100s of responses received as public consulted on Highland Council spending priorities for slashed budget
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Hundreds of people responded to Highland Council’s programme of engagement on its slashed budget.
The council is facing an estimated budget gap of around £62m in 2024/25 and is expected to need over £100m over the next three years to balance the books.
Members of the public, council partners and staff were invited to complete a survey or take part in a budget simulator challenge to help clarify spending priorities and balance the budget.
Nearly 1900 people have responded to the survey and some 429 people took part in the simulator challenge, while thousands of people watched our videos explaining the budget challenges for the Council.
The council said emerging themes in the feedback suggested people understood the need to raise income generation through council tax and increases in fees and charges. Unsurprisingly, people valued the less visible support services less, with winter gritting and kerbside refuse collection being valued more.
Suggestions on how to save money included increasing digitisation, charging motorhomes for services, introducing a visitor levy and increasing use of renewable energy on our buildings.
Leader of the council Raymond Bremner said: “I am delighted that so many people have taken part in our survey and simulator challenge.
“With less money, we need to decide whether to reduce our costs, to increase our income or a mixture of both. We want to focus our resources on key priorities and so it is important to know what matters most to our communities. There is still time to take part in both the survey and budget simulator for the next two weeks and I would encourage as many as possible to do that.
“Significant work is currently underway to find savings and income generation to close the budget gap. This is not an easy task and difficult decisions will be required, however we aim to balance the Council’s budget.”
Convener Bill Lobban said: “Highland Council is facing the same financial challenge as other public sector agencies and individual households are facing with increasing costs and inflation.
“We are looking at a range of options, however high interest rates and the increasing cost of borrowing limits these options at the current time.
“As everyone knows, especially in this festive season, it can be tempting to borrow money to get through the short term, but that simply stores up problems for the future and that is equally applicable to the Council as well as individuals.”
Those wishing to take part in the budget survey and simulator have until December 24.
More information can be found at https://www.highland.gov.uk/budget
