Having employees work from home helped Orkney Islands Council save £18,000 in photocopying and postage costs over nine months.
At a meeting of the asset management sub-committee this morning, councillors were presented with the revenue position for service areas under the sub-committee.
There showed an overspend of £129,100 overall for the financial year so far.
However, the figures showed that the budget for photocopying was underspent by £12,400, between April and December last year.
This was from a budget of £32,200. Postage was also underspent by £16,500, from a budget of only £6,500.
The numbers around postage were affected by the council getting a replacement postage meter which started with “large credit”.
These savings are, mainly, down to current working from home arrangements at the local authority.
Savings were also created by improvements in digital communications.
The council has made more services available online and issues electronic papers for committee meetings.
Savings created by home working, improved digital services, and new postage meter
While these budgets will be reviewed, the council is unlikely to cut them before they see how they change as staff return to the office.
Councillor John Ross Scott asked: “The photocopying and postage are basically seeing a saving of £28,000. That’s a fair effect on the budget.
“As we get back to normal working, what lessons can be learnt from this? Can we ensure that not as much was spent as before?”
Council accounting manager Shonagh Merriman replied: “I’m pretty sure working patterns will change.
“I don’t think anybody wants to go back to the way it was before. But, we wouldn’t want to be cutting these budgets too soon. We will monitor things as we come back.”
The council’s head of executive support, Karen Greaves said the council is looking to “grasp the good elements of digital working”, which would keep costs down as staff return to the office.
