Highland Council 'achieves' massive savings

Highland Council has revealed that it has made the majority of its intended annual savings less than five months after the budget was agreed, while still avoiding redundancies.

The local authority committed to shaving more than £24 million off its budget this financial year and has already achieved £16.85 million – that equates to 68 per cent of the overall total.

On February 14, the council approved its budget, dubbed the Change Programme: A Sustainable Highland that sought to cut £37.456 million from its books over the next three years.

The budget strategy was based on four themes: efficiencies, commercialism and income generation, reforms and improvement, and a flexible and well managed workforce.

Part of those plans included an agreement to establish regular budget updates for the council budget team to keep them abreast of any fluctuations in spending or savings.

Budget leader Alister Mackinnon said: “We have already delivered two-thirds of the savings agreed in February. This is a huge achievement and I want to congratulate everyone involved in making this happen.

“An immense amount of work has been done to deliver these savings and we have done this while keeping our commitment to avoiding staff redundancies.

“We will not be complacent however. We intend to get ahead of the game and plan to agree a budget for 2020-21 in the autumn. Public and staff engagement will continue over the summer and autumn as part of this process.”

The council will be asked to consider the progress made to date and at a meeting tomorrow.

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