3 hours Ago By Mandy Watt
Given the increasing need for investment in infrastructure and services, we’ll have to raise council tax, parking charges and other fees to fund the delivery of services we all rely on. We are considering a recommended 8 per cent rise in council tax. An 8 per cent increase adds £9.
67 on a band D property and would provide a total of over £26 million across all bands, for investment and service provision priorities. A huge amount of work has already taken place to consider options, with detailed proposals considered yesterday at a special meeting of the Finance and Resources Committee. This has been informed by a huge consultation exercise with residents, and I want to thank all 3200 people who took part.
We know from the consultation responses that people are aware of the financial challenges we face following years of underfunding, and many are open to a fair rise to council tax after last year’s freeze. Other councils are proposing increases of 10 per cent and above, but we’re trying to keep Edinburgh’s increase lower because that’s what the majority of residents would prefer. Residents also told us they’d like to see councillors focus on several key priorities when setting this year’s budget.
These include spending on education, investing in local facilities and upgrading our roads and pavements. We’ll use the money from an increase in council tax to protect and improve these services. Investment proposals include continuing the extra £12.
5m for roads and pavements that was added last year, with a further £5m for road safety, especially around schools. There will be five new schools and five extensions of existing schools and £26m for special needs infrastructure. Fox Covert Joint Campus will be replaced and there’s £15m for permanently replacing Blackhall Library.
The decision to recommend an 8 per cent council tax increase was not taken lightly. Over the last decade, cuts in core grant funding of over £400m have been mitigated by council staff continually delivering more with fewer resources. This year’s financial challenges are the UK Government’s increase in national insurance, costing the council around £9m and the Scottish Government changing the stability funding floor, taking away £6.
3m. Fortunately, the UK Government passed on £18m of pEPR (‘producer pays’) funding, which filled those gaps. While we can expect a slightly better government grant this year, the consequences of last year’s cuts to affordable housing remain clear to see.
Huge pressures on health and social care remain unaddressed and yet again, Edinburgh is expected to be the lowest funded local authority in Scotland per head of population. This year we’ll still need to manage nearly £40m of pressures to keep the books balanced. Councillor Mandy Watt, Finance and Resources Convener.
