‘Very difficult decisions’ ahead as council budget is set

Members of the full council met to consider the authority’s provisional Local Government Finance Settlement – the finance made available by Scottish Government to spend in 2023/24.

Councillors were told that the ‘clock is ticking’ ahead of the budget being set on February 23.

The council’s revenue settlement amounts to £257,765 million – an increase of £1.5m compared to that which was made available in the current financial year.

But that increase is set to be swallowed up by inflation, which is soaring at over 10 per cent.

The impact of inflation on the SBC budget is estimated at £8.7m.

Therefore, even with the £1.5m increase, the council will have a reduction in its spending capacity of £7.2m, meaning spending reductions will need to be identified.

Councillor Mark Rowley, the council’s executive member for Service Delivery and Transformation, admitted that the financial pressures ahead were “severe”.

He said: “We now have just about all the details of the Local Government Finance Settlement, bar any changes when it is debated in the Scottish Parliament, and the clock is now ticking. We have got four weeks until this council meets to agree a budget.

“Things are very tricky and the inflationary pressures are absolutely huge on both our capital and our revenue. We have got that pressure of £7.2m, in real terms, on our revenue budget and our capital budget, and our capital programme as a whole is very ambitious, new schools and flood defences and all kinds of work is going to be under severe pressure.

“I want to thank the members of the cross-party, cross-council budget group for the sterling work they have been doing and the sterling work that the officers are doing.

“I absolutely note that there is a gap and members in the budget group are going to have to take some very difficult decisions in the coming days and will be presenting you with some very difficult decisions to take on behalf of your constituents. It’s troubling times but we are making progress.”

Councillor Euan Jardine, the leader of Scottish Borders Council, made a renewed plea for the public to have their input through a public consultation before the budget is set next month.

He said: “For me this is obviously the toughest time of the year when you don’t know what is to come in budget terms and then the officers lay it out in front of you, the harsh reality of what we have to look at here at Scottish Borders Council and we are working cross-party to make sure we get it right.

“I really want to put on record that we are pushing for the public to come forward for the budget consultation and start engaging with the priorities they feel we should be looking at.

“I feel that we are at 700 in terms of responses but I would like to see us push over the 1,000 mark, 1,500, 2,000, just so we have an engagement with the public so that when we go into this budget-setting process on the 23rd we have left no stone unturned and it’s not a shock to anyone what we are going to be doing.”

To have your say on the budget go to http://scotborders.gov.uk/budget