Provost, our primary purpose here tonight is threefold. We must agree
- Our Council General Revenue Budget for 2023/24,
- Our revised 30-year Capital Investment Plan and
- Our Housing Revenue and Capital Budgets for 2023/24.
This is the first Budget of this Administration, but before I go into the detail of our proposals to balance the books for the coming year, it is only right that we acknowledge the unprecedented financial challenges being faced by all spheres of government and, indeed, right across the public sector.
The additional financial burdens of the past year have seen unprecedented inflationary and fuel price rises compounding the cost-of-living crisis impacting our day to day lives. A crisis that is also impacting the cost of delivery of our own Council services and our ability to deliver our ambitious capital programme with escalating service and materials costs – alongside challenging contractor availability as we and other service sectors continue to recover from the global pandemic.
Provost – in June last year following the local government elections, we set out our ambitions for the five-year term for this Administration. Through our ‘East Dunbartonshire Forward in Partnership’ approach, we identified that the cost-of-living- crisis and the climate emergency were the two most significant challenges we faced. We also emphasised then that we wanted to do things differently. That we wanted to inform our approach to Council priorities and service delivery through genuine and meaningful engagement with the wide-ranging communities we serve.
Community empowerment is absolutely at the heart of our plans. We want to improve the role our local residents, businesses and community groups can play in local decision-making - and we especially want to focus on and include those areas that often struggle to be heard.
Against the backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis, in September we established our £2.1 million cost-of-living support package to ensure that we were providing help to the most vulnerable in East Dunbartonshire as they faced soaring financial hardship.
In line with our commitment to meaningful engagement, we launched our
‘Have YOUR Say’ consultation in November to seek the views of our communities on the measures we have already implemented to address the cost-of-living crisis and on the principles we should take to setting our Council Budget for 2023/24.
Before I go into the proposals we are setting out, we need to look at the numbers. Whilst discussions are still ongoing between COSLA and national government in relation to the final settlement, our assumption of the financial gap between our anticipated Council expenditure of just over £322 million and our available funding of £301.4 million is £20.6 million pounds. It is the biggest funding gap we have faced in a single year.
In our proposals to raise Council Tax by 5%, delivering an additional £1.377 million in income towards closing that funding gap, we have taken on board the feedback from our ‘Have YOUR say’ consultation. Whilst no increase in financial outlay is welcome, we need to strike a balance in meeting the costs of service delivery with the impact on our communities.
Provost, it is essential that we continue to deliver a cost-of-living support programme, to provide short-term help to those most in need and to mitigate the impact of the ongoing financial crisis on our most vulnerable. Our proposals outlined in this budget total just over £1.4 million and continue with many of the measures we have already established, including:
- the Pensioner Support Payment
- Community capacity building and Community Grants
- Our Homelessness Hardship Fund
- Our free swim & gym initiative for our young people
- Support for the Foodbank and Citizens’ Advice Bureau
It is well documented in this Chamber that I firmly believe in a collaborative and cross-party approach to setting the Council Budget and in that spirit, at this stage I can confirm that we accept in full Councillor Moir and the Labour Party’s amendment to the Cost of Living Support programme, which will increase the associated funding from Service Concession Reserves from £1 million to £1.5 million, providing for an additional Household Support Payment, and continuing the doubled value of the school clothing grant introduced last year, into 2023/24.
As part of the cost-of-living support programme, we are proposing that there are NO increases to our Council suite of fees and charges in 2023/24. What we are recommending, however, is that we undertake a review of the Corporate Charging Policy during the course of this year, to ensure that it continues to align to our strategic priorities and supports both financial inclusion and access to Council services and facilities in these ongoing challenging times.
Provost, the various amendments tabled by colleagues total over £1.7m of additional commitments funded principally from reserves. In addition to the £2.1m cost of living programme agreed last year and the further £1m we propose to allocate this evening, that would amount to almost £5m over these two years.
Given the financial challenges previously referred to, and that our strategy to meet these challenges will require substantial provision to underwrite the transformational changes necessary over the next three years, that level of additional commitment would not, I believe, be appropriate in this first year of the transformational programme. Unfortunately, therefore, it will not be possible to accept all the additional amendments requested by colleagues, and consistent with our established approach we have necessarily prioritised measures to support the cost of living.
