Estimates show that there will be £33 million less for council services in ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute over the next five years, with the council having to make another £2.5 million of savings in 2022/23 alone.
Council has agreed its approach for identifying ways in which to meet these challenges. This will involve:
- Setting up a cross-party budget working group (BWG), with six councillors from the administration, three from the opposition, and two Trade Union representatives. The BWG will not have a decision-making role but could make recommendations to the Council or the Policy and Resources Committee.
- Progressing the themed approach, based on developing savings options across groups of services, which identified savings for last year as well as potential future options:
- Digital by Default - through greater digital working
- Amenity Services – through service transformation
- Fleet - through reviewing fleet management processes
- Property – through managing the Council’s property portfolio
- Transportation – through developing actions identified as part of last year’s review process
- Modernising Education – through transforming the delivery of education
- Energy – through reducing the Council’s utility costs.
- Adding a new theme for this year –assess benefits of a shared service approach with the HSCP (Health and Social Care Partnership) to catering and cleaning
- Assessing options for delivering savings across other council services
Policy Lead for Financial Services, Councillor Gary Mulvaney, said:
“More than £53 million has already been taken out of ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Bute’s council services over the past 10 years, and the need to make millions more in savings goes on. Decisions we’ve made in previous years will soften the impact a little this year, but the scale of funding gap we’re facing, means more change to what we do and how we do it.â€
The council’s funding settlement from the Scottish Government makes up the majority of funding for local council services. The council expects to find out what this is in December2021/January 2022, and will have to set its budget for next year in February 2022.
The budget approach was agreed at the recent Council meeting