Our budget will invest for future
At the end of last week I went along to Council HQ in Hamilton to meet with the new council chief executive, Clelland Sneddon.
It was an interesting meeting and I was able to put forward my view that the council should be much more outward looking with a recognition of the differences in the communities it covers.
For example, the needs of East Kilbride are clearly different from the needs of say, Biggar or Cambuslang.
He seemed to take this on board and has the intention of giving residents much more say in how services are delivered – participatory budgeting is a good way for councils to involve residents, and I hope to see that commitment in South Lanarkshire Council’s forthcoming budget.
The Scottish Government’s budget, delivered last week, was set against the backdrop of heightened uncertainty and risk, created by the Westminster Government’s delay of their budget until March. It will deliver record funding for vital public services though.
Local authorities will receive an increase in day-to-day revenue spending, as well as additional funding for social care and making sure that all care staff receive the Living Wage. I was glad to see that focus on fairness.
This budget promises over £800m to deliver 50,000 new homes this parliament, as well as a further £300m to ensure building continues once this target is reached.
The budget will support the Scottish Child Payment policy as part of the delivery of around £3.4bn in social security expenditure.
When fully‘rolled out’ the SCP is expected to help 30,000 children out of poverty.
All of this of course necessary because of the austerity programme imposed by successive UK Governments.
Health and care services matter so much to all of us, and will see a record £15bn invested. Spending on general medical services will top £1bn for the first time, and support for social care is increasing from the current £120m to £220m.
In education and skills, colleges and universities will have an increase of 3.6 per cent on their current budgets – an increase very much welcomed by the chief executive of Colleges Scotland.
There is the ongoing expansion of early learning and childcare with three and four-year olds and eligible two-year olds being entitled to 1140 hours of early learning and childcare from August.
The Small Business Bonus Scheme remains safe, which will be a relief to many small and medium enterprises in EK. These businesses are as important to our town as the big employers like Coca-Cola or Sainsbury’s.
There’s loads more I could say about the Scottish Budget, in terms of the emphasis on wellbeing and on tackling the climate emergency through increased investment in public transport, peatland restoration funds, low carbon infrastructure and forestry. I will talk about some of that in future columns.
Back to local issues. I am still perturbed that EK lacks a full-time Registration Service, with the council saying the evidence does not show a demand – based on a lack of complaints.
Could residents get in touch with me directly with their experiences as I want to press the council on this.
STEPHEN BARK
South Lanarkshire Council is set to run a budget surplus of almost £13.5m in 2019/20.
A report to the council’s executive committee revealed its healthy financial position on Wednesday, January 29 – just over a month after a consultation was launched into proposed cuts of more than £10m next year.
However, some under-pressure resources – including social work – are set to overspend on their individual budgets.
The executive director for finance and corporate resources, Paul Manning, told the committee that the council’s finances had improved since December.
He added that a probable out turn exercise was completed in November and December to work out the estimated year end position.
This resulted in an “improvement in position” by £1.5m.
Mr Manning said that the main reasons for the underspend were because the council “didn’t anticipate” just how much more council tax would be collected from new homes, that they had “better returns” than expected on council tax arrears and that more would be collected from loan charges than previously thought.
The total underspend for the year is set to be £13.4m, of which around £10.75m will be transferred to the council’s reserves for use in future years.
Labour group leader, Councillor Joe Fagan asked if the council had “any indication” that the savings proposals for next year would need to be revised now that the budget timetable was clearer.
Mr Manning said he had asked the Scottish Government what the
Much of our budget is set against a backdrop of austerity...
grant settlement was likely to be but the only reply was that the council would “get a letter on February 6” with the details.
He said: “It is going to be in everybody’s interest to be informed as we get it.”
Conservative group leader Councillor Alex Allison was concerned that some of the council’s departments were transferring money to the council’s reserves only to leave that department with an overspend on its budget.
Councillor Allison asked if “residents were paying for money going into reserves and not for services” after the council tax rate was increased last year.
He added: “The £13m – and I use the term loosely - is it free money?”
Mr Manning said that “local authorities don’t live their lives in a way that ties up nicely at the end of the year”.
He added: “Is it free money? No, other than the £1.5m that it has got better.”
Mr Manning also said that the council’s spending would be “tied up when we go through at the year end” but refused to go into more detail in a public forum.
Cleland Sneddon, South Lanarkshire Council’s chief executive, added: “It will take officers a number of days to go through that, it will be some time the following week.
“If there are any further consequentials as a result of the UK budget, we will get further information.”
Councillors are set to decide the budget for 2020/21 on Wednesday, February 26, after the Scottish Government has set a draft budget but before the UK Government has decided the budget.