However, once again, in the spirit of collaboration and joint working, I can confirm that we will accept, in part, Councillor Moody and the Liberal Democrats’ General Revenue amendment.
In relation to allocating funds to support the repair of the Milngavie Precinct Clock, I am pleased to confirm that this project is already underway, and I understand various options for funding are being considered, including the potential that it may be afforded from within existing budgets or that external funding may be secured. If that proves successful there would be no requirement for further budgetary provision. However, if it provides additional assurance to the community, I am happy to confirm that the project be underwritten from reserves, whilst officers develop restoration options and confirm the cost of repair.
Like other councillors across the chamber, we too have had representation from the Westerton community on decisions recently made regarding Westerton Primary School, and I very much welcome the input from local residents. As instructed in December, officers are currently working on the brief for a feasibility study for a new build option at the Westerton Hall and Library site, which will then inform a full community engagement exercise, and I look forward to that getting underway.
However, our approach to Administration is one that listens, and recognising that members of the community have asked for consideration to be given to a new build school on the current site, I am more than happy to accept the amendment to extend the feasibility study to include a second option to decant, demolish and rebuild on the existing site.
These two options, once developed, will be shared with the school community and the wider Westerton community through our established consultation processes. In the meantime, I will want to give officers the space and time to carry out the feasibility studies requested, which will then allow for an informed decision on the way forward.
As everyone in this Chamber knows when setting the Budget, difficult decisions have to be made and it is simply not possible to do everything, especially in this financial climate.
So let me turn to how we will seek to close a budgetary gap of over £20 million. It is a significant challenge, and our approach is to avoid precipitate decisions that would result in reductions in services – or worse, stopping the delivery of some services altogether. On the back of our ongoing recovery from the COVID pandemic that would not be sustainable and would not be in the best interests of the communities we serve.
Instead, we are taking a strategic approach to identify the savings required to close the gap, and to ensure that the services our communities need, are delivered in the way that they need them. In order to do that sustainably, we will take the appropriate time necessary to deliver our new, community-driven approach. With that in mind, we are committing the Reserves generated by our revised Service Concession Arrangements to underwrite the funding gap for this year whilst we progress our transformative agenda.
We established our ambitions for a local service delivery model in June last year. We have listened to the feedback from our communities in our recent consultation exercise, and as we progress our local service delivery model we are adopting these key principles:
- We want to be the most efficient, most effective organisation we can be
- We want to continue to listen to the voices of our community, and to ensure that the services we design and deliver truly meet their needs
- We want to review our corporate estate, to reduce the number of operational buildings we require, and thereby to realise not only a cost saving, but the climate savings that asset rationalisation will bring
- And we want to ensure that we are delivering services to our communities in the heart of those communities, in appropriate community facilities.
Regular updates will be reported to Council as we take forward this transformative agenda, clearly identifying the progress we are making towards our challenging financial target.
Turning to our Capital Budget and Corporate Asset Management Plan.
Initially our intention was to bring a revised Corporate Asset Management Plan to this Council meeting as part of the Budget process, whilst taking a longer term view to our investments and meeting our carbon neutral and net zero aspirations. However, it has become clear that this cannot be treated in isolation from our Climate Action Plan, which is due to be considered by Council later this year. The Climate Action Plan will set out proposals on how we can meet our net zero emissions targets and decarbonise both our Council fleet and our built assets, and so, our revised 30-year capital investment plan will be developed in tandem with the Climate Action Plan and will be reported back to a future Council.
We are of course continuing with commitments in the current 10-year Asset Management Plan and Capital Programme. And we are presenting our proposals for the 2023/24 financial year to continue those commitments - and to progress in-year developments that will inform our longer-term approach.
With that Provost, our Capital proposals include:
- A £3 million commitment to construct a new, fit for purpose Recycling Centre for the area, to increase our recycling capacity
- An additional £1.5 million for the delivery of an extension to Cadder Cemetery in Bishopbriggs
- An additional £1 million per annum, baselined into the capital budget from 2023/24 onwards, for upgrading roads and footpaths.
