Around £25m of savings have been identified by Falkirk Council for next year. These will require to be delivered in 2016/17 to allow the Council to balance its £330m net revenue budget and to ensure that services continue to be delivered to local communities.
Despite Falkirk Council finding more than £108m of budget savings over the past decade, the most recent settlement with Scottish Government (who provide circa 85% of Council funding) has left the Council needing to identify a further £7m on top of its already identified £18m gap.
Savings were identified across a range of services following public consultation and an in-depth examination of what they could potentially mean for local communities.
In order to fund the full £25m shortfall, Falkirk Council has focused on finding efficiencies and carrying out a detailed review of its budgets so as to minimise the need for service reductions.
Existing budgets have been examined very closely for any potential savings and this has contributed £7.2m without affecting front line services. £2.2m of Council reserves will be used and efficiency and technology improvements will bring further savings. Council Tax collection levels are already very high but will be further improved. Together with new Council tax from increased house building the additional income is forecast to be £2.2m.
Around 230 full time equivalent posts will have to be cut from the workforce in order to meet the targets required. Wherever possible, compulsory redundancy will be avoided.
Councillor Craig Martin, Leader of Falkirk Council said: “Without a doubt the savings that we have to find are going to impact locally.
“We have done everything we can to identify the highest at risk groups and protect them as far as possible but when you are faced with year on year reductions in government funding and the freezing of Council tax, it is inevitable that some services will be reduced or removed completely.
“We have involved the public and communities in our budget consultation over what areas they see are priorities and where services should be protected however, it hasn’t always been possible to achieve this.
“With around three quarters of our budget being spent across Education and Social Work, there isn’t an option but to take a close look at areas of spending across these services.
“We fund dozens of local organisations and community groups to help them support local activities on the ground and while we have preserved funding for many of these groups, some will see a reduction in the amount of support they receive.
“We are looking very closely at the workforce levels that we have also – they represent around 60%of our costs currently and where possible we have sought to reduce numbers through voluntary severance, a recruitment freeze and redeployment. We are also undertaking massive efficiency improvements in how we deliver services in the future.
“This has been the hardest budget Falkirk Council has ever had to set and we will do everything we can to ensure that the effects it has across our area are kept to an absolute minimum though communities should be prepared to see some changes to services provided.”
Council tax levels will remain the same with a Band ‘D’ property remaining at £1070 per annum which sees Falkirk with the second lowest Scottish mainland figure.
Falkirk Council has agreed to provide funding of £11.8m to Falkirk Community Trust to provide sport, recreation, arts, heritage and library services on behalf of Falkirk Council.
In addition, the Adult Health and Social Integration Joint Board will receive £59m to provide social care in conjunction with Forth Valley Health Board.
Examples of budget reductions that were agreed by Falkirk Council (with savings for 2016/17)
- A reduction in the numbers of Support for Learning staff in schools (£763k)
- Increase school meal charges by 10p (£100k)
- Reorganisation of nursery and primary school library service (£290k)
- Revised eligibility criteria for social work adult services (£500k)
- Reduction in support for youth employment services (£200k)
- Changing residual waste collection from three week to four weekly (£150k)
- Changing brown bin collection to four weekly (£200k)
- Reduction in the frequency of grass cutting and weed control (£190k)
- Stopping the Garden Aid scheme (subject to consultation) (£275k)
- Centralisation of the Registrars service in one location (£100k)
Full information is available on our budget page.
Investment plans for across the area
A £100m spending programme designed to improve communities and services has recently been outlined by Falkirk Council for the next three years (2016-2019).
The capital programme will see continuation of existing projects as well as new ones started.
Councillor Craig Martin, Leader of Falkirk Council said: “These projects and improvements are vital to the area and need to be progressed.
“Our revenue budget allows us to function on a day to day basis covering costs such as wages, supplies and materials and is under a great strain and therefore we have to invest in our assets and infrastructure to ensure the area continues to thrive for residents, businesses and visitors alike.
“The Council’s revenue budget is facing real financial difficulties, and capital investment decisions impact on the revenue budget either through loan repayments or the costs of running our assets.
“This capital programme has been prepared to ensure a balance is struck between continued investment in assets and infrastructure and making sure that the revenue budget is not put under further pressure.”
Spending plans over the next three years include:
- £33.5m progressing the plans to bring more than £400m investment and 6000 jobs as part of the ambitious Tax Incremental Finance scheme (TIF) over the next 25 years
- £16.2m for a replacement for Carrongrange school
- £9.8m on roads and lighting improvements
- £2.1m for improvements to Denny Town Centre
- £4.2m flood protection plans in Grangemouth
- £3m investment in business property
- £1.8m on creating additional cemetery space
- £5.2m on improvements to schools including hall extensions and kitchen upgrades
Housing spend planned for next year
Falkirk Council tenants are set to benefit from a wide range of improvements to their homes over the next year, as the Council agreed its housing budget for next year.
The investment was agreed as part of a larger three year £81m budget, will upgrade existing homes and add new homes in the local area.
The housing budget, which is specifically for spending on Council housing and no other Council services, sees over 5,000 properties improved and upgraded as part of Falkirk Council’s ongoing commitment to meet national housing and energy standards in the next year.
This includes:
- Re-roofing, roughcasting and other external improvements £8.7m
- Upgrading of electrics £2.3m
- Kitchen and bathroom replacements £2.2m
- Replacement heating systems £2.2m
- Estate landscape improvement works £0.5m
In addition, £3.4m will be spent on delivering 82 new homes in Stenhousemuir, Denny and Falkirk and £6m will be allocated to continue to ‘buy-back’ around 80-90 former Council properties, helping to meet the demand for Council housing.
Councillor Gerry Goldie, spokesperson for Housing said: “We’re delivering a massive improvement programme that will continue to make a real difference to our tenants’ lives across the area.
“We will be spending around £40m to maintain and improve our housing next year. This level of investment represents the third highest level of repair and improvement spending per house in Scotland.
“We are continuing to ensure our rent levels are amongst the lowest in Scotland and that tenants rents are invested in ensuring that our properties are improved and meet national standards for quality and energy efficiency.”
Falkirk Council rents are currently the fifth lowest local authority rent in Scotland. Rents levels are set to increase by 3.6% bringing the average weekly rent to £59.71.
This follows a wide ranging consultation with tenants that saw more that saw 80% of respondents say they were satisfied or very satisfied with Falkirk Council as their landlord.