The Finance Convener SNP Councillor Alasdair Rankin, along with his Labour vice-convener Councillor Bill Cook, are responsible for setting the budget which will govern council spending in the next year.
In 2015 the council set out a four year framework within which to work on cost-saving plans to ensure that the council could achieve overall savings of £126 million. Some of the need for savings was brought about by an overspend on Health and Social Care of £10million and around £9.5million on Property.
Part of the savings have been achieved through the council’s Transformation Programme which means that some 1300 full-time positions on the council’s own staff have been shed, and another 200 more will go by May 2017. There have been no compulsory redundancies, but some 860 redundancies were attained through the Voluntary Early Redundancy Arrangement. It was regarded as essential to reduce the spending on council staff as it made up 60% of the council’s budget.
All of this followed a 2015 report by Deloitte who advised that the Transformation Programme might achieve £9million of savings. They also advised on ways of strengthening control on property by adopting a new Asset Management Strategy. Some of this advice included selling some of the council’s property and reinvesting the sale proceeds into new assets which would generate income. Those plans were approved by the finance committee on 24 September 2015.
Other savings have been made through examination of the council’s procurement programme. We spoke to Councillor Rankin last week when news of additional funding from The Scottish Government had just been announced:
The @Edinburgh_CC Finance Convener talked to us ahead of next week’s budget meeting pic.twitter.com/E8DRFi0xN3
— Edinburgh Reporter (@EdinReporter) February 3, 2017
Here Councillor Rankin explains his thoughts on the money the council has to spend and how they will apportion it for the next year.
“There’s no denying that the last few years have been challenging for the City of Edinburgh Council, as they have been for local authorities across the country.
“Demand for services continues to rise amidst increasingly tight financial constraints and a growing, ageing population.
“When we became the first council in Scotland to set our budget last year, we did so under similar pressures. Thanks, however, to an unprecedented and wide-ranging programme of transformation, placing greater focus on customers and communities while getting the best value possible from our resources, we were able to make the necessary savings at the same time as achieving service improvements around the capital, balancing our budget for the ninth consecutive year. The momentum established through the transformation programme puts us in a stronger financial position to deliver likely further savings.
“Over the last 12 months we have successfully delivered several high profile projects for Edinburgh, including the completion of a new Portobello High School, the pioneering roll-out of 20mph limits across the city and the establishment of our own arm’s-length energy services company, Energy for Edinburgh. At the same time, we’re still on track to make a necessary £73m of savings for 2016/17.
“As we prepare to set the 2017/18 budget, the last one to be agreed by the current administration before the local government elections in May, it gives us the opportunity to reflect on all that’s been accomplished by the Capital Coalition since its formation following the election five years ago.
“Under our leadership the Council has seen a real shift of resources toward frontline services, protecting the needs of the young, old and vulnerable.
“In terms of finance we have adopted an open and transparent approach, involving the public in our budget-setting process and listening to their feedback. As our external auditor has noted, we have addressed our immediate financial challenges effectively – we reduced our overall level of borrowing by £100m between March 2014 and March 2016 – whilst putting in place solid foundations to sustain investment in key services going forward.
“I’m proud to look back over this period, during which we have delivered some of the most significant projects in Edinburgh’s recent history, amongst these the investment of more than £600m in affordable homes, the creation of the Edinburgh Guarantee to support young people into jobs and apprenticeships and the successful operation of the Edinburgh Trams.
“Now, as we look forward to the years ahead, we are still committed to investing in the city’s infrastructure. We have developed a five year, £440m investment programme enabling the progress of projects such as the replacement of Meadowbank Stadium, a new care home in Dumbryden and primary school in South Edinburgh, as well as much-needed additional investment in our roads and pavements.
“But this spending will not be possible without efficiencies in other areas. We’ve already approved £40m worth of savings for delivery in 2017/18 in previous years, but now have some further savings to make, mainly due to emerging budget pressures.
“Continuing with Council-wide transformation will achieve some of these savings but we are also proposing to increase Council Tax for the first time in nine years, something many local authorities are considering. This necessary change will enable us to continue providing the services that matter the most to people despite rising demand and, as our own consultation shows, is supported by the public.
“Involving citizens in the budget-setting process has always been a priority and over the years we’ve made important changes to proposals thanks to public responses. This year has been no different, with almost 2000 people responding to the ‘Play Your Part’ budget consultation, giving their ideas and feedback through a variety of channels to inform the detailed development of proposals previously agreed in principle.
“Thanks to this valuable input we can now move forward with the 2017/18 budget, delivering services more efficiently and benefitting as many people as possible.”
The Council meets on Thursday 9 February to discuss the budget for the coming year, which will be set within the four year framework they set last year. The council papers are here and you can view the meeting online here.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
Labour councillor? That really will surprise the SNP!
Whoops! Yes indeed he is an SNP councillor – and we have made that change now… thank you!
Comments are closed.