Communities are invited to tell the council about their budget priorities by using an on-line budget calculator, now available on the council’s website.
The council’s funding gap next year is estimated to be around £9.4 million, increasing to £64 million by 2032. Savings can only come from controllable parts of the council’s budget. Some areas of spend are protected by national priorities, such as teacher numbers, or to some extent funding for social work passed to the Integration Joint Board, are outwith the council’s control, for example inflationary costs.
Council Leader, Councillor Jim Lynch, said:
“We all use council services. They are everywhere in our day-to-day lives. And the council will continue providing services that support day-to-day and longer term life in Argyll and Bute.
However the huge scale of savings we have to deliver next year alone means we simply can’t do everything communities want us to do, however much we’d like that to be possible.
So we are asking people to let us know about their high level priorities for using the budget we have, by showing us how they would meet the £9.4 million savings target.”
The simulator lists services where savings can come from and gives options to reduce or increase spend by different amounts until the target of £9.4 million is reached. There are also options to increase income to fund services, including through council tax or fees, and information explaining the potential impact on services of the choices respondents make.
Councillor Ross Moreland, Policy Lead for Finance Services said:
“Spending money on one council service means less money for another. Council budgets are as simple and as difficult as that. There really are no easy choices for making the level of savings needed to balance the budget. We are asking for views to help ensure we reach the right choices.”
The simulator is available on the council website until 30 October
Notes
- Most funding for council services comes from the Scottish Government. Council tax helps balance the budget and keep services available. Every 1% increase in council tax reduces the budget gap by £783,000
- Argyll and Bute’s geography means we deliver services many other councils do not and services here often cost more to deliver.
- We provide more services than we have a duty to deliver; increasingly we have to focus only on what we have a duty to deliver.
- There are some costs we have no control over, for example teacher numbers, inflation, and to some extent social work (the expectation is that national requirements will mean giving at least £91.6 million to the Integration Joint Board for social work). This means that savings have to come from a limited number of our services.
