It’s not even 8.30am as I write this and already, I’ve used multiple Council services. I took my dogs for a walk at 6.30am and saw the gritter out treating local roads and disposed of dog waste in the litter bin at the bottom of my road. I drove to work on roads we maintain. Came into the office, which was lovely and warm thanks to our property team. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the services we offer.
Our services touch every part of people’s lives from cradle to grave. And my day so far hasn’t even touched on the services that account for the majority of the council’s budget – education and social work services.
Ahead of us setting next year’s budget our communications team has prepared a video to explain how our services are funded. Most council funding comes from the Scottish Government (80%), with the rest from council tax, fees, and charges.
But did you know that in 2025/26 for every £10 of council tax:
- £5.25 went to education services
- £2.78 to social work
- £0.65 to environmental services (e.g. refuse collection)
- £0.50 to roads and transport
- £0.27 to cultural and related services (e.g. leisure and library Services)
- £0.55 to other services (e.g. planning and housing services)
It’s impressive looking at these figures to see just how far you all make that money go to deliver fantastic services for our communities.
And there was a little good news this week. If you were listening to FMQs, you may have heard the First Minister commit to an additional £20m to local government for social care. We expect that to equate to around £370k for Argyll and Bute.
