A challenge ahead to balance the books

At the risk of dampening your festive spirit I thought I would use this month’s column to try to explain the process by which your council makes sure it has the right budget in place to ensure we can keep delivering the services you and your neighbours rely on.

Like all councils, South Lanarkshire is required by statute to set a balanced budget ahead of the start of each financial year – usually in late February or early March.

To make sure we meet that deadline, the council needs to start the budget process many months in advance.

However, one complication is that the final funding that will be available to local authorities in the next year does not become clear until mid-December.

So we have to make certain assumptions at the start of the process and then revisit these and make any necessary adjustments as we move towards agreement on a balanced budget.

These assumptions are as accurate as possible and are based on a combination of previous experience and information from outside organisations.

Based on the best information available, this year our initial assumptions included an estimate that we would need to save £42.129 million to balance the budget in the financial year 2018/19.

However, this has been reduced to £23.529m after council officers proposed a number of what are called “corporate solutions”, such as use of underspends and reserves, changes in loan charges, and temporary solutions which may be available for next year only.

To start the process of bridging the remaining gap, council officers then looked at a whole range of efficiency savings. As a result, a package of officers’ proposals were noted at last week’s meeting of the council’s executive committee and placed in the public domain.

At this point I must stress that these efficiency savings proposals are just that – proposals.

As I said, the final funding figure will be known in the next week or so, and it may present an even more depressing picture than forecast, as the Westminster government has not abandoned its austerity policies, leaving the Scottish Government with less funding and less room for manoeuvre on its package for local government.

Last year the Scottish Government changed the policy of recent years and allowed local authorities to raise council tax by a maximum of three per cent.

But even though they lobbied for this, the thenLabour administration in South Lanarkshire decided to implement no increase.

Perhaps this was because 2017 was an election year – who knows – but a three per cent increase in council tax would have generated £3.8m in revenue which would have helped protect your frontline services.

This is a very serious consideration again this year for every political party in South Lanarkshire. The £3.8m that a three per cent increase in council tax would raise may be the difference when it comes to averting the worst excesses of efficiency savings and maintaining a high level of frontline service.

Make no mistake, the challenges for local authorities are huge.

Current inflation rates are running at about three per cent and, according to the Accounts Commission, last year alone Scottish local authorities cut £524m from their budgets.

This is a direct result of the Conservative austerity policies, and it is increasingly hard to maintain services at the level we have all come to expect.

So what happens next? It is now up to each political group on the council to do their due diligence.

As the full and final figures become known they have to look more deeply into the savings proposals, seek as much feedback as possible from constituents and local organisations, and then to try to form a package that will present the best outcomes for all of our citizens.

I would urge you to make your views on the savings package known either through your local councillors or directly.

You can do this by visiting the council’s website www. southlanarkshire.gov.uk/ savings or using the dedicated email address savings@ southlanarkshire.gov.uk or by post to: Savings Consultation, South Lanarkshire Council, Almada Street, Hamilton ML3 0AA.

I can assure you that your views will be taken into consideration prior to any decisions being taken.

As a minority administration, the SNP is already seeking feedback from as many areas as possible and will communicate with all of the other political groups here in the council in the hope that we can agree the best budget for South Lanarkshire.

In closing, I would like to wish each and every one of you a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.