Imminent Big Cuts in Highland Council Budegt

[rob murray]

Highland Council is also warning it will have to find fresh savings (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-33189278).


In a memo to staff, Highlands chief executive Steve Barron said it would need to save £46m over the next three years - £13m more than originally anticipated.
Mr Barron said the "immediate concern" was that £21m will need to be saved next year.
The Scottish government said it was committed to protecting public services and local government budgets............so how come HC has to make savings / Glasgow as well..savings will be from cuts in services ?.............is it time to unfreeze the council tax then and get budgets up / maintain budgets or are there other ways of plugging this gap...anyone have any ideas apart from the usual gettnig rid of over paid senior HC staff, capping councilor expenses etc etc ??

[rob murray]

Well..Council Tax seemingly provides about a quarter of local funding. Local councils set the total Council Tax they need to raise, based on their overall budget for the year. Each household pays an amount depending on the value of their home. The government has powers to ensure that increases in local authority budgets and Council Tax are not excessive....so why not increase council tax and undo the freeze which has deprived Scottish LA's of 500 millions

Local government spending is about a quarter of all public spending in the UK. Local councils are funded by a combination of grants from central government, Council Tax and business rates. They also receive income from investments, council rents, sales and charges for aervices.
Central government (or the devolved government in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) provides specific and general grants to enable local authorities to deliver all the necessary services. To divide up the funding, the government uses a system based on the number and value of properties in each area and how much it costs to provide services there.

So the srcipt will go westmister are depriving scottish local authorities of the budgets they need to deliver services..............begs the question, could an independant scotland or an FFA Scotland provide local authorities with adequate funding given falling oil tax revenues....time the SNP dropped the freeze and stopedp buying votes !! Said it before but who gains from a council tax freeze...the well off...by keeping the freeze and depriving LA's of income.... the SNP are an austerity party. Worringly according to HC and todays P and J education services will take a hammering...at a time when fallling literacy rates in school kids is at an alarming level ,factor in the SNP "depriving" the NHS of funds, crisis was being bandied about last night on radio scotland and sturgeon et all have caused a lot of gried and have a lot to fix....stuff they canot dodge but 100 pounds says that the old "its no our fault...its westminster" will be trotted out...theyve got a default setting on their PC's when they type in funding up comes the time honoured statement....funding..not our fault, cuts are soley due to westiminster, give us the levers of power and we will fix it all blah blah blah........,

[BetterTogether]

Might help if they actually collected the unpaid council tax, currently about £1.5 Billion surely that would ease some of the problems currently faces by local councils.

[rob murray]

Might help if they actually collected the unpaid council tax, currently about £1.5 Billion surely that would ease some of the problems currently faces by local councils.

Aye but youd need to deduct legal costs from total.........taking non payers to court for recovery of money due, costs

[BetterTogether]

Aye but youd need to deduct legal costs from total.........taking non payers to court for recovery of money due, costs Just stop collecting their rubbish and let it pile up for a while, if they don't pay why carry on providing the services it's fairly simple. No pay no services or access to services until such time as they do pay up.

[rob murray]

Just stop collecting their rubbish and let it pile up for a while, if they don't pay why carry on providing the services it's fairly simple. No pay no services or access to services until such time as they do pay up.

Ok their crap piles up and rats etc descend..creating havoc / health risks for those who do pay !! Seems a good idea in theory but in practise what services could you bar them from...education...sorry sonny of you go, yer no getting in, yer council tax is in arrears ??

[Bystander1]

Strange that SNP abdicates from Highland Council only days before the revelation about the £30 Million. Are our Council civel serpents so stoopid that they can loose (and then find) £30M just like that ?

[rob murray]

Strange that SNP abdicates from Highland Council only days before the revelation about the £30 Million. Are our Council civel serpents so stoopid that they can loose (and then find) £30M just like that ?


FRom BBC News : In an email, councillors have been told the Highland council's budget gap was estimated to increase from £13.2m to £46.2m over the next three years.
Key reasons include assumptions of a cut in grant funding and changes to pensions and National Insurance.
Councillors will be asked to discuss the situation at a meeting next week. Senior officers said there will have to be reductions in services and staffing levels.

Did the nats ....see this one comming and jumped ship ??? Interesting that changes to pensions and ni are stated as reasons for the budget gap and not soley on reduced grant funding ( as well as anticipating cuts in grant funding....ie based on assumptions ? )

[Valiant209]

FRom BBC News : In an email, councillors have been told the Highland council's budget gap was estimated to increase from £13.2m to £46.2m over the next three years.
Key reasons include assumptions of a cut in grant funding and changes to pensions and National Insurance.
Councillors will be asked to discuss the situation at a meeting next week. Senior officers said there will have to be reductions in services and staffing levels.

Did the nats ....see this one comming and jumped ship ??? Interesting that changes to pensions and ni are stated as reasons for the budget gap and not soley on reduced grant funding ( as well as anticipating cuts in grant funding....ie based on assumptions ? )

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-32928077
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-33026590
Funnily enough they didnt have much choice. they lost the majority in the council due to liberals throwing their toys out of the pram. In fact they didnt have the courtesy to inform any of the parties they were doing this until after they talked to the press.
The council is now run by the independant group, See how they do in the next 2 years

[rob murray]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-32928077
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-33026590
Funnily enough they didnt have much choice. they lost the majority in the council due to liberals throwing their toys out of the pram. In fact they didnt have the courtesy to inform any of the parties they were doing this until after they talked to the press.
The council is now run by the independant group, See how they do in the next 2 years

Shows how little I knew then eh !!