Aberdeen’s council leader has raised the spectre of fresh cuts to services as the authority faces up to a projected £50million shortfall in the next five years.
Jenny Laing admitted tough decisions could lie ahead for an administration that balanced the books two years in a row without slashing key spending or axing jobs.
In an interview with the Press and Journal, the Labour councillor stressed the Granite City remains the “lowest funded” authority in Scotland, and said officials are working in a range of ways to help bridge the gap.
The Labour-Conservative-Independent coalition, like other councils across Scotland, has had to cope with a council tax freeze imposed by the Scottish Government while the cost of delivering services has steadily increased.
Mrs Laing said: “It will become increasingly difficult if the financial settlement we receive remains unchanged.
“We are aware that there may be shortfalls in our finances in the coming years.
“We are therefore taking all steps possible to tackle that, that’s looking at efficiency savings, transformational change which will allow us to make economies of scale, and innovative deals such as the Marischal Square site where we are entering into lease agreements which will provide the council with annual revenue going forward.
“We will explore other options of that nature in order to close the
“However, it may not be possible to meet all savings required in this way and we may have to look at cutting services.”
The council has already entered into “shared service” agreements with neighbouring Aberdeenshire and Shetland councils.
Mrs Laing said that, among other measures, would help address the issue of shrinking public finances in the years ahead.
The projected budget deficit for the city council at present is £17million in 2016/17, rising to £30million in 2017/18, £40million in 2018/19 and £52million in 2019/20.
Mrs Laing said: “What we have used to good effect in Aberdeen is working in partnership with both the voluntary sector and the business community in order to meet the challenges we face.
“A good example is the ‘friends’ groups around our public parks, where we have worked closely with them to enhance the public spaces that we have because they are involved we have been able to lever in money which wouldn’t normally be available to the local authority.
“We have to accept that type of partnership working will have to be used more often as we go forward.
“We have also entered into shared service agreements with both Aberdeenshire and recently Shetland council to achieve economies of scale and we will continue to look at other ways in which to do that.”
However, Mrs Laing was quick to play down any suggestion that shared services should extend to an eventual merging of local authorities in Scotland.
Mrs Laing added: “I definitely wouldn’t be arguing for that. I think it’s important that we continue to have a council that represents Aberdeen City.
“That doesn’t mean that we can’t look at ways in which we can save money, and we’ve done that to good effect with our procurement service, which we share with Aberdeenshire.”