As if things aren’t austere enough, much more misery lies in store for Highland residents according to Highland Council’s revenue budget forecasts for the next three years.
A budget gap of between £11.3million and £41.6million annually between 2019 and 2022 is predicted in an in-house report to be considered by councillors next week.
The eye-watering figures mean ‘spending less: stopping and reducing services and delivering services more efficiently; and increasing the level of income the council generates from council tax and other fees and charges’ the report spells out.
The council’s current budget is around £500million, with more than half spent on staffing.
The report says the council’s finances are under further strain from a deficit of £1.1 million last year, and the exceptionally low level of the council’s reserves at £8.6 million means the council is ‘particularly vulnerable to another year of overspend.’
The new round of budget savings comes on the back of the £102million in cuts already found by the council over the past six years.
The report criticises the council’s practice of single year budget setting in recent times, which it says has damaged its financial resilience.
The decisions were made for short-term convenience but the budget-setting process for the years ahead needs to be different, he warns.
Council leader Margaret Davidson said work was already well underway ‘challenging every line’ to find efficiencies.
She said: “Audit Scotland has been very clear that far more money has come out of councils than anything else in Scotland, we’re down 10% already and looking at the prospect of another 2% this year.”
She warned that in the firing line were all services the council doesn’t need to do by law.
She said: “When we made some of unpopular decisions this year we were asking do we continue to do things that we’re not legally obliged to or do we sack people?
“With car parking it was, do we increase our income from car parking or do we lay off the men and women who deliver our services?
“It was as stark as that and it will be in the future.”
Ms Davidson promised earlier consultation with councillors and the public this year to work out priorities.
She added: “But people have to understand, we can’t do everything anymore.”