- An additional £2.75 million to deliver the full refurbishment of Lenzie Public Hall
- The commencement of feasibility studies to replace four primary schools, that have been identified as unsuitable for refurbishment, by 2038. Those schools are St Helen’s PS and Meadowburn PS & Gaelic Unit in Bishopbriggs, Harestanes PS in Kirkintilloch, and Baljaffray PS in Bearsden.
Provost, I now move on to our Housing Revenue and Capital Budgets. Whilst we are again mindful of the cost-of-living crisis, a rent increase for our tenants is unavoidable to meet the demands and increasing costs of our housing operations and to protect our housing investment levels – particularly given the eye-watering increases in building costs and procurement currently impacting us all.
At this stage I’d like to highlight that we are changing our Housing Revenue Business Plan going forward. Our model for rent increases is currently to use the Retail Price Index (RPI) plus one percent. RPI traditionally over-states inflation compared to the Consumer Price Index or CPI, so, given the current inflationary pressures and economic situation, our Business Plan will be updated to use CPI plus one percent from now on.
However, with inflation so much higher than previous years, our proposed rent increase of 4.2% is significantly below CPI plus one percent - and also below the average rise of our benchmarked peer group, which is sitting at over 4.7%. We are therefore seeking to strike a balance between keeping rents affordable and continuing to invest in both our existing properties and new council housing. This 4.2% rise would increase the average weekly rent, based on a 52-week period, from £80.38 to £83.76. And of course, we are mitigating the impact of price increases on our most vulnerable through the cost-of-living support package, as previously highlighted, while maintaining our established tenant hardship funds.
On to Housing Capital. Our proposed Capital Budget for 2023/24 amounts to £20.98 million and includes:
- Investing just over £7.4 million to improve the quality and energy efficiency of our existing Council houses, to meet quality and environmental standards.
- Investing £6.68 million for the development of new affordable housing through our Affordable Housing Investment Programme, including both social rented and shared equity housing.
- £3.34 million allocated to the purchase of new homes using Turnkey arrangements from developers.
- £3.1 million allocated for the purchase of properties from the open market.
- And £0.45 million to support the implementation of our new Integrated Housing Management System.
Whilst these are our figures for the year ahead, our longer-term, five-year programme highlights that we are committing over £65.5 million of direct investment in our existing Council houses and almost £126.5 million in the development of new affordable housing.
Again, supporting a cross-party approach, I can confirm that we will accept Councillor Moody and the Liberal Democrats’ amendment to develop a programme for new fencing, funded by £75,000 from unallocated reserves.
At the outset of these proposals, I highlighted that back in June, and again tonight, the cost-of-living crisis and the climate emergency are the two greatest concerns facing our communities during this current Council term.
With that backdrop, we have presented:
- A general Fund Revenue Budget that sees no reduction in services as we take a transformative approach to service delivery to achieve sustainable savings, while continuing to support our communities with our cost-of-living support measures;
- A capital programme that sees us deliver our current commitments and take a longer-term view of investment to deliver our climate and carbon neutral ambitions;
- And a Housing Revenue and Capital Budget that minimises the financial impact on our tenants whist delivering our ambitions for our current and new housing provision.
To conclude, Provost. and for clarity, in proposing all of our recommendations across Council General Revenue, Capital Investment and Housing Revenue and Capital as detailed in the reports we are considering tonight, we would incorporate as I have already outlined, the following additions as specified in the amendments submitted be colleagues:
Housing Revenue & Capital Budget
- We accept in full Councillor Moody and the Liberal Democrats’ amendment in relation to the new recommendation 2.17
General Revenue Budget
- We accept in full Councillor Moir and the Labour Party’s amendment in relation to the amended recommendation 2.7 and the additions to the cost-of-living support programme in Appendix 5.
- We would also accept those elements of Councillor Moody and the Liberal Democrats’ General Revenue amendment detailed in the additional recommendation 2.13, items (2) and (4).
And with that, Provost, I recommend our Administration Budget to Council.
Council Leader Gordan Low