“National government provides critical funding to support life in our communities. Councils do the work to turn that funding into the services that people rely on every day. So it’s in everyone’s interests that councils are funded fairly.”
With the budget outlook on the agenda when the Policy and Resources Committee meets next week, Councillor Ross Moreland, Policy Lead for Finance Services highlighted the vital importance of national funding for local councils:
“Schools, roads, social care, leisure, transport, waste services, planning, community and business support … I could go on about the huge range of vital-for-living services that councils deliver.
To support life locally, and across Scotland as a whole, the Scottish Government needs councils to do the work of delivering services. To do that work, we need Scottish Government funding.
As it stands, we are facing one of the biggest funding gaps of recent years. Given how tightly stretched budgets are already, budget gaps for councils will mean service gaps for communities – we can only do what we can afford to do.
We will continue to work with other councils to show that it’s in everyone’s interests that councils are funded fairly.”
Reports to next week’s Policy and Resources Committee will show that Argyll and Bute is facing a budget gap for council services of an estimated £14.9 million next year alone, rising to £52 million overall by 2029/30.
Councillor Moreland continued:
“We can only make savings from a small proportion, about 26%, of the council’s overall budget. Inflation, utility costs and budget directed for specific purposes by the Scottish Government – uncontrollable costs like these take up most of the council’s budget. This makes balancing the council’s budget even more difficult. It means that more and more we have to focus on what we have a duty to deliver and consider how much more we can continue to do beyond that.”
The Scottish Government is the main source of council funding. The Council expects to find out towards the end of the year how much this funding settlement will be for Argyll and Bute, and will set its budget in February 2025.
