Parties prepare to talk about finances amid Highland funding cut fears
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A FUNDING cut of around a third for building projects in the next year is “really serious,” according to Highland Council’s budget leader.
Speaking after the Scottish Government delivered its budget statement at Holyrood last week, Councillor Alister Mackinnon said it took time to decipher exactly how the national budget would affect the local area, but it currently looked as though Highland would see a 30 per cent cut to its allocation for capital projects.
“That is really serious for us,” he said.
The council has a number of school construction projects already under way with others yet to be realised, all of which would be funded from the capital budget.”
Cllr Mackinnon said talks would be held with opposition parties on the council next week in a bid to find a way forward together.
“We will be meeting with opposition groups on Wednesday of next week,” he said.
Conservative group leader Cllr Andrew Jarvie said: “The budget is always the most important time of year, when both opposition and administration absolutely must work together so that council services can be saved and improved.
“Every single year, the Conservative group has worked productively to bring forward fully costed proposals to improve education, gritting, the housing service and to eliminate funeral poverty and the like.”
However he added that, in his opinion, the council administration should have come forward sooner to allow greater opposition input to their plans.
“Last week I met with MSPs and other council group leaders to discuss the budget,” he said.
“Every single other opposition group leader already knew what their council’s budget gap was, their proposed council tax and some headline savings.”
Last week’s budget statement in the Scottish Parliament was delivered by Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Kate Forbes.
As public finance minister, she had to step in when finance secretary Derek Mackay resigned following revelations that he had been repeatedly messaging a 16-year-old boy.
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) said the budget represented “a crisis for local government”.
However a Scottish Government spokesman defended the figures.
“This budget provides a fair settlement for our partners in local government and supports vital public services across Scotland,” he said.
“This local government settlement gives councils an increase of revenue spending of up to 4.3 per cent in real terms to deliver local services.”
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