At its meeting last Thursday (25 February), the Council agreed its revenue budget for 21/22 and a revised 10 year capital programme and also agreed the Housing revenue and capital budget.
Here are the highlights for the Council and Housing budgets:
Council Revenue Budget and Revised 10 Year Capital Programme
The Joint Council Leaders set the context of the Budget and you can see their speeches in the media release links at the end of this Employee News.
The Council budget for 2021/22 estimates expenditure of just over £268.1 million and income of £260.6 million, equating to a financial gap of £7.5 million. It was agreed that the funding gap will be met by reserves while the following measures are considered:
- a proportion of capital grant for revenue purposes,
- a loans fund repayment holiday,
- the use of capital receipts to fund revenue expenditure, and
- a review of service contracts arrangements.
There will be a Council Tax freeze, with the Council highlighting that the additional funding for this freeze for 2021/22 must be baselined rather than one-off funding, to avoid larger council tax increases being required in future years. There will also be no increase to fees and charges for 2021/22.
The capital programme confirms the commitment to the new Allander Leisure and Adult Day Care Centre (with a combined budget of £40.6 million pounds) the new Community Sport Complex in Kirkintilloch (£4.4 million) and the new ASN School in Kirkintilloch (£33.5 million). There was also commitment to a feasibility study for a replacement Lenzie Academy.
Given the ongoing emphasis on infrastructure to support the learning environment, an additional £5.2 million has been added to the Schools ICT Strategy across the programme, taking the total to £5.8 million. This will fund improvements in connectivity, new innovative hardware and infrastructure and an anticipated accelerated programme for ICT infrastructure replacement for 2021/22 and device replacement across the school estate.
Housing revenue and Capital Budget
The Housing revenue budget required income from rent of £14.57 million. This was taking account of:
- employee costs of £1.65 million
- property costs and other operating costs of £3.45 million
- central support totalling £2.45 million and debt charges of £3.48 million
- assumed borrowing of £13.5 million to support the housing capital programme.
The agreed rent increase was 0.5% which equates to the average weekly rent over a 48 week period increasing by 42p (from £84.53 to £84.95).
A Hardship Fund of £100k was also established to support Council tenants where their tenancies are at risk due to financial hardship, building on the ongoing Council commitment to support the most vulnerable and tackle financial deprivation and poverty.
The Housing capital budget agreed for 2021/22 is £28.27 million, which includes:
- £4.75 million investment in meeting the Scottish Housing Quality standards and energy efficiency standards and improving the safety and liveability of our council houses
- £12.45 million on the development of new affordable housing through our Affordable Housing Investment Programme
- £5.37 million to fund purchasing new homes using turnkey arrangements from developers
- £3.2 million to fund purchasing properties from the open market
- £2.4 million for the implementation of a new Integrated Housing management system.
For further information on the respective budgets, please see the following links:
- The Council Budget Papers
- Council Budget Paper amendments
- The Council Revenue and Capital Budget Media Release
- The Housing Revenue and Capital Budget Media Release
Thank you
Gerry Cornes
Chief Executive
Monday 1 March 2021