council has a number of funding sources with different conditions which affects the decisions we can make about how it’s used. Our focus will be on delivering most benefit possible for communities.”
A breakdown of expense shows that the majority of the council’s budget in 2025/26 funded education and social work services. For every £10 of council tax:
- £5.25 went to education services
- £2.78 to social work
- £0.65 to environmental services (e.g. refuse collection)
- £0.50 to roads and transport
- £0.27 to cultural and related services (e.g. leisure and library Services)
- £0.55 to other services (eg planning and housing services)
Most council funding comes from the Scottish Government (80%), with the rest from council tax, fees and charges.
Councillor Ross Moreland, Policy Lead for Finance Services said:
“Funding can come with limits and conditions attached. Some national funding is ring-fenced for specific purposes that the council can’t change. Some funding is revenue, so for delivering every-day services. Some is capital, so has to be invested in infrastructure such as improvements to roads, bridges or schools. In addition to that, there are some services that are statutory duties and so must be funded by a council, while other services are valued by communities but not actually a duty of a council.
Balancing the budget is about balancing these different demands and delivering every ounce of value from every pound we have.”
The council has already identified and agreed £3.1 million of efficiency savings, and a further £3 million of savings options that will go to the final Council budget meeting on 25 February for consideration. You can read more on the website.
ENDS
Notes
Some of the services that council funding, including council tax, bring:
Most funding goes to education services - £5.25 for every £10 of council tax to:
- Teach 11,000+ nursery, primary, and secondary pupils every day, pay teachers and other education staff, fund 87 schools and learning centres, provide support matched to needs of individual pupils, and run 2 hostels for over a 100 island and mainland pupils
Next highest spend is social work -£2.78 for every £10 council tax to:
- Pay for social care for vulnerable people and our growing elderly population, fund adult and child protection services, run foster and adoption services for children in need of safe homes, and support families in crisis.
Third highest spend is on environmental services – 65 pence for every £10 of council tax–to
• lift 3 million bins every year,
• cut 32.4 million square metres of grass.
• manage nearly 50,000 tonnes of household waste and recycling, around 60 public toilets, 131 cemeteries and a crematorium
Next highest spend is on roads and transport – 50 pence for every £10 of council tax – to pay for equipment, fleet and staff to:
• deal with 2,300 km of roads across Argyll and Bute, 4.5% of Scotland’s whole roads’ network
• grit 1,200 km of the road network
• clean 10,000+ km of streets.
• manage 14,000+ streetlights and 900 bridges.
• provide 50 bus routes, which is over 90% of the area’s bus network.
- run 4 lifeline ferry services
- run 3 airports
- manage 36 piers, ports and slipways.
Cultural and related services is next with 27 pence for every £10 of council tax, funding libraries, leisure and community centres, community learning, active schools, sports, museum and archive services.
This leaves 55 pence out of every £10 of council tax to fund other services eg housing and homelessness services, planning, environmental health, trading standards, customer support, licensing and economic development services